sociology
Puritan “Ethos” is a simply translated into Puritan “World Views”. So in the discussion about Puritan “Ethos” you learn a great deal about their ideological and physical beliefs. The basic roots of the ideas have great common sense and good intentions in mind. The ideas were ground breaking and could theoretically work in a perfect world. This is wherein lies the problem. But, first we must look at their ideas and their goals which they were trying to attain. The Puritan “Experiment” is, simply put, an “effort to join abstract theory with practical experience, to seek perfection in a decidedly imperfect world” (pg 54). With this in mind, it is clear the amount of discrepancies will occur while using this blue print, therefore bringing to light the main problem, contradiction. When the Puritans made it to the New World, they were trying to “create a set of government machinery which would represent both the highest ideals and the meanest expediencies of life in the new world” (pg 54). They tried to set this up but failed because quite simply austere contradiction. The other aspect that was a downfall for the Puritan code of beliefs was the very dramatic or eccentric beliefs. Puritans thought that “God had chosen an elite to represent Him on earth and to join Him in Heaven” (pg.48). Although this is complex, the general idea was to restore the church to the simplicity it had known in the days of the apostles.