Video Transcript: Puritanism in America Part 2

number two - Puritanism in America and Roger Williams. 

We are down to the decline of Puritanism, and I just want to kind of remind you about what that was all about. Then we're going to look at the contributions of the Puritans, and then we want to look at some of the Puritan theology that was so important to them. So we're down to the decline of Puritanism.

Now we mentioned which comes first: lack of religious zeal or the increase of wealth? Which came first? We dealt with that right at the end of our time last Friday, and you can't really—it's hard to say which came first. But the initial Puritans, they made money because they were very frugal. The initial Puritans, the first generation, second generation, were very careful about their money, and they poured their money back into their churches and into their businesses. But the third generation, fourth generation, fifth generation started to use the money on themselves, building their beautiful homes, like on Chestnut Street in Salem, and building really lovely colonial churches, which was not true of the first Puritans. So they started to pour their money really upon themselves, and that led to—that increase in wealth led to a religious—a lack of religious zeal. You start to kind of live for yourselves, and you lose that religious zeal of the first Puritans who wanted to—you know, who wanted to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ.

Or did it work the other way? Did they lack—did they start to lose their religious zeal, and because they lost their religious zeal, did they decide to pour their money back into themselves? Which way? Well, I don't know. I have no idea. But we do know that Puritanism did decline.

That business—I did have one, I just wanted to show you this—but that business of earning money and being frugal and pouring it back into the business, into the church—some of you have read Max Weber’s book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. How many of you have read that book? Have you read it for a course? Okay, it's something you might want to put on your summer reading list: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. And when he talks about the Puritans in this nice book, he talks about the Puritans who—they did not like the monasticism of Roman Catholicism, the getting away from this world. We'll mention this later as well. But they lived a very ascetic life, and Weber calls this a "this-worldly asceticism." So they lived—they lived out the Christian life in this world but in a very ascetic, very disciplined way—not a monastic way, of course, but a very disciplined way. And it was this-worldly asceticism, this discipline, this living not for yourself but for others and putting money back into the business and into the church, it's this-worldly asceticism that caused these people to gain the wealth that they acquired.

So that's—I think we've—I don't know if there's anything else we want to say about the decline of Puritanism. Now, whenever a religious group declines, there's going to have to be something to take its place. We'll see that a lot in the course—that kind of the pendulum is going to swing from one to the other.

So okay, so let's go on to the contributions of Puritanism. Some of the contributions that Puritanism made. Okay, one is certainly—and here, these contributions are not just religious contributions but cultural to the broader culture as well. So they're not just kind of religious in the narrow sense of the word.

But one is respect for lawful government. The Puritans certainly had a respect for lawful government. And what you saw in the Mayflower Compact by people who were already separatists—now, they weren't technically Puritans, they were separatists. They had already become independent from the Anglican Church. But you saw in the Mayflower Compact that same thing: respect for lawful government, ordering ourselves as a community in a lawful way in which citizens are going to be obedient to the laws of the contract that we're making with each other. So you see that.

Value of useful work, of course, a very important part of—a lasting contribution of Puritanism. We are still—now, as I understand it, anyways—Americans work harder than anywhere else in the world. And where did we get that kind of work ethic from? Well, certainly partly that comes from the—from the Puritans.

Value of useful work. Civic participation and responsibilities, and that’s ingrained into the American cultural life. And where did that come from? Partly, of course, from the Puritans as well.

So a concern for education. And a good example of this would be Harvard University, which was founded in 1636. Now remember, the Puritans—the huge immigration of the Puritans didn’t start until 1628. So 1636, we already get the formation of Harvard University. John Harvard gave his library, basically, to start Harvard University.

Whenever I talk about Harvard—we'll talk about it later on because we want to see the evolution of Harvard. So we mentioned it here. What's the motto of Harvard University? And I've got to be careful I don't get in front of this screen because Dr. Hildebrandt is doing so well with this. But I got to be careful not to stand in front of the screen. Okay, what's the motto of Harvard University? Veritas. And Veritas means "truth." So that’s the motto of Harvard. That’s on the t-shirts and the sweatshirts and the caps and everything—Veritas. That’s Harvard’s motto.

