The Puritan Idea of Freedom

True freedom "is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority"

-John Winthrop

When I stumbled across this quote in Jim Cullen's The American Dream, I was confused.  Isn't our idea of freedom today to not have to be subjected to authority?  I feel as though the Puritans, although they thought they were free, really weren't free at all by today's standards.  They believed that freedom was defined by giving themselves completely to God, but, with that idea, they lost any other freedom they may have had by giving into the idea that their destiny was preordained. If nothing you do is going to change the outcome of a situation and never could have done so, then you are not free.  You are a game piece with an already decided list of movements.  You have no actual choice.


The Puritans seemed to also be shackled by fear and judgement.   They lived in a constant fear that they might not be going to heaven.  Besides providing a constant state of anxiety, which cannot be healthy, they were forced by their fear to act a certain way, do certain things.  Simply because they were afraid of their destiny, they acted as though they knew what it was.  Their fear gave them no choice.  Therefore, the Puritans had no free will at all.  Even if one wasn't afraid of one's destiny and felt as though they could act how they wished, judgement from their peers would put a stop to that.  In essence, because of their beliefe in a preordained future, and also their fear of it, the Puritans had no free will as it is thought of in today's world.