What is the Enlightenment

In the first week's "Introduction to the Class," a power point presentation, which in case you missed it, began thus:

Although a defining feature of the United States is religious freedom, this was not always the case in this country. In the earliest days of settlement, one could be put to death for religious reasons (although the charge was usually "insubordination to temporal authority.")

Mary Dyer, the mother of six from a prominent family, was a case in point. Her offense was that she was a Quaker. Quakers had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony "on pain of death," but she repeatedly defied this law. She was hanged in the Boston Common on June 1, 1660. Her offense was to practice a faith tradition other than the "one true faith" as defined by the colony's founders, the Puritans.

While the Puritans came to this country for religious freedom, it was for their own religious freedom. According to historian Garry Wills, they "did not come to America to protect any variety in religious practice, or to assert the primacy of the individual's conscience. Far from it. They came to set up the one true faith where corrupt versions of it could not intrude."

This week's reading focuses on the earliest days of this country's history. Although as we will see in this chapter while there may have been a "theocracy" in the Massachusetts Bay Colony other colonies experienced a great deal of religious diversity.

However, I want you to read this chapter by looking for clues regarding the nature of religious life in the early days of settlement and how it would later manifest itself in America's political life. For example, how did the idea of a covenant or the organizational structure of the Congregationalists in Massachusetts Bay Colony reflect the later political development of the United States?

However, this portion of the chapter you are to read also begins to focus on the religious diversity that was very much present in our earliest days. The question is often asked, Is America a Christian country? I think we see in this chapter that if we ask this question, we must also ask, If so, then what kind of Christianity do we mean?

We also will read about the emerging practice of religious revivals in the colonies, the largest of which was the Great Awakening, something you were introduced to in last week's video. What role did they play in pre-revolutionary America in religion and in politics?

Finally, this chapter brings us to the Enlightenment. What was it? What impact did it have on this emerging country?

I also want you to develop your own questions and to highlight what you think are the most important concepts in this assigned reading.

Don't forget to look for one article in the news about religion and politics to throw into the mix of your discussions.

Disregard the chapter, as it will not be included. Please find other resources also follow directions in finding article.

Write THREE different 250 words discussions related to topic.