It is interesting that that was not the original motto of Harvard, however. The original motto of Harvard—does anybody know what that was? Yes, Veritas in Christo et Ecclesia. "Truth in Christ and in the Church." That was the motto of Harvard University when it was founded in 1636. Now, when it became Unitarian a couple hundred years later, it dropped the "in Christ and the Church" from the motto. And so the motto stays today as Veritas. But the Puritans never would have founded Harvard just with the motto Veritas. It’s always Truth in Christ and in the Church.

So real concern for education. We’ll see that a lot as the course goes along.

And then a sense for the nation, under divine guidance, had a special mission to the world. Askew and Pierard really deal with this quite a bit. But divine guidance, special mission to the world—this is eventually going to be cast in a broader net and called "American exceptionalism." So this will lead to this business of American exceptionalism. That is, America is an exceptional place, can be a model to the world. But American exceptionalism might not see any religious component to that exceptionalism, whereas the Puritans, of course, did.So there's—we're a nation under divine guidance with a special mission to the world. 

And then finally, provided a religious background for many moral and social reform movements of the following centuries. And that becomes important as well. So it's hard to understand these movements in the 18th century—First Great Awakening, 19th century, the Finneyite revival, 20th century, the movement called Evangelicalism. It's hard to understand these movements that were so strong on moral and social reform if we don't understand that they were grounded in the Puritans. So we're going to see how the Puritans have a long-lasting contribution to make. So those are some contributions of the Puritans.

They were under divine guidance and had a special mission to the world. That evolved into a broader notion of American public life called American exceptionalism. There are people who, in the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries, and in our century, who believe that America has a special place in the world to model what community life should be like. However, American exceptionalism might not base itself on any religious foundation as the Puritans did. It carries on some of the Puritan understanding of a special mission to the world but without necessarily all the religious grounding of Puritanism.

In terms of contributions of Puritanism to the broader cultural and social life of America, we have inherited much from the Puritans, though we may not always be aware of it. 

Moving on to Puritan theology, I have chosen four aspects to highlight. Since we are covering four centuries in this course, we cannot dwell too long on any one topic, but these aspects are important.

The first aspect is that God made the world and rules the world. God is the creator and preserver of the world. This belief was fundamental to Puritan theology. Because God ordered, created, and rules the world, everything in it belongs to Him. Because of this, God has assigned everyone certain stations and vocations in life, which are ordained by Him and therefore are good. Understanding and fulfilling one’s vocation is a way of serving and worshiping God.

A perfect example of this idea was a display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, which featured 17th-century Dutch art. The artwork reflected the various stations in life that God created. The first part of the exhibit depicted rulers of the Dutch world, the second part focused on merchants and artisans, and the third part on servants. The display emphasized that, according to the Dutch Reformed people—who, like the Puritans, were Calvinists—all stations in life were ordained by God. Whatever station or vocation one had was ordered by God and was to be accepted with gratitude.

In terms of God ruling the world, the best way to honor and glorify Him is through one’s conduct. One’s life serves as a witness to the desire to honor and glorify God. Therefore, slothfulness and idleness were seen as major sins by the Puritans. If one was idle and not working to glorify God, it indicated a failure to fulfill one’s vocation. The Puritans believed that work was a divine calling and that honoring God through diligent labor was essential. This Puritan work ethic became a lasting contribution to American public and cultural life, influencing the strong work ethic that persists in America today.

The second aspect of Puritan theology is the understanding of vocation. To understand this, we should first consider the medieval world. In medieval Christian thought, the most genuine Christians joined monasteries or nunneries, removing themselves from the world to live in obedience to God. If one could not enter a monastery or nunnery, the next level of spirituality was to become a priest. The lowest level in this hierarchy was occupied by laypeople, who married, had children, and worked. While permitted, this was not considered the highest spiritual calling.

Protestantism, beginning with Martin Luther and John Calvin and later embraced by the 17th-century Puritans, rejected this hierarchy. Martin Luther declared that all vocations are equally worthy callings from God. Whether one was a priest, a laborer, or a housewife, all were seen as equally valuable ways to glorify God. The Protestant Reformation leveled the hierarchy of vocations, and the Puritans, as strong Protestants, embraced this idea. They rejected the Catholic notion of a hierarchical vocation system, believing that all work could glorify God and that all vocations were valid and important.

The Puritans pick up on that. The Puritans are good Protestants. They don't like this kind of Catholic notion of hierarchy of vocations, and so therefore, all vocations can glorify God. All vocations are ways to glorify God. So now that's good Protestant theology and that's a good kind of Puritan theology.

