America s Deep Puritan And Calvinist Roots - 841 Words

The early 1800s in America were a tumultuous time. Fresh off the Revolutionary War, America was faced with the daunting task of finding her identity and creating new government and new ways of life. This was also a time of great religious change, in that the Second Great Awakening was sweeping the nation. America’s deep Puritan and Calvinist roots were being challenged head on as the Evangelicals spread a new message that salvation was no longer predestined, but was available to all if one chose it. A great duality was emerging in the ideas of boundless freedom versus the need for a central government, demand for security in the form of Constitutional rights versus the hypocrisy that inferior races were not included as â€Å"all men†, and the new idea that God’s love was available to all instead of the chosen few. The shedding of old ideas created a sense of excitement and possibility, yet also a fear of the unknown. If we apply Mary Russell Mitford’ s observation that â€Å"there are few things that give a completer [sic] picture of the habits of living, and the ways of thinking of a foreign country, than it’s lighter literature† to this period in American History, we get a sense of the loss of certainty, discontent, and hypocrisy that was present at the time. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† we have an allegory that appears to be quite obvious. The pious young Brown literally and figuratively leaves his â€Å"Faith† and embarks on a walk with the devil. During hisShow MoreRelatedRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesand the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber explores the distinctive characteristic of rationalization in the West and argues that it has its roots in Puritan Protestant theology and practices. He seeks to demonstrate that capitalism in the West is characterized by rational calculation, which matches means with ends. This rationalization grew out of the Calvinist-Puritan ethos in which believers systematized their behavior in order to bring glory to God and to prove their election by Him through success