We've established that we owe our status as a highly educated nation to the Puritans. Now we are moving onto the later Colonial Period up to the Revolution. As established, much of the Ivy League was built by Puritans. Other well known schools still in existence today were built by other religious groups during the Colonial Period. Our national heritage is one of religious diversity, as many groups from Europe immigrated to the New World during the Colonial Period.
Life was also fraught with danger in the American Colonies. While in parts of New England, it was common for people to live into their sixties and have several children who would also live into their sixties, in the rest of the Colonies, disease and minor battles with local Native American Tribes were a way of life. Many have heard the saying "There's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole". The essence of that is true regarding frontier life. And the American Colonies were the frontier for North America in the 17th and 18th centuries.
One cannot talk about the Colonial religious culture without talking about the Great Awakenings. In the 1730s and 1740s, itinerant preachers such as John Edwards and George Whitefield would travel through the Colonies preaching a return to a purer form of religion. Those who would seek religious revival in the Modern United States often refer to these two men, for all the pious success they had in preaching in the Colonies.
By the 1760s, the stage was more than set for a philosophical showdown between the Colonists, who were mostly self made and devout in faith to a greater degree than their English counterparts, and the Aristocracy in England. In part 4, I'm covering the religious philosophy behind the Declaration of Independence, as well as the effect of Christian Philosophy on the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.
Life was also fraught with danger in the American Colonies. While in parts of New England, it was common for people to live into their sixties and have several children who would also live into their sixties, in the rest of the Colonies, disease and minor battles with local Native American Tribes were a way of life. Many have heard the saying "There's no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole". The essence of that is true regarding frontier life. And the American Colonies were the frontier for North America in the 17th and 18th centuries.
One cannot talk about the Colonial religious culture without talking about the Great Awakenings. In the 1730s and 1740s, itinerant preachers such as John Edwards and George Whitefield would travel through the Colonies preaching a return to a purer form of religion. Those who would seek religious revival in the Modern United States often refer to these two men, for all the pious success they had in preaching in the Colonies.
By the 1760s, the stage was more than set for a philosophical showdown between the Colonists, who were mostly self made and devout in faith to a greater degree than their English counterparts, and the Aristocracy in England. In part 4, I'm covering the religious philosophy behind the Declaration of Independence, as well as the effect of Christian Philosophy on the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution.
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