The jeremiad style sermon of the late 17th century is the typical fire-and-brimstone style sermon we associate with the Puritans. Its claims of societies failure to live up to God’s (incredibly high) standards are supported by evidence of all the misfortunes that might befall a community (flood, famine, fire, etc.). This style, named after the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, gained popularity in New England just as the second generation Puritans were coming into their own. It painted a picture of the original settlers as idyllic God fearers who never did wrong and were always graced by God. This image of New England’s founders, as most nostalgic images of the past, was a poetic version of life in original New England instead of an accurate representation.
To the intended audience, these sermons were a reassuring call to action. They may be suffering hardships here and there, but their parents and grandparents were able to succeed in being part of God’s elect few, so they could too. They only needed to work harder. However, to the English back in the home country, when these sermons reached their shores they were evidence of the failure of the Puritan experiment. As the majority of Puritans stayed in England—preferring to reform their home country than start their own somewhere else—they gradually calmed down in their religious zeal. They took the horrible conditions described in the sermons as fact of the actual climate of the New England communities, instead of the exaggerations they were.
The long-term effect of these jeremiad sermons was a mistaken view of early New England. A vision of Puritans as exclusively tyrannical, religiously over-zealous types pervades history books (much thanks to the witch trials). Although this is partially true, the sermons are sometimes taken out of context and viewed by modern audiences in much the same way they were viewed by the contemporary English audience. In what ways has your view of these early Puritans been shaped by your reading of either fire-and-brimstone sermons or other works that misleadingly portray Puritans (Crucible anyone?).
Navigation
Contact & Office Hours
Contact Dr. Vander Zee
Office Hours:
M/W 9-11 & by apt.
Office: 22B Glebe St. Rm. 202
Due to my limited exposure to the history of the Puritans, I was one of those who, unfortunately, only saw them as the traditional fire-and-brimstone, witch-fearing, crazy-religious groups who mercilessly persecuted anyone different from themselves. I read The Crucible in high school and have always heard stories about the Salem Witch Trials and “crazy Puritans,” so I had a very one-sided understanding of this group of people. However, after reading Taylor’s work I now know that as a group they really valued hard labor, were physically strong people who worked very hard to establish the small farms that they had, faced religious intolerance themselves, and were entirely motivated by their desire to glorify God. Having exposure to more objective literature about the Puritans has really broadened my understanding of them as a people, and shown me that they were far more complex and dynamic in their work and motivations than I believe most tend to think. Not to say that I’ll never again associate them with witches and persecution, now I’ll just have more background knowledge to substantiate those assumptions.
To answer your question at the end, when I read the definition of what a Jeremiad sermon was my mind immediately went to “Sinners in the Hands of Angry God” by Johnathan Edwards (done July, 8th 1741). To me this seems to fit into the Jeremiad genre because it too shares the traits of religious zeal, it can be interpreted as a call to action and has heavy puritanical influences (think TULIP!).
“Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.” This is the last lines of Edward’s sermon and a great example of what you described in your post. While I do not think that this misconstrues my view of Puritians as the sermon does address its audience as sinners and sees fault openly (they were short of perfect and less than pure), it does make them look fairly extreme in their church services.
Great conversation here on how the English misreading of the Jeremiad genre mirrors our own cultures biases in regard to the Puritans. Seeing the Puritans in their broader colonial context really helped me re-frame my own sense of their place in American history and literature.