Living the Puritan Life

Abstract

Puritans were wary of routine or of regular piety, as their theology convinced them that the Christian life ought to consist of steady and observable progress towards godliness. This created a distinct fear of ‘backsliding’ or of religious stasis, and could produce anxiety if their lives failed to match this ideal. The essay explores various ways puritans tried to manage this problem, from ‘pacing’ their moral progress to attempts to shock themselves out of routine by making the daily business of repentance transformative. It concludes by analysing one particular widely-used technique, namely the devotional use of martyr-narratives, in which puritans placed themselves imaginatively in order to awaken their drowsy piety; and by suggesting that this may have sharpened their readiness to see the world in confrontational terms.

Keywords

• sanctification
• puritan
• emotion
• routine
• backsliding
• martyrs