Puritans = which denomination?

[Esdra]

Hi all,

which denomination did the Puritans have? - The guys with the Mayflower I mean arriving 1620 in present day US!
Where they Reformed Evangelicals, meaning Calvinists? Something similar like the Presbyterians nowadays?

in Christ,

 

[nhylan]

Hi all,

which denomination did the Puritans have? - The guys with the Mayflower I mean arriving 1620 in present day US!
Where they Reformed Evangelicals, meaning Calvinists? Something similar like the Presbyterians nowadays?

in Christ,

In New England, the modern Congregational Churches are largely the inheritors of Puritanism. If you drive through many New England, many town centers are either built around Congregational churches or the churches are a major part of the center of town. In the town I grew up in, north of Boston, the Congregational Church, in addition to worship served as the town’s meeting place in the 17th century. The surrounding towns are very similar. One has a baptist church where you would expect a Congregational church but i think that’s due to the Congregational church moving and the Baptists buying the building.

 

[Contarini]

Hi all,

which denomination did the Puritans have? - The guys with the Mayflower I mean arriving 1620 in present day US!
Where they Reformed Evangelicals, meaning Calvinists? Something similar like the Presbyterians nowadays?

in Christ,

The Puritans were originally a movement within the Church of England. By 1662 most of them had been kicked out of the C of E (though there remain Puritan-friendly elements in Anglicanism). The denominations that derive from Puritanism would be primarily Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists, though not all Baptists are of Puritan origin and many have moