Puritan Religious Beliefs

Puritanism is a branch of the Church of England that primarily settled in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony in the 1620s with the mission of reforming the Anglican Church. Socially, the
Puritans differed from the Anglicans’ orthodox beliefs of alcohol consumption and paganrelated practices; religiously, the Puritans called for change in the structure and abolishment of certain traditions in the Anglican Church; ideologically, the Puritans demonstrated their unique way of thinking with their idea of their “City on a Hill;” therefore, the Puritans professed change, rather than following the orthodox beliefs of the Church of England.
The Puritans inspired social change through alcohol use and the abolishment of certain paganbased rituals and practices.
As Reverend Richard Howland Maxwell illustrates, the Puritans sought to bring change to the most important aspects in the structure of the
Anglican Church such as “the Bible, not the church hierarchy, to be the ultimate authority . . . and an active clergy who carried out some teaching as well as purely liturgical functions” (Maxwell 3).
These fundamental changes to the faith are why the Puritans called for a reform.
The Puritan's ideological views of individuality and logic was original and fresh when compared to the orthodox thinking of the English. As Miller and Johnson state, “the Puritans acquired their special quality and their essential individuality from their stand on the points at issue” (Miller and Johnson 45). This new way of thinking was unique to the Puritans because the
Anglican Church did not promote people’s individuality. As Maxwell explains, the Puritan
“movement was one of the intellectually best equipped in history; and they prevailed in their reformation through the force of their logic expressed in dynamic Elizabeth English” (Maxwell 2).
This logic and unique thought is the reason why the Puritans assumed that they were the ideal,
Christian utopia