Who Were the Puritans?

Historian Thomas Babington Macaulay once famously wrote, “The Puritan hated bear-baiting not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.” And journalist H.L. Mencken defined Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, might be happy.”

But C.S. Lewis was not as historically naïve. In the Screwtape Letters he has Screwtape claim credit for the caricature: “The value we have given to that word [Puritanism] is one of the really solid triumphs of the last hundred years.”

If the only picture that comes to mind when you hear the Puritan label is a Salem Witch trial or a cranky Calvinist, then you might want to check out The Devoted Life: An Invitation to the Puritan Classics, edited by Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason. (Both of the editors did their doctoral dissertations on my historical hero, John Owen.)

Each chapter contains an exposition of a Puritan classic by a scholar. For example, Leland Ryken writes on Paradise Lost, J.I. Packer unpacks Pilgrim’s Progress, and Sinclair Ferguson looks at The Mystery of Providence.

So who were the Puritans? No one definition is sufficient. It can be narrowly defined, but then certain Puritans don’t quite fit the label. Or it can be so broadly defined that it loses its distinctiveness. Kapic and Gleason rightly choose to focus upon “a cluster of characteristics that describe the overall ethos that united the various theological, political and ecclesiastical streams of Puritanism.” Here are the seven characteristics they identify:

1. Many understand Puritanism as a movement of spirituality.
2. Puritanism, at its heart, lays stress on experiencing communion with God.
3. Puritans were united in their dependence upon the Bible as their supreme source of spiritual sustenance and guide for the reformation of life.
4. The Puritans were predominantly Augustinian in their emphasis upon human sinfulness and divine grace.
5. The Puritans placed great emphasis upon the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life.
6. The Puritans were deeply troubled with sacramental forms of Catholic spirituality fostered within the Anglican church.
7. Puritanism can also be understood as a revival movement.

The entire introduction—Who Were the Puritans?—can be read online.

Kapic and Gleason write that “it seems fair to suggest that one of the tasks of a scholar is to read widely, find some of the very best literature and then suggest a distilled list of texts worthy of the layperson’s time.” I love that vision of the academy serving the church.

Take up and read!