I don't know how it was with you growing up. I grew up in an evangelical church, and maybe some of you did too. Maybe we'll find out at the end of the course where we all are, what our allegiances have been. This may not resonate with everybody in this room, but if it does, shake your head, maybe. Growing up in evangelicalism, you definitely got the feeling—it might have been more implied than spoken—but you definitely got the feeling that if you were a real Christian, you were going to be a missionary for sure. Those were the super Christians. We would have these great missionaries come to the church, and it was like, "Oh my word, this is God's prime vocation."

Secondly, if you couldn't be a missionary, well, you could be a pastor. At least you could be a pastor. Now, for the rest of us, there was this kind of laypeople down here. I don't know what they were all doing, but it seemed that way. I grew up with a notion of vocation that was almost a medieval Roman Catholic notion. It wasn’t as explicit as it was in the medieval world, but it was implied. I don’t know if any of you grew up in traditions like that, but there was a very strong implication that if you were really a believer, missionary work was going to be for you. That was God's chosen vocation. If not, you could be a pastor. If you couldn’t be either of those, well, you were going to be a layperson, and that was fine.

That mindset is medieval Roman Catholic; it is not Protestant. The Protestant way, as the Puritans taught, is that all vocations are equally worthy. I feel a long sermon coming on, but there’s no time for a long story. If any of you grew up in that tradition, let's do an exorcism right now and get rid of that kind of thinking. That is medieval Catholic thinking; that is not good Protestant thinking. The Puritans helped us remember that all vocations are equally worthy, and you glorify God through your vocation. You roll up your sleeves and work in this world. This concept of worldly asceticism means you do your work in this world for the glory of God. Vocation is very important.

A third key idea for the Puritans is the transcendence of God. There are many words we could use to describe this: the glory of God, the majesty of God, the greatness of God. The Puritans emphasized the transcendence of this great God, the creator, preserver, and governor of all things. God is not your good buddy. God is not your good friend. God is not "the man upstairs" and you "the man downstairs" or whatever. That is not God for the Puritans; that is not the God of the Bible for the Puritans. There is a great transcendence to God.

From this belief, there is a "therefore." Whether you see it as positive or negative depends on your understanding of the Puritans and their aims. The "therefore" that comes from this is: beware of any attempt to depict God. Any attempt to depict God is out. The Puritans did not like art that tried to depict God. They did not like sculptures that tried to depict God. They did not like paintings or stained-glass windows that tried to depict God. They found such depictions offensive to the transcendence and majesty of God.

The Puritan religious life was one of great simplicity. We don’t have first-century Puritan churches now, but the original Puritan churches were very plain. There might be a window or two in the church, benches to sit on, and a pulpit for preaching because the sermon might last three hours. But there were no crosses, no stained-glass windows, and no statues in the church. As far as the Puritans were concerned, such things contradicted the transcendence and majesty of God. The simplicity of Puritan worship services was very important.

It was for elaboration of anything that’s religious—God or Christ or the angels or the Holy Spirit or whatever. So far, they’re right for the same reason because it brings down the majesty of God, or for a difference, maybe for a different reason. Yeah, yeah, a little more strain. The Puritans actually had a theological reason for all of this.

Those first Puritan churches—also, it’s interesting. Have any of you been to the Old South Meeting House, by any chance, in Boston? If you’ve done the Boston Freedom Trail, you’ve been to the Old South Meeting House. If you go to the Old South Meeting House, which is Puritan, but be careful here because it’s the fourth structure on that site, so it’s not the original Puritan church. By the way, all these Congregational churches that you see or Unitarian churches that you see in New England, which are the result of Puritan theology, are rather elaborate compared to early Puritan churches. But when you go into the Old South Meeting House, they will make a point. They’ll say to you in the Old South Meeting House, "Look around. Do you see any? Do you even see a cross in this meeting house?" Then you start to figure it out: "I don’t even see a cross in this meeting house."

Well, that would be true of the Puritans. It wasn’t just the simplicity of the church with no stained-glass windows and no statues. It was also that every function that we do in life is religious. Everything we do in life is for the glory of God. So when you come to Sunday morning service in the Puritan church, that’s a religious act for sure. But when you meet on Tuesday nights to maybe set up a government or deal with laws of the government, that’s a religious act as well. So this Puritan understanding of simplicity, in terms of depicting God but also in terms of working for God, comes out in so many different ways. For the Puritans, this issue of God’s transcendence is really strong.

