What is it about?
Puritans crossed the Atlantic and encountered the overwhelming power of the ocean, which forced humility. Already a central focus of their theology and cultural/religious beliefs, English Puritans who came to North American created a powerful identity centered around embodying humility and rejecting pride. This can be seen in conversion narratives, legal codes, sermons, court cases, and systems of governance.
Featured Image
Photo by Erica Marsland Huynh on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This work makes the case for a distinctive American Puritanism rooted in the transatlantic experience and the unique demands of the new world through the lens of pride and humility. Anxieties over pride affected every component of Puritan identity in early New England, which created a unique society whose central identity was the embrace of humility.
Perspectives
This book is a broad overview of the foundations of American Puritanism rooted in pride and humility, a fact I uncovered while researching the Pequot War of 1637. It was fun to journey through the migration experience and watch the unfolding of this ideology of pride/humility develop alongside its principal creators. I was delighted to see how this emphasis on humility was truly an Atlantic story.
Sandra Slater
College of Charleston
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: “The Lord’s Wonderfull Terror and Mercy”: Pride and Passage on the Atlantic, October 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004704039_003.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
