VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
About this time of year (leading up to Thanksgiving which the Pilgrims and Puritans celebrated and Christmass which they did not) one often sees editorials which castigate the Puritans for supposed hyprocrisy in coming to the New World to seek freedom to worship God and then denying it to others.
Anyone who first learns about the Puritans in public schools or colleges as I did will do so through the lens of intellectuals and media who portray them as did H.L. Mencken: "Puritanism - The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
This is reinforced in so much of the literature that is part of the typical modern English curriculum. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible are some examples show the fascination with reveling in the dark side of Puritanism and/or Reformed religion.
In Scotland too some of the best literary minds have used their talents to satirize Presbyterianism or portray it as cold and too strict: Robert Burns' Holy Willie's Prayer and Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian.
Such works have had tremendous influence in equating Puritanism with Victorian morality. With so much talent aimed at turning "Puritan" into a dirty word, it is no wonder that such negative portrayals have even rubbed off on the church. Revisionism is a powerful literary device. So many people today learn their history about the Puritans through movies too (re 1995's The Scarlet Letter). If we wonder why the Puritans are misunderstood, it is at least in part because of a concerted effort on the part of artists who see them through dark lenses and produce art that leads society to do the same.
[Edited on 11-9-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]
Anyone who first learns about the Puritans in public schools or colleges as I did will do so through the lens of intellectuals and media who portray them as did H.L. Mencken: "Puritanism - The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
This is reinforced in so much of the literature that is part of the typical modern English curriculum. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible are some examples show the fascination with reveling in the dark side of Puritanism and/or Reformed religion.
In Scotland too some of the best literary minds have used their talents to satirize Presbyterianism or portray it as cold and too strict: Robert Burns' Holy Willie's Prayer and Sir Walter Scott's The Heart of Midlothian.
Such works have had tremendous influence in equating Puritanism with Victorian morality. With so much talent aimed at turning "Puritan" into a dirty word, it is no wonder that such negative portrayals have even rubbed off on the church. Revisionism is a powerful literary device. So many people today learn their history about the Puritans through movies too (re 1995's The Scarlet Letter). If we wonder why the Puritans are misunderstood, it is at least in part because of a concerted effort on the part of artists who see them through dark lenses and produce art that leads society to do the same.
[Edited on 11-9-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]