The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop

“Seventeenth-century Massachusetts has thus become in retrospect a preposterous land of witches and witch hunters, of kill-joys in tall-crowned hats, whose main occupation was to prevent each other from having any fun and whose sole virtue lay in their furniture.”

In accordance with his scholarly project of Rehabilitating the Puritans as interesting and complex figures, Morgan directly challenges the stereotype of them. By showing the absurd extremes to which these stereotypes have gone, he suggests that the stereotypes are covering up a more interesting story about early colonial America.

“Puritanism was a power not to be denied. It did great things for England and for America, but only by creating in the men and women it affected a tension which was at best painful and at worst unbearable.”

The dilemma in the title of The Puritan Dilemma is that it demanded people labor in the world while attempting to live up to ideals so high that they knew they would always fall short. Morgan argues here that this inner tension was difficult for Puritans to navigate, but that it was a creative tension that moved them to have a positive impact on society.

“Puritanism meant many things. But to young John Winthrop, it principally meant the problem of living in the world without taking his mind off God.”

This quotation states the Puritans’ dilemma more explicitly. For key points, such as this one, Morgan uses repetition with slightly varied wording to make his themes clear. Here, he introduces the key theme of Isolation Versus Worldly Engagement, with people like Winthrop trying to decide how best to live a godly life in an imperfect world.