WHAT WERE THE ORIGINAL PURITANS LIKE?

 (Debunking the Myths)

 

 

1.   They were against sex.

 

2.   They were opposed to fun.

 

3.   They were sartorially ugly.

 

4.   They were opposed to sports and recreation.

 

5.   They were money-grubbing workaholics who would do anything to get rich.

 

6.   They were philistines with respect to the arts.

 

7.   They were excessively emotional and undervalued reason.

 

8.   They were chiefly older people and were afflicted with the

conservatism of the elderly.

 

9.   They were intolerant toward people who disagreed with them.

 

10. They were excessively strict.

 

11. They suppressed normal human feelings in the name of                                                      religion.

 

12. They were self-rejecting, self-loathing.

 

 

                      WHO WERE THE PURITANS?

 

 

 

 

                       TRAITS OF PURITANISM

 

1.   A gospel-oriented movement.

 

 

2.   A movement which viewed life and history as the theatre of                                                 spiritual conflict.

 

3.   A reform movement.

 

 

4.   A minority movement (English Puritans).

 

 

5.   A movement in which scripture was central to everything.

 

 

 

 

      DIFFERING EMPHASES IN REFORMATION AND PURITAN THEOLOGY

 

 

1.   The mode of expression:

R: a biblical mode

P: a scholastic mode

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.   The place of Christology:

R: its theology is more Christological in content and                                                            outlook

P: its theology is less Christocentric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.   The logic of theology:

R: its theology is less rationalistic

P: its theology is controlled more by a determining                                           concept (e.g., covenant)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.   The focus of theology:

R: chiefly the Incarnate Word

P: the details of our sanctification