Role Of God In Puritan Literature

The Puritans were not shy people when it came to their faith, and it was evident in their literary work. Whenever you read Puritan literature you can’t help but notice that God played a heavy role in their lives. This role however, did change according the different life experiences for each author. There was Jonathan Edward who portrayed a powerful God full of wrath, in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” during the Great Awaking. Then there was Edward Taylor who portrayed a loving God in his poem “Meditation 8 (First Series),” while Mary Rowlandson portrayed a merciful God in her story “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” The role of God is evident in each of their text, yet we are given three different interpretations of the role God played in the Puritan lives. Jonathan Edward portrays to us a God who is full of a fierce fury and who is, at any moment, ready to release His wrath upon the sinners of the earth. In his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he gives us a gruesome picture of God holding the …show more content…
In the third and forth paragraph of the poem Taylor discusses how the bread of life will not satisfy man, and it was not until Jesus crucifixion that the eternal bread of life was made (292.) At the end of the poem Taylor says if we eat of heaven white loaf we may live in eternity with God (293.) Taylor is pointing out that God loves us so much that He sent His only son to die for us. That God is willing to forgive past sins in order spend eternity with us in heaven. Taylor portrays God’s role as being loving not condemning, which is the direct opposite of Jonathan Edwards interpretation of God. Then there is Mary Rowlandson who illustrates the role of a merciful