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This 5 page paper discusses the Puritans, their beliefs, and the impact they had on their society. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVPurita.rtf
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the influence they had on their society at the time of the founding of the early colonies. Discussion At the time of the earliest settlements in America, most English men
and women were Christians, and practiced a religion that "differed little from traditional Catholicism" (Faragher et al, 2000, p. 58). However, there was a group that followed the teachings of
John Calvin; these are the people we think of as "Puritans," because they wanted to "purify and reform the English church from within" (Faragher et al, 2000, p. 58).
John Calvin was one of the most radical reformers, even more outspoken than Martin Luther; his attacks on the Catholic Church were so vitriolic that he fled to Switzerland, where
he "organized a model Christian community" in Geneva (Faragher et al, 2000, p. 40). While its easy to understand why Calvin, Luther and the others found Catholicism disturbing (its practices
were becoming shoddy to say the least), Calvins beliefs allowed him to set himself and his followers up as superior beings of a sort (Faragher et al, 2000). Specifically, "[H]is
doctrine of predestination proposed that God had chosen a small number of men and women for election, or salvation, while condemning the vast majority to eternal damnation" (Faragher et al,
2000, p. 40). This small number would of course have included those who believed as he did. Calvinism encouraged its adherents to "examine themselves closely for signs of election, which
were usually thought to be prominence and prosperity" (Faragher et al, 2000, p. 40). Calvin also preached that certain virtues were necessary to the "Christian life," and these included "thrift,
industry, sobriety, and personal responsibility" (Faragher et al, 2000, p. 40). Of course, these are the principles that help anyone establish themselves in a successful business, so that the "Puritan
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