tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post8899248911457009108..comments2024-03-27T18:18:11.525-06:00Comments on American Creation: Puritanism births Sons of LibertyBrad Harthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-77134679432172081662008-07-14T14:10:00.000-06:002008-07-14T14:10:00.000-06:00One other factor that played a massive role in the...One other factor that played a massive role in the digression of Congregationalism was immigration. America was becoming a haven for much more than those in favor of Congregationalism. As you point out, once Massachusetts became a royal colony, thousands of other settlers flooded the region and diluted the traditional religion of the colony. <BR/><BR/>Despite the changes, David Holmes points out in his book, "The Faiths of the Founding Fathers" the fact that Congregationalism still remained the predominant faith of New England up to the Revolution.Brad Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1237087217187172116.post-90550970096439135512008-07-14T14:05:00.000-06:002008-07-14T14:05:00.000-06:00Lori writes:"Then the Great Awakening came along, ...Lori writes:<BR/><BR/><EM>"Then the Great Awakening came along, and a kind of religious fervor previously associated only with Quakers and Ranters and other undesirable fringe groups shook Congregational churches. The Great Awakening relied on emotional preaching to produce emotional results: people speaking in tongues, having fits, screaming out to God, tearing their clothes, and having visions, all right there in church or in the fields where large crowds gathered to hear sermons.<BR/><BR/>This disgusted both traditional Congregationalists and rational Enlightenment thinkers. Those Enlightened citizens of New England, particularly Massachusetts and particularly in Boston, turned away from the New Lights and the Old Lights. But they carried with them a legacy of New England's long history of independence and proto-democracy, which they knew came from the old Congregational Way. Those old Puritans had done something valuable. Now the old Puritans were gone--who would carry on their political traditions, dropping the religious aspect to bring them into the new, rational age?"</EM><BR/><BR/>Sounds like the perfect background to the birth of U(u)nitarianism, which John Adams and many others were to embrace. I think you provide an interesting way of looking at how "rational enlightened thinkers" came to detest both New and Old Light ideology and, in turn, embrace the rationale of unitarian doctrine.Brad Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17669677047039491864noreply@blogger.com