How Does John Winthrop Use The Metaphor Of A City On A Hill

To understand why and how these issues arose in Salem, first look to the history of the Puritans. The Puritans believed that the Anglican Church needed to be purified of the Catholic ideologies. With monarchs of their time disinterested in the idea of reform, many Puritans became discouraged and thought the colonies would give them a better chance to reform the church. John Winthrop along with a few other Puritans in the New World decided to create City on a Hill to set an example of good behavior and religious purity. The Puritans believed that God had made a special covenant with them so they could live according to scripture, reforming the Anglican Church, and set a good example for those who were still living in England.

Why did Winthrop think that the Puritans were a special people? And why did he believe they had to be especially careful in their new endeavor? Puritan wanted to reform their church and opposed to the corruption of the Church of England so they moved to the New World. John Winthrop wanted to show England that their way was wrong; therefore he wanted to prove it to them by presenting that the Puritans have a successful colony.

He didn’t have the smallest connection with the Church of England. Williams rejected its teachings entirely and demanded complete dissociation between the Church of England and anyone who claimed to be living under God’s command. Winthrop responded by claiming that the people of England were just misled Christians that needed to be guided back into morality and for this reason, there was no need to completely detach from them. Winthrop’s response showed that even when dealing with opposers he displayed the characteristics of a good leader (Morgan 110-114). Instead of immediately shutting down Williams or ignoring his beliefs, Winthrop exhorted to “meet them with arguments and not merely authority (Morgan 110).

John winthrop soon became the governor and called the puritan built city the “City upon a hill” The new England colonies were more well rounded with agriculture, lumber, and fishing.

Religion was an essential part of everyday life and it provided individuals with a purpose in life. John Winthrop’s goal was to expand the Protestant community (Puritans) and his main focus was to have a better relationship with God. Winthrop especially desired for all the settlers of New England

John Winthrop was born on January 22, 1588 himself and his immediate family belonged to a class of people in New England known as “The Gentry”. This was a class of people that typically dominated the society between 1540 through 1640. Therefore, John Winthrop being a part of this class, became accustomed already to a position of

The Massachusetts Bay colonists were Puritans seeking religious freedom and purity. After being persecuted for their beliefs in England, they moved to Holland. Before long, parents felt their children were being influenced by the more liberal beliefs of Holland. The next option was to move to the New World where they could raise their children in a private community surrounded by like-minded families. As Puritan lawyer John Winthrop envisioned the new colony he said, “Wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us.”

She compares the Puritans to the Israelites, God’s chosen people who sinned against Him, on numerous occasions: It is said, "Oh, that my People had hearkened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways, I should soon have subdued their Enemies, and turned my hand against their Adversaries" (Psalm 81.13-14). But now our perverse and evil carriages in the sight of the Lord, have so offended Him, that instead of turning His hand against them, the Lord feeds and nourishes them up to be a scourge to the whole land. (284) Rowlandson examines for her community how they have backslided as the “city upon a hill,” and is accountable for her part in it (Winthrop 177).

The Puritan’s goal of coming to the New World was not to create a new life, but to create the ideal model of living for the “corrupt” inhabitants of England. This was coined “The Errand”, the Puritans desire to establish a City Upon a Hill that others could look up to and imitate in order to receive God’s grace. The Puritans failed at building their City Upon a Hill (creating a perfect religious, economic, and political community), however the long-term effects of their efforts have influenced American moral politics throughout its history. The Puritans forever had the attitude of a community that had successfully established a City Upon a Hill. The Puritan lifestyle was heavily influenced not only by religion, but also inside of that, morality.

The New Englanders took religion seriously, making unitary laws according to Puritan standards. John Winthrop, later chosen as the first Massachusetts Bay Colony governor, was seeking religious freedom. Wishing to inspire the colonists to dwell in brotherly unity, he summoned them together to remind them “that if we [colonists] shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” On the other hand, those in the Chesapeake region came for the wealth that America promised. They were there to become prosperous or die trying.

The ideas constructed by the Puritans were not simply a principal starting point for American culture because they were the first in the country, but because they offered distinct ways of thinking that are still deep-seated in our culture today. Although many of the ideas of Puritans have evolved or vanished over time, it is important to give credit to the Puritan writers and thinkers such as John Winthrop and John Cotton who offered ideas that were new at the time and that stayed with the American consciousness—culturally, socially, and politically. “John Winthrop's legacy can be seen primarily in the fields of government, commerce, and religion. It was religion that would most impact John's life; his religion would ultimately impact the

The values that early American writers considered most important were piety, courage, and industry. They were highly honored by the large Puritan population, and these values helped them survive the beginning of the colonies. Overtime, however, different values were stressed more than others. For example, in “Of Plymouth Plantation,” written around 1620, Bradford chooses to write about the piety, courage, and industry of all the settlers in his settlement. In 1630, Winthrop gave his sermon “A Model of Christian Charity,” and in it he motivates his audience using piety and industry as reasons to succeed.

John Winthrop, a non-separating Puritan, was a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that described the goal of this colony in his City Upon a Hill speech in which he says, “We must consider that we shall be as a city

Purpose: Winthrop’s purpose for creating this sermon was to coax the colonist into creating a “utopia” in the New World; essentially a moral boost. The author used nationalism, imagery, and God to express his sermon towards the Puritans. By evoking God, he’s trying to create fear among the Puritans.

What is literature if not an author’s imaginative response to what occurs around them? John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a prime example of just that. His experiences living during the Great Depression in America is reflected through the geography in his book and the meanings behind it. The perceived geography of the novel; the river, the barn, and Crooks’s room; is so simplistic to allow the reader to see the effect of more discrete aspects of the setting. As Thomas Foster says in How to Read Literature like a Professor, “Geography is setting, but it’s also (or can be) psychology, attitudes, finance, industry- anything that place can forge in the people who live there.”