Puritanism
Strict Protestant movement
Puritanism was a Protestant reform movement in 16th- and 17th-century England that sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic practices.
Puritans emphasized strict morality, simple worship, and direct engagement with scripture.
Many emigrated to New England, where their beliefs shaped early American culture and institutions.
The movement's legacy persists in discussions of American attitudes toward work, pleasure, and moral discipline. (Lowercase puritanism refers to strict moral attitudes generally.)
Predestinarian Protestant theology
- predestinationDivinely predetermined fate
- covenantBinding formal pledge
- electionOrganized public voting
- providenceDivine protective care
total depravity · Westminster Confession · separatism · nonconformity · dissent · iconoclasm · millennialism · elect
Religious movement splitting Christianity
- PlymouthEnglish port city
- Mayflower1620 colonial transport vessel
- Great MigrationVast collective relocation
- English Civil War1640s British constitutional conflict
Commonwealth · Restoration · ejection · Salem · meetinghouse · Massachusetts Bay Colony · New England · theocracy
Enforced economic stringency
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- sobrietyUnimpaired mental state
- industryEconomic production sector
- thriftCareful use of resources
plainness · modesty · discipline · self-denial · work ethic · simplicity · piety · righteousness
French Protestant reformer
- William BradfordEarly colonial governor
- Oliver CromwellEnglish republican dictator
Protestant tradition with elder councils
- AnabaptismBelief in believer's baptism
- QuakersPacifist Protestant denomination
- PilgrimsPlymouth's founding English colonists
- MethodismWesley's Protestant movement
Calvinism
Predestinarian Protestant theology
- predestinationDivinely predetermined fate
- covenantBinding formal pledge
- electionOrganized public voting
providence · total depravity · Westminster Confession · separatism · nonconformity · dissent · iconoclasm · millennialism · elect · salvation
Reformation
Religious movement splitting Christianity
- PlymouthEnglish port city
- Mayflower1620 colonial transport vessel
- Great MigrationVast collective relocation
English Civil War · Commonwealth · Restoration · ejection · Salem · meetinghouse · Massachusetts Bay Colony · New England · theocracy · Roundheads
austerity
Enforced economic stringency
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
- sobrietyUnimpaired mental state
- industryEconomic production sector
thrift · plainness · modesty · discipline · self-denial · work ethic · simplicity · piety · righteousness · godliness
John Calvin
French Protestant reformer
- William BradfordEarly colonial governor
- Oliver CromwellEnglish republican dictator
Presbyterianism
Protestant tradition with elder councils
- AnabaptismBelief in believer's baptism
- QuakersPacifist Protestant denomination
- PilgrimsPlymouth's founding English colonists
- FaithsChristians, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews
- American ChristianityBaptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians
- ProtestantismLutheran, Protestantism, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian
- American IdeasAmerican Dream, American exceptionalism, transcendentalism, manifest destiny, self-reliance
- British ChristianityChurch of England, Methodism, Methodists, Anglicanism, dissenters
- British ReligionAnglican, Church of Scotland, Archbishop of Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey
PuritanismCatholicism
Papal Christian denomination
Roman Catholicism · Eastern Orthodoxy · ritualism · Anglicanism · Episcopalianism
Puritanismlibertinism
Unrestrained indulgence in pleasure
hedonism · permissiveness · licentiousness · indulgence · sensualism
PuritanismBaroque
Ornate artistic period
rococo · ornamentation · extravagance · flamboyance · decadence
pure, purity, purify, purification, puritan, purgation, Puritan, Puritans