美国清教主义简介American

美国清教主义简介American Puritanism名词Puritanism

1. The beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans (most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the

Church of England of its Catholic aspects)

2. Strictness and austerity in conduct and religion重要地位：American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and

American literature. It has become, to some extent, so much a state of mind, rather than a set of tenets, so

much a part of the national cultural atmosphere that the Americans breathe. Without some understanding of

Puritanism, there can be no real understanding of American culture and literature.历史渊源

Puritans was the name given in the 16th century to the more extreme Protestants（新教徒，基督教徒）

within the Church of England who thought the English Reformation （英国宗教改革）had not gone far enough in

reforming the doctrines and structure of the church. They wanted to purify their national church by eliminating

every shred of Catholic influence. In the 17th century many Puritans emigrated to the New World, where they

sought to found a holy Commonwealth in New England. Puritanism remained the dominant cultural force in that

area into the 19th century.

Puritans believed that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God's

chosen people (God's elect 上帝的选民)while others were predestined to be damned to hell. The success of

one's work or the prosperity in his calling given by God was the sign of being God's elect. Therefore, everyone

must work hard, spend little and invest for more business. Working hard and living a moral life were their ethics.

They regarded Bible to be the authority of their doctrine. To be able to read the Bible and understand God's will,

education was essential for Puritans.

Puritanism in New England (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode

Island) made a great influence on American culture. The Puritans hoped to build "a city upon hill"—an ideal

community. New England also established another American tradition—a strain of often intolerant moralism.

The Puritans believed that government should enforce God's morality. They strictly punished drunks, adulterers,

violators of the Sabbath（安息日） and other religious believers different from themselves. The American values

such as individualism, hard work, and respect of education owe very much to the Puritan beliefs.

发展与困难

Pushing the frontiers with them as they moved further and further westward, they became more and more

preoccupied with business and profits. They became more practical. The very severity of the frontier conditions

taught the Americans Puritans to be tougher, to be ever ready for any misfortune and tragic failures that might

lie in wait for them.

All through the nineteenth century and especially in the first few decades of the twentieth, Americans

Puritans came under violent and often virulent attacks for their religious intolerance and bigotry, for their

austerity of taste and killjoy way of life, for the very heritage they bequeathed to the new nation. But the fact still

remains that Puritanism alone has been the most powerful shaping factor in the cultural maturity of the

American nation. It has burned its way into the very fabric of American social life, and way down into the

American consciousness, so that even the most incorruptible anti-Puritans cannot escape its influence.

深入骨髓：对文学的影响乐观主义

American literature—or Anglo-American literature—is based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden.

The Puritans dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with indomitable courage and confident hope

toward building a new Garden of Eden in America. With such a sense of mission, the Puritans looked even the

worst of life in the face with a tremendous amount of optimism.

Emerson saw the American as Adam himself reborn, standing simple and sincere before the world.

Thoreau portrayed himself as an Adam in his Eden. Whitman felt rapturous at the sight of the Americans

bustling with activity as the children of Adam restored to their lost paradise. Henry James talked about the

innocence and simplicity of his Americans as so many Newmans. The spirit of optimism burst out of the pages

of so many American authors. Optimistic Puritan has exerted a great influence on American literature. American

authors have been the outset conditioned by the puritan heritage to which American authors have been the

most communicative heirs.象征主义

The American Puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a

literary symbolism which is distinctly American. Puritan doctrine and literary practice contributed to no small

extent to the development of an indigenous symbolism. To the pious Puritan the physical phenomenal world

was nothing but a symbol of God. Physical life was simultaneously spiritual; every passage of life, en-meshed in

the vast context of God’s plan, possessed a delegated meaning. The world was one of multiple significance.

Charles Feidelson: “instinct with meaning by reason of God’s concurrence and susceptible of interpretation

by reason of God’s salient act.” Jonathan Edwards saw nature and even the Bible as “radically figurative”.

Emerson’s Nature is like a “continuous monologue”. With Hawthorne, Melville, Howells and many others,

symbolism as a technique has become a common practice, it is indeed as it should be. This peculiar mode of

perception was an essential part of their upbringing.朴素文风

With regard to technique one naturally thinks of the simplicity, which characterizes the Puritan style of

writing. The Puritans have been abhorred for their austerity and rigidity in matters of taste, “notorious” for their

distaste for the arts and for any manifestation of sensuous beauty. Although there is an amount of truth in all this,

it is perhaps too much a distortion.

As Perry Miller tells us, the Puritans drank and dressed themselves in all the hues of the rainbow. They

build schools, encouraged learning, and loved reading, making New England and the east seaboard centers of

culture comparable in more ways than one to England and Europe. With regard to their writing, the style is fresh,

simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct

influence of the Bible. All this has left an indelible imprint on American writing. American Puritanism has been,

by and large, a healthy legacy to the Americans.

What is Calvinism:

It is a series of theological beliefs first promoted by John Calvin (1509-1564), one of the leaders of the

Protestant reformation. They were affirmed by the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619 CE) as being the doctrine of

salvation which is contained in the Bible. It laid the foundation for Reformed Theology.

Calvinism is often summarized by The Five Points of Calvinism, which are easy to recall by using the acrostic

"TULIP:"

T: This usually stands for "Total depravity:" This is often mistaken to mean that humans are all hopelessly,

intensely sinful. Actually, it means something quite different: as a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God

-- the Fall of Man -- sin has extended to all parts of every person's being: "his thinking, his emotions and his

will."

1

Sometimes, this has been called "Total inability." This is the concept that it is impossible for the ordinary

"natural" human to understand the Gospel's message. They are spiritually helpless. First, God must first decide

to intervene in the form of the third personality within the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, the person is lost

forever.

U: This stands for "Unconditional Election." This is the concept of predestination: that God has divided humanity

into two groups. One group is "the elected." It includes all those whom God has chosen to make knowledgeable

about himself. The rest will remain ignorant of God, and the Gospel. They are damned and will spend eternity in

Hell without any hope of mercy or cessation of the extreme tortures. God made this selection before the

universe was created, and thus before any humans existed. The ground or grounds that God uses to select the

lucky few is unknown. What is known is that it is not through any good works on the part of the individual. It is

not that he extends knowledge to some in order to find out who will accept salvation and who will not.

There is a degree of tension within the Bible concerning precise division of responsibility between God and

humans on this matter. The Bible does not resolve this issue.

L: This stands for "Limited atonement" or "Particular Redemption." This is the belief that Jesus did not die to

save all humans. He only died for the sake of specific sins of those sinners who are saved.

I: This stands for "Irresistible Grace:" This is the belief that every human whom God has elected will inevitably

come to a knowledge of God. The elect cannot resist the call.