Religion In America 14921790 Essay Research Paper

Religion In America, 1492-1790 Essay, Research Paper

Religion in the New World exploded into the

land with the colonization of thousands of immigrants. It

played an important role in the development of thought in

the West. Religion was one of the first concepts to spark

the desires of people from other countries to emigrate to

the new lands. While many religions blossomed on the

American shores of the Atlantic, a basic structure held for

most of them, being predominantly derived from

Puritanism. Jamestown, the first permanent English

settlement, showed the link the new settlers had to God

when Sir Thomas Dale said the following in 1610: Be not

dismayed at all For scandall cannot doe us wrong, God will

not let us fall. Let England knowe our willingnesse, For that

our work is good; Wee hope to plant a nation Where none

before hath stood. (Morison, pg. 89) Originally, when

Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of America en

route to Asia, he was not interested in discovering new

lands. Most Europeans at the time were looking for a way

to get at the oldest part of the Old World, the East Indies.

An ocean route was sought to the countries that were

believed to contain riches beyond European

comprehension, thus avoiding having to pay hundreds of

miscellaneous middlemen involved with trade, also making

for a shorter journey. These motivations were accompanied

by the desire to convert the heathen to Christianity, which

had been declining since the rise of Islam. By uniting some

of the Western Asian countries with Christianity, Europeans

hoped to form a formidable team against the Turks and

recover the valuable Holy Land (Morison, p.55).

Columbus was sure that God had sent him to complete this

task and that he was destined to carry the good Christian

ways to heathen lands. A Spanish settlement was made in

1609 named Santa Fe in what is now New Mexico (Curti,

p.167). Hundreds of thousands of Pueblo Indians were

then converted to Christianity. At the same time, across the

country, England was establishing its first settlement at

Jamestown. Originally the English, who colonized alongside

the French, saw settlements in the New World as strictly

trading posts, but they soon realized the valuable

opportunities that lay in the virgin lands of America, such as

cotton, tobacco, and several other agricultural products

that could not be found anywhere else. Many of England.s

problems could be solved in America, and so colonization

began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the

responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and

prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire

Native American population of North America (Morison,

p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there

in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion. The first to

settle in America were Separatists, or Puritans who had

seceded from the Church of England. After having been

exiled to the Netherlands and cast into slavery by the

overpowering and more economically sound Dutch, the

Separatists yearned for a place of their own to live where

they could worship as they chose, but at the same time find

some financial success. They intended to locate near the

mouth of the Hudson River to set up a trading post and

fishing settlement. In 1620, the Mayflower Pilgrims who

brought Puritanism with them to the New World founded

the Plymouth Colony. Puritanism was responsible for the

colonization of New England, eventually influencing the

existence of the Congregational, Presbyterian, Methodist,

Baptist, Unitarian, Quaker, and other Protestant sects in

the United States. Since seventeenth-century English and

Scottish Puritanism is what mostly influenced these

churches, it is not surprising that Puritan ways of thinking

and doing have had a vast effect on the American mind and

character, precursors of what is referred to as the

Protestant Ethic. The Puritans who lived in the Plymouth

Colony shared some basic doctrines with the Catholic

Church. They agreed that man existed for the glory of God,

and that his first concern in life should be to do God.s will,

and by doing this he would be happy. They disagreed with

the Catholic Church, because they disagreed with the forms

and ceremonies adopted by the congregations. Confession,

Penance, Confirmation, Ordination, Marriage, Confession,

and Last Rites were all looked upon as invented by man.

The Puritans therefore considered these ceremonies not

Holy. The Puritans (Johnson, p.1) also rejected the

Catholic and Anglican Church.s hierarchy and even their

worship of symbols such as the cross, statues, and

stained-glass windows. By 1630, Puritanism ruled New

England almost

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать