Honors Thesis
As a teen, when I was introduced to the writings of John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, and Jonathan Edwards, I wondered about the discrepancy between the dour Puritan stereotype and my own sense of the vibrant voices that spoke through these texts. This question persisted as I read additional Puritan works in a college American literature class.
In spring 2010, I embarked on an exploration of Puritan writings through independent study, letting the light of their “city on a hill” shine through their own words. Rather than writing traditional essays, I maintained a blog about my readings. This format allowed me not only to keep in contact with my professor, but also with other interested readers across the country. My first blog post articulates the questions I pursued throughout the semester.
The blogging experience grew into a seventy-page honors thesis that addresses self-examination in colonial Puritan literature. Through discussion of solo and community-wide devotional practices, I demonstrate that Puritan self-examination, understood in the context of a devotional process, draws the self-examining subject out of himself through meditation on God, enjoyment of the divine presence, and remembrance of responsibility to the covenant community. View the full thesis.
In spring 2010, I embarked on an exploration of Puritan writings through independent study, letting the light of their “city on a hill” shine through their own words. Rather than writing traditional essays, I maintained a blog about my readings. This format allowed me not only to keep in contact with my professor, but also with other interested readers across the country. My first blog post articulates the questions I pursued throughout the semester.
The blogging experience grew into a seventy-page honors thesis that addresses self-examination in colonial Puritan literature. Through discussion of solo and community-wide devotional practices, I demonstrate that Puritan self-examination, understood in the context of a devotional process, draws the self-examining subject out of himself through meditation on God, enjoyment of the divine presence, and remembrance of responsibility to the covenant community. View the full thesis.
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For in that first century, primitive conditions of life and the Puritan culture conspired to produce a literature distinguished by closeness to fact, energy and vividness of expression, and at times a soaring imagination. Rarely has the mind worked with greater vigor and penetration than in the early New England community; rarely has the written word been used more effectively; rarely has the human spirit burned with an intenser, brighter flame. (341-42)
-Randall Stewart
From “Puritan Literature and the Flowering of New England,” published in The William and Mary Quarterly 3.3, July 1946.
For in that first century, primitive conditions of life and the Puritan culture conspired to produce a literature distinguished by closeness to fact, energy and vividness of expression, and at times a soaring imagination. Rarely has the mind worked with greater vigor and penetration than in the early New England community; rarely has the written word been used more effectively; rarely has the human spirit burned with an intenser, brighter flame. (341-42)
-Randall Stewart
From “Puritan Literature and the Flowering of New England,” published in The William and Mary Quarterly 3.3, July 1946.