History 231 Reading Guide
New England: The covenant ideal and the “New England mind”
- David M. Scobey, “Revising the Errand: New England’s Ways and the Puritan Sense of the Past,” WMQ 3rd ser. 41.1 (1984): 3-31. JSTOR
Documents:
- Plymouth Colony, Mayflower Compact” (1620) Avalon Project at Yale Law School
- John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity” (1630) Hanover Historical Texts Project or The Winthrop Society
Questions:
Scobey presents an elegant argument about the “inherent contradictions in the Puritan errand” that weaves social implications into an intellectual history of the Puritan Church, Puritan culture, and the Puritan conception of history.
- Why does Scobey begin with the half-way covenant of 1662? What church doctrines and practices gave rise to the half-way covenant?
- What was the “orthodox sense of history inherent in the Puritan errand”?
- How did Puritan ministers finally come to see the contradictions in their doctrines? How did they respond?
