Puritan Dilemma, as Edmund Morgan

¶ … Puritan Dilemma, as Edmund Morgan describes it in his biography of JohnWinthrop, entails the paradox inherent in the Puritan requirement of living in the world without being of it.

The paradox furthermore entails that the Puritan seek salvation, while on the other hand a person is helpless to be anything other than evil. God is the only one with the power to give and effect salvation, while human beings are unable to find salvation for themselves. The paradox lies in the fact that people are obliged to search for the salvation that can never be found unless it has been preordained by God. This salvation was ordained before each person was born, and thus it is useless to search for it unless ithad been given in the first place. Another part of the paradox is that the world should be reformed in the image of God's kindom. On the other hand, the world is not curable; it is inevitable that the world is sinvul and evil. Also with regard to the world, Puritanism requires that a person is to work to the best of his or her ability, and that good things in the world are to be enjoyed as God's gift to people. Still, these pleasures are to be enjoyed only with the attention fixed entirely on God.

This is the dilemma with which John Winthrop struggled, and with which Morgan concerns himself in the biography. One of the manifestations of this dilemma in Winthrop's life is his desire to travel to the New World. The question was whether this travel was selfish, in his desire to separate himself from England, perceived as impure, or whether it was motivated by a desire to establish a purer community for Christ. Winthrop eventually came to the conclusion that travel was after all divinely inspired, and proceeded to the United States.

Once Winthrop dealt with the question of moving, the next problem was how to govern the colony. The concept of a covenant with God plays a role here. God's people are bound to him by a covenant, which leads to the idea that people among themselves should have a covenant regarding how to obey God's laws and how to deal with the world surrounding them. Thus, the church became integrated with the state as a single entity, functioning to perform the will of God on earth.

Another manifestation of the Puritan dilemma is the person of Roger Williams. According to Williams, it was necessary for each person to publicly renounce his or her connection with the Catholic Church and its errors. Nonetheless, Winthrop saw danger in Wiliams's ideas, as he realized that they would prompt a personal withdrawal from the world and into oneself. The danger in this is that such a complete withdrawal will ultimately lead to the belief that one's own vision of God is the only true version. Thus, while some withdrawal is necessary in order to maintain a holy lifestyle, Winthrop felt that it was still necessary to function within the world as it exists, and to maintain some connection to what others believe and think regarding God.

Another manifestation of the paradox is the confrontation with Anne Hutchinson. She promoted the ideals of Arminianism and Antinomianism. Arminianism was the specific paradigm that Winthrop was to deal with in this reagard. Arminianism entailed the belief that God could be influenced in order to secure salvation by preparing oneself for its receipt. Antinomianism is nearly the opposite of the above, entailing the belief that God's predetermined salvation grants permission to be however sinful one wishes. Goodness or sinfulness have no meaning in the yes of God. Thus the one philosophy holds that one group of persons should feel superior to another, while the latter is a form of nihilism. Both extremes however is not good for any society.

Finally, Winthrop's dilemma relates to the position of his established city towards to foreign states, perceived as more corrupt than the Puritan "City on the Hill" founded by Winthrop. Winthrop showed uncommon wisdom in his understanding that foreing policy had to incorporate at least some evils in terms of the corrupt world in order to suppress even worse ones. This understanding is closely related to Winthrop's understanding that the more extreme philosophies, such as separationism, could not function practically within the world. Thus Winthrop did not join the magistrates and deputies against all outlanders. He could thus not entirely support he separationism promoted by the more extreme forms of Puritanism promoted by Anne Hutchinson.

All of Winthrop's particular struggles with the above dilemmas are also a manifestation of the struggles of the United States as a whole. The definition of democratic America for example is the core of American politics. Winthrop struggled to find a definition for his newly founded state, and how this should be governed. Separationism is also a prominent theme, as this is what led to the revolution and finally the war that was the separation of the United States from Great Britain. Finally this is the aspect that would lead to the Civil War.