Objective Paper on the Puritans

Throughout the writings on the Puritans there seem to be many different interpretations of who they were and how true they were to their religious beliefs. In the selection “Were the Puritans ‘Puritanical’?” it is interesting to see how Puritan beliefs are extremely two sided. For instance the article talks about how many believe that god created things for necessary use only but it states if that is so then why would there be a pleasurable aspect to things. There is an example that states, “’The wine is from God but the Drunkard is from the Evil’” (Degler, 101). which shows that in one sense the Puritans do believe that pleasure is allowed in life, one should enjoy wine without it being considered a sin. What is not acceptable in the Puritan religion is excess, one is entitled to drink the wine from god but they must not abuse the privilege by drinking more than their share that is when they will be considered sinful. Another example is their beliefs about the ma...