Posted: February 12th, 2025

A Comparison Of Ben Franklin And The Puritans Religion Essay

John Winthrop who was addressing the Massachusetts bay colony said “We shall be as a City upon a Hill and the eyes of all people are upon us therefore let us choose life.” The colonists were Puritans who split from the Church of England in an effort to establish a new society free from religious persecution, and so they believed that God was needed to be at the center of their lives. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, offered a scanty role for God, and he did not live his life in accordance with the tenets of religion. These fundamental religious differences were expressed through different ways of approaching life and bilivering, and their differing perceptions of God and humanity produced certain attitudes towards government, relationships, suffering, and scripture.

They also found out that only Christ was the only way of being saved, and those who did not believe in Christ were destined for hell (Wigglesworth 3). This belief that only God offers salvation and that humans are inherently sinful influenced their interaction because they also wanted their loved ones to be saved. Most interpersonal relationships had at least some spiritual element to them. For instance, Dane has mentioned that he was brought up by godly parents and that “my conscience was very apt to tell me of evils that I should not do” (Dane 6). They also consoled each other with positive attributions of salvation, such as when Rowlandson and her son Joseph read bible during their confinement (Rowlandson 18). Franklin, however, had strikingly contrasting view with the Puritans because, as he said, his religion did not have ‘the least mark of any of the distinguishing tenets of any particular sect’ (Franklin 35). Thus, in relations with others, virtue becomes essential, for he states that, “the importance of virtue did not lie in Christian and dogmas, or in bonuses and penalties to be received in the afterlife,” (Franklin 29). He involves himself in virtuous behaviors when dealing with people; however, he does not follow the strict tenets of any religion (Franklin 35).

Furthermore, the Puritans thought that God micro-managed the lives of people, which was quite different from the belief of Ben Franklin who considered God as uninvolved. This belief in divine presence meant that the Puritans had heightened symbolic explanations for everything that happened. This is evident in John Dane’s account where he claims divine providence when things are going well. For instance, John Dane was given some gold which he lost and decided to return, and he thanked God for the grace to resist the temptation of keeping the gold (Dane 7). He even imagines that a wasp stinging his thumb is another reminder from God and he exclaims, “God had found me out” (Dane 9). The Puritans thought that God was present in everything around them; even the simplest of things had deep symbolism, and it was the Puritans’ duty to decipher these messages properly. Franklin on the other hand was a deist through and through and believed God was indeed distant and had little influence with people’s lives (Franklin 26). To Franklin there was no Bible or Christianity; he argued that humans had to steer their own lives and better themselves (Franklin 37). He asserts control over his own life through phrases such as “I would conquer,” “I conceived,” “I considered,” and “my circumstances” (Franklin 32). He did not turn to the Bible for his answers, and he did not look at events as if they were divine providence, which is in stark contrast to the Puritans. These fundamental differences in how they approached God also resulted in antithetic approaches towards the interpretation of events in their lives.

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Tags: Benjamin Franklin, Colonial America, Deism, John Winthrop, Puritanism, Theology Assignment