In the first chapter (Puritanism
and the Self) of his book Bercovitch explores the formation of the Puritan
mindset – the break of the Reformation from the Catholic view, basically the
leap of focus from identity of the institution to that of the individual:
“whereas the Reformed biographies leap from the individual to the universal,
the Catholic hagiographies begin and end with the extraordinary and the
unique.” (pg. 8) He talks about the Catholic view of saints (“they impress us
not as models for emulation but as objects of veneration” pg. 8) as opposed to
the Protestant view of the imitatio
Christi, which did not center on miracles or the extraordinary, but rather
on the exemplum fidei – faith; “a
mode of imitatio that emphasized the
spirit rather than the letter of the deed.” (pg 9) All this he links to Cotton
Mather’s biography of John Winthrop, “Nehemias Americanus” – he brings up the
links within the biography between “the literal event, scriptural parallel and
christic referent” (pg. 33), which are further emphasis on the individual –
universal mindset the Reformation began and thus, the difference from the
“extraordinary and the unique” Catholic hagiographies – by describing
Winthrop’s life, giving frequent biblical parallels and finally comparing Winthrop
to Christ he shows that this “pattern applies, like the life of Christ, both to
the individual and to the church at large.” (pg. 33)
In the second chapter, The Vision
of History, Bercovitch discusses Mather’s vision of Winthrop
as the “Nehemias Americanus” – Winthrop’s
role as another Nehemiah (who led the Israelites from Babylon
to the promised land), but an American one – “the idea of the exemplary
American.” (pg. 35) He further explores Mather’s usage of biblical references
in regards to Winthrop, but
emphasizes Mather’s placement of Winthrop
in a specific historical time and place – he mentions the “American Jerusalem”
or substituting New England for “Jerusalem”.
Bercovitch also points out the problem with the “Nehemias Americanus” – the
fact that it places Winthrop as “at
once for citizen and saint, state and church, New England
and ecclesiastical history, res Americana and res
Christi.” (pg. 44)
In the third chapter, The Elect
Nation in New England, Bercovitch further explores
Mather’s “Americanus” – the fact that this “enhances the sacred referent
(Christ, Nehemiah) within a special historical context.” (pg. 72) – a new saint
for the new chosen and elect people on the new hill. This he links to the
colonists’ belief that New England and the whole continent was the “city upon
the hill” – “a status of visible sainthood.” (pg. 108) This, in turn,
Bercovitch links to the idea of the American self and identity – “the link
between the New England and the American
Way” (pg. 108) and differentiates it from the way
European countries look at themselves – “British homeland, German fatherland”
as opposed to “American dream, manifest destiny, redeemer nation, and,
fundamentally, the American self as representative of universal rebirth.” (pg.
108)
The fourth and fifth chapters, From
Hermeneutics to Symbolism and The Myth of America, Bercovitch further relates
the Puritan mind to the formation of the American self, the American way – the
myth of America. He says that “the Puritan myth prepared for the re-vision of
God’s Country from the “New England of the type” into
the United States of America.”
(pg. 136) He states that Mather’s continual references to himself as an
American as well as calling Winthrop “Americanus” further amplifies the
projection of the Puritan mind onto the New World – it is not secularization,
but rather projection of the idea of the city upon the hill, of utopia, onto
New England and thus, America as a whole and finally, the United States of
America. Bercovitch also points out the difference of this from the other
colonists, who viewed the New World mostly as a
commercial venture, as Europeans venturing into a new territory – which
Bercovitch says the other colonies never truly cast away, whereas the Puritans
“conceived of the American paradise as the fulfillment of scripture prophecy.”
(pg. 137)
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