| Summary |
This thesis examines the Puritan Antinomian Controversy that took place in Boston from 1636 to 1638. The Controversy's key figures, John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, and John Cotton, lived part of their lives in England and brought their ideas to the New World. Even though they wanted to build a completely new society, independent from the oppression of English institutions, they could not part from their English ideas and practices. The controversy had several causes and effects. It arose from Boston's social, political, and religious conditions and from Old World traditions adapting to the New World. The role of good works in salvation, gender roles, and a failure of language led to the controversy. It resulted in several immediate and long-term effects as well. The descendents of Winthrop, Hutchinson, and Cotton, including John Winthrop Jr., Samuel Winthrop, Thomas Hutchinson, and Cotton Mather, reveal the influence of their ancestors. This research also traces the evolution from Winthrop's view of Boston as a "city upon a hill" to Alexis de Tocqueville's "American exceptionalism." |
