Puritanism

Author(s):

The Editors of The Encyclopedia of Conservatism

Editor(s):

The Editors of The Encyclopedia of Conservatism

Home Philosophy Puritanism

2 min read

Table of Contents

Cite

Feedback

Puritanism was a religious and social movement which advocated for a return to a simpler form of Christianity free from rituals and hierarchy.
Puritanism differs from conservatism when it comes to the nature of the ideology, tolerance towards other people, and their approach to authority.
Puritans emphasized individualism, while conservatives argue for the well-being of society as a whole.

Introduction

The Puritan, an 1887 statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Puritanism is religious and social movement that emerged in the late 16th century and influenced the development of American culture and society. In the early 17th century, a group of Puritans known as the Pilgrims sought religious freedom in the New World and in order to escape religious persecution in England, landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, where they established a colony in what is now Massachusetts.

Rooted in the Protestant Reformation, Puritanism sought to reform the Church of England from within, advocating for a return to what they perceived as a more pure and simple form of Christianity, free from the rituals and hierarchy of the established church.^_[1] Puritans believed in predestination, the idea that God had already determined who would be saved and who would be damned, leading them to lead morally upright lives as a sign of their election.

Conservative perspective

Due to the religious, austere, and custom-based nature of puritanism, it is a conservative, Christian sect.

[1] Trinterud, Leonard J. 1951. “The Origins of Puritanism.” Church History 20 (1): 37–57. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3162047.

[2] Cline, Timon. 2022. “A Puritan Politics: Life, Unity, and the Pursuit of God.” The American Conservative. September 30. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/a-puritan-politics-life-unity-and-the-pursuit-of-god/.