Let me just mention there's some ways in which this transcendence is described. In a sense, we get a sense of who God is by his transcendence. There are two words to describe this transcendence. First, the power of God. The power of God is something you just rejoice in; you don’t question it. The second word is one we don’t use much today, but it's the inscrutability of God. By inscrutable, we mean that God’s ways are beyond our understanding, they are mysterious to us. We just have to trust his way of doing things because he is God.

This transcendence of God, discussed in terms of the power of God and the inscrutability of God, becomes very evident in the doctrine of predestination, particularly in the teachings of John Calvin. The doctrine of predestination had already been dealt with by figures like Augustine, others, and even Martin Luther, but it was John Calvin who articulated it in a clearer and more systematic way.

Predestination, up until Calvin's time, was understood as a single predestination—God elects some people to be saved, and the rest are left to their own devices. However, Calvin’s approach introduced the idea of double predestination: not only does God elect those who will be saved, but he also elects those who will be damned. This form of predestination reflects the transcendence and inscrutability of God’s will, demonstrating his power in ways beyond human understanding.

To explain this concept, let's imagine dividing a room in half. On one side, imagine people who were elected by God before the world began to be saved. Rejoice in this! On the other side, people who were predestined to be damned by God. This decision is inscrutable; we don't understand why or how God does this. The question becomes, how should we view these people? Ideally, our attitude should be one of humility and grace, recognizing that it is only by God's grace that we are on the "saved" side.

However, the real challenge of double predestination lies in the question of assurance. The Puritans grappled with this. If people cannot be sure of their salvation, how can they be certain of being God’s chosen? The Puritans’ solution was that assurance lies in how you live out your vocation. If you are following God’s call and living according to his will in all aspects of life, that’s a sign that you may be elected to salvation. On the other hand, a life of rebellion and neglect of God's commandments might indicate election to damnation.

The Puritan preacher would often focus on this during his lengthy sermons, encouraging people to live lives that honor God. If you do this, you can be fairly confident in your assurance of salvation.

Now, the fourth important concept in Puritan thought is the priesthood of all believers. This idea should not be confused with the notion of vocation. While some people are specifically called to preach the gospel or administer the sacraments. The priesthood of all believers means that all believers can minister to one another in different ways. For instance, we can pray for one another, counsel one another, and support each other spiritually. This is the essence of the priesthood of all believers, and it’s closely tied to the idea of the laity being an integral part of the church’s life.

This notion of the priesthood of all believers emphasizes that the laity are not just passive recipients of religious teaching, but active participants in the life of the church and in the Christian community. This idea was significant in shaping the role of the laity in American Christianity, influencing movements like the Great Awakenings and the rise of evangelicalism.

In summary, these Puritan teachings, especially on the transcendence of God, double predestination, assurance, and the priesthood of all believers, would become foundational for American Christianity. They shaped the faith and practice of the people, leading to a strong sense of personal responsibility in living out the Christian life.

The Puritans, unfortunately, did come under criticism for their harsh punishments. Two things come to mind. First, they were hanging Quakers on the Boston Common—not a good thing to do—but they were hanging Quakers because the Quakers were considered heretical. Then, of course, there were the Salem witch trials. Have any of you been to the monument for the Salem witch trials? It's in Danvers, because Danvers was part of Salem, and the trials didn’t actually take place in Salem. When you go to the town of Salem, it’s actually in what is now called Danvers. The monument to the Salem witch trials is there.

The witch trials were part of the Puritan necessity to not allow heresy to disrupt the social order. So yes, they did earn some of their bad reputation for these harsh practices.

The preacher’s job is to assure them that they are the children of God, and part of the way he does this is by asking: Are you going to church? Are you reading your scriptures? Are you loving Christ? Are you worshiping? Are you serving Christ in your vocation every single day, the best you can? This was how the preacher provided assurance to the people.

So are there kind of external markers to those who have been called by God to be predestined to go to heaven? I mean, that’s the job of the pastor, the job of the preacher—to keep giving you that assurance that you are called by God. There was, and Martin Luther is a perfect example of that, because while Luther didn’t develop a whole doctrine of double election, Luther still believed in predestination. When you read Luther, part of Luther’s problem that he came to grips with was every time he thought about predestination, he thought he was predestined to be damned, so it didn’t help him at all. Luther really had to work that out, this core problem of assurance. He had to work all of that out in his own life, still believing in predestination, but then believing that there are certain signs that you are elected by God to salvation, and kind of rejoicing in those signs. So Luther’s a perfect example of this.

