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Impact Of Faith In Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God
Religion was a major component of each of the three periods discussed in this course. The impact religion had on the United States can still be seen and felt today, and it began with the Puritans. In John Winthrop’s sermon “A Model of Christian Charity”, he “described the covenant the colonists had entered into with God and each other” (Winthrop handout). His Puritan beliefs had a tremendous impact on his sermons and helped to shape the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Winthrop handout). “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was a sermon delivered by Jonathan Edwards and is perhaps one of the most well-known religious works in all of literature. Also in the Puritan Period, John Woolman was led by his devout Quaker faith and provided much detail about his religious life in his personal Journal (Woolman handout). During the Enlightenment Period, a major shift took place in religion and beliefs amongst writers. In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin spoke directly about his Deistic beliefs and the ideologies by which he lived (Franklin handout). Poet Phillis Wheatley spoke frequently about her faith in her poems as “many of her poems are elegies or poems about Christian salvation” (Wheatley handout). Philip Freneau was also a Deist and is known for “his poems advocating deism” including “On the Religion of Nature” (Freneau handout). During the Romantic Period, there was another major shift in religious/philosophical beliefs. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are two of the most famous Transcendentalists. Emerson’s Nature was the “most influential statement of romantic individualism” and is today called “the bible of American Transcendentalism” (Emerson handout 4). Thoreau’s Walden or Life in the Woods is another great example of a Transcendentalist work and is his best “expression of transcendentalism” (Thoreau handout). Both Emerson and Thoreau were important leaders of this movement and are still studied today in regards to transcendental thought (Emerson handout). Another author of the Romantic Period is Herman Melville. One of the main themes in the work he produced was the “need to balance transcendental insight with empirical truth” (Melville handout).
A similarity between the Puritan Period and the Enlightenment Period was the prevalence of religious thought and the degree to which religion impacted the literature produced during these times. Although beliefs differed drastically amongst the writers of those times, it was clear from the works that they produced how much they believed in what they wrote about. For example, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was a terrifying sermon, but it showed the extent to which he believed and the impact that his faith had on him (Edwards handout). In Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, he discusses his Deistic beliefs and what he holds to be true; although they differed from the beliefs held by many during the Puritan Period, it did not mean that he valued his beliefs or thoughts any less (Franklin handout). An incredibly important difference between the Puritan Period and the Enlightenment Period was what they believed. For example, the Puritan belief in God was a God that was “intervening continuously in all human and natural events” (The Enlightenment and Deism handout 2). In other words, they believed God actively controlled their lives and the events that occurred in them (The Enlightenment and Deism handout 2). This is evident in works such as “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and many of the other famous sermons from that time period. The Enlightenment Period led to Deism, which contrasted strongly with the beliefs held by the Puritans. Deism was a belief that saw God “as a great inventor or architect who had created the universe then allowed it to function as the machine or clock without divine intervention” (The Enlightenment and Deism handout). Unlike the Puritans, they did not believe that God was actively involved in the events of their lives (The Enlightenment and Deism handout 2). As stated in Franklin’s Autobiography, he took these beliefs “to be the fundamental points in all sound religion” (Franklin handout). Deism was mentioned in more than just personal autobiographies; it was included in poetry as well such as Freneau’s “On the Religion of Nature” (Freneau handout).
From literary style to religious beliefs, American literature saw new heights as it transitioned from the Puritan Period to the Enlightenment Period to the Romantic Period. While there are many similarities, there are strong differences between the works of literature from these respective time periods. Regardless, literature developed during these years documented America during those times and helped shape the America that we see today. It is with these works of art that we can better understand the beginnings of our Nation, where we are today, and the path that we took to get here. It is important to treasure every sermon, essay, poem, and story and remember that it helped to shape our great country.
