Wiploc

This is homework. I figure it will entertain some people here, and that it may benefit from your feedback. Interesting responses may get cited. I'll post nuggets as I get them written.

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"Several commentators have seen Puritanism as essentially a fusion of the Hebrew spirit, Early Christian conscience, and Reformation values (Gaer, 30).

"The thing to understand about Puritanism, if you want to understand Puritanism, is that it didn't make sense. It made sense to them. And it offered them something. But it didn't make sense" (XXXname, personal conversation, 13 February 2007).

This paper looks at the American Puritans; It includes a brief prehistory of their church. It describes who they were, why they came, what they believed, what their aspirations were, and offers insight into why those aspirations seem not to have worked out. It illustrates the issues involved with a closer look at the Antinomian controversy. The title-word, "ignorant," is because this paper assumes only a grade-school level of comprehension. For instance, the phrases, "Hebrew spirit," "Early Christian conscience," and, "Reformation values," suggest nothing to this author. The title-word, "Atheist," is there because this paper describes religious disputes without taking sides. The author has no standing to opine, for instance, on whether Antinomian beliefs were, in some sense, "correct," nor on whether, as XXXname suggested (XXXcite), some of the Puritans' problems derived from Satan's special malice. Nevertheless, I hope this paper will prove useful, informative and insightful, both to those with religion and to those with a smaller treasure of ignorance than that with which I undertook this project.