But the Puritan pastor or preacher is supposed to help you with this, and then the priesthood of all believers—praying for each other, counseling each other. Part of that is assuring each other by your action, by your vocations, by your love of Christ, the way that you are a child of God. So yeah, they had to work at this, no doubt.

They did believe there are certainly other people, however, the Puritans were pretty convinced that they are the true interpreters of the word of God and therefore the true followers of Christ and so forth. They had, of course, a very strong anti-Catholic bias because they looked upon Catholicism as a religion of works and not a religion of grace through faith. They hanged the Quakers because, as far as they were concerned, they were heretics. So, you know, toleration—I wouldn’t say that was a major thing for the Puritans. I think they felt basically that they are the true people of God.

That’s a good question. That will go back to Calvin because Calvin had this very strong notion of double election. Some people say, "Well boy, what does that do to evangelism and preaching?" Calvin was a great evangelist and a great preacher for the reason that those who are elected by God before the foundation of the world, those who are elected by God, need to know they’re elected by God and have assurance in God’s grace. Therefore, the necessity of preaching and evangelism is absolutely critical. You’ve got to get the story out so that whoever you’re preaching to, those who are elected, will be able to respond to that. So, it did not detract from evangelism, it rather strengthened it.

There are kind of external things that you can point to, and it’s up to the preacher to remind them that it’s not about how important those works are, but yet we’re not saved by those works that we’re doing. Those works are a sign of our elective will of God and not a way to hold on to the elective will of God. But the preacher is pretty important in Puritan life and culture, to remind people of these very things. That’s why the sermons had to be three and four hours. You had to really get this, and you’re sitting on benches with no backs on them, remember? So you’re sitting there for three, four hours. What a wonderful way to spend the Sabbath, right? The Puritans were big on the—not the Jewish Sabbath, but Sunday as like Sabbath.

Something else on these folks before we leave them? Yes. Right. Not salvation itself, but extolling comes by God’s grace through the predestinating will of God. But the works are a sign of that, your vocation is a sign of that. Loving those three-hour sermons—that’s a good sign.

Okay, something else here? Five-second break, take a five-second break. I like to give you breaks. On Mondays and Fridays, I give you 10 seconds, so just take a quick break here. No one—while you're taking your five-second break, no one has joined the chorus today, have you? Everybody has the Finney article, right? Everybody's got the syllabus? Yes? Everybody’s got the work on how to write a paper? Finney article I did okay. If you miss the Finney article, I can give that to you after. Five seconds—okay, we’re doing okay, you can do this, bless your hearts.

Lecture number two—we’ll go to lecture number two and get that started today. Lecture number two is called Roger Williams and Religious Diversity in Rhode Island. So lecture two, if you’re following along in the outline, if that’s helpful to you. We’re going to talk about Roger Williams first. We just mentioned him the other day, but now we need to talk about one of the most important persons in American Christianity, no doubt. I mean, if someone forced me to say, "Give me the 10 or 15 most important," Roger Williams would have to be on the list. There’s no question. So this is kind of a sketch of Roger Williams. Now, we said that we were going to say a little more about Roger Williams, so I’m going to do that right here, right now.

First of all, Roger Williams was born in London, born in England, and was Anglican. He came from an Anglican family there in England. However, during his time in England, he became a Puritan. He was on the side of the Puritans. He wanted to purify the Anglican Church, both in its church polity—he wanted a more congregational kind of church life—and in its liturgy. He didn’t want the liturgy to be like Catholic liturgy; he wanted that simplified in the biblical sense. So he becomes a Puritan and then he comes over to Boston with the Puritan immigration to Boston, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Now, while he is in Boston, Roger Williams begins to have a serious confrontation with the other Puritan leaders of Boston. The confrontation was over the issue of religious liberty or religious freedom, and Roger Williams was convinced that you do not need to belong to a Christian denomination or even be Christian to be a member of the state, to be a member of the colony, to be a member of the community. And, of course, we’ve already said in his day you could vote only if you were male and only if you were congregational. So, there was a limitation by state authority on what you could do. Roger Williams disagreed with that, and he didn’t just believe in toleration, he believed in freedom—absolute freedom. So he came into confrontation with his other Puritan leaders. The only thing for him to do was to get out, and so he heads down south into the wilderness. Remember, I like to say he took route 95 south into Rhode Island, gets on a Bonanza bus in Boston, and ends up in Providence on a Bonanza bus. He founds Rhode Island, and of course, he names the city a great kind of Puritan name, doesn’t he? He names it Providence. So he founds this place called Rhode Island, and the city he calls Providence, the settlement he calls Providence.

Now, there’s going to be one kind of prevailing, we might say, kind of characteristic of this new place, this new settlement, and it’s going to be that it is founded on absolute religious freedom. And therefore, in order to maintain that religious freedom, there’s going to be a separation of church and state. The church is not going to tell the state what to do, and the government is not going to tell the church what to do. And we are going to maintain that absolute freedom because he was afraid. He was fearful, from his European background, he knew places where the state governed the church, and he is fearful of that ever happening again, of the state controlling the church. So he’s not going to have it in his colony. It’s happening up in Boston; he’s fearful of that. It’s not going to happen in Providence.

You know, so the separation of church and state is very interesting. That early discussion about separation of church and state was over the fear that the state is going to govern the church and run the church. Today, it’s interesting—the discussions of separation of church and state are about being so afraid that the church is going to have influence on the state. That’s what we’re afraid of. So, we’ve got to have this separation also so the church won’t have this influence on the state. So, things have changed a bit.

Okay, so he’s down in Providence, he’s settling into Providence and founding Rhode Island. Something happens in 1639 that’s important to take note of. In 1639, Roger Williams joins the Baptists. There are some Baptists who have come to this location, and they are mainly English and Welsh in terms of their background. They had come under some persecution in Europe. We’re going to talk about the Baptists later on. They had come under some persecution in Europe, and so to flee this persecution, they come to Rhode Island. They wouldn’t have been welcome in Massachusetts to be who they are there. And they believe in the separate church and state. So in 1639, he helps them build the first Baptist church in America. So the first Baptist church in America is in Providence. But, again, when you look at the structure, you’re going to look at that structure and say, “Wow, that seems a little bit ornate,” because it’s the fourth structure on the site. The original structure that was built by the Baptists would have been a very simple structure.

So in 1639, he helps them build their church, and for a period of time, Roger Williams becomes a Baptist. For that short period of time, he becomes a Baptist, which is very interesting. Now, because the Baptists—they’re probably some Baptists out there, I don’t know. We’ll find out at the end of this. Baptists love to claim Roger Williams. They’d love to claim him. So, some of you Baptists, you may have seen you have pictures of Roger Williams in your church. I know, but some of you Baptists love to claim him. Don’t be fooled by that, because he was a Baptist for about three weeks. He wasn’t a Baptist for very long, but he does help them build their Baptist church, and he does have sympathies with the Baptists, no doubt.

But what happens after that? Then, here he is with his city of Providence and so forth. After he leaves the Baptists, Roger Williams becomes a seeker. A seeker is a kind of a broad term for a person who doesn’t have any particular religious home or any particular denominational home. And so, Roger Williams, kind of toward the end of his life, became a seeker. He had been Anglican, then he was Puritan, then he was Baptist, and then he was a seeker.

Now, Perry Miller wrote a great biography of Roger Williams. I actually have listed it in your book for your summer reading. In his book on Roger Williams, Perry Miller says this: At the end of his life, Roger Williams began to believe there are only two Christians in the world—him and his wife. And then he began to doubt his wife. So, when you become a seeker, you have to be careful what that does to you, intellectually, kind of starting to believe that you are the only Christian left and that there are no other Christians left, you know, around. So, in a sense, that happened, I think, a bit to Roger Williams when he became a seeker in his quest for the true church. I don’t think he ever finally found the true church, but he did go through those areas in his life.

So, let’s just mention Rhode Island here, and let’s just mention it briefly. Rhode Island becomes the great center in the colonial period of religious freedom—the first center of religious freedom, not religious toleration, but religious freedom.

Okay, we’ll pick up on that on Friday. Have a good day, people who need some of the Finney articles, or if you need any work on writing your papers, I’m happy to help with that and see you on Friday.

This is Dr. Roger green in his teaching on American Christianity. This is session number two Puritanism in America and Roger Williams.