Puritanism, Congregationalism, American colonies

Rachael Dziechciarz
The influence area that I chose to research is “Puritanism, Congregationalism, American colonies.” In order to determine how these concepts impacted American philosophy, it is important to understand what they mean. Puritanism is a religion that many of the first settlers in America practiced. In fact, the followers of this religion came to America because they were being persecuted for following their beliefs at home (mostly in England). Puritans believe that God is always in control of everything, including the destinies of every human being. Congregationalism is a part of Puritanism that believes that all aspects of community life ought to be tied to religious principles. Congregationalism sought to decide how to best put into everyday practice the ideals of Puritanism, and use these ideals to shape social and political rules.

One idea that seems distinctly American that the Puritans believed was that they are special, and that they came to settle the New World with a purpose. This can be easily compared to the American philosophy of Manifest Destiny, and the similarity was mentioned in the reading. The Puritans purposeful building of colonies and political structure in a particular fashion is similar to what the founding fathers of America did. Both sought to logically create a new system of government for the colonies. Of course, the main difference is that Puritans incorporated church and state in their colonies, and the writers of the Constitution clearly separated the two. Another distinctly American aspect of Congregationalism is that, as the reading mentioned, this strand of Puritan government laid the groundwork for democracy. Americans always take pride in our democratic government, although it’s not perfect, it’s uniquely ours. Congregationalism, even within the extreme context of Puritanism, showed that people can think logically about what the ideal government should look like. This eventually evolved into the revolutionary ideas of pragmatic thinkers such as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. These people were able to theoretically reason why the American colonies deserved to be their own nation, and thus explained why revolution was the right thing to do. This idea is pragmatic because documents such as the Declaration of Independence were used as tools that society could use and believe in, in order to achieve their ends.

Personally, I do not think that the “beginning” of American thought should begin in 1776, merely because that is when we declared our independence from Great Britain. For example, after reading my particular selection on Puritanism and Congregationalism, it seems clear to me that American ideas were in play well before 1776. As I have explained above, some basic American concepts are rooted in certain Puritan ideals. Furthermore, pragmatic thinkers such as Jonathon Edwards died well before the American revolution. The work of his that I am familiar with is “Of Being and Original Sin, ” and in it he attempts to explain the existance of God, as well as the concept of Original Sin. Edwards’ writing is pragmatic in my opinion because he sets forth tools of reasoning that explain God for people that want to use them. If his beliefs satisfy your questions, then he has succeeded at pragmatically explaining the existence of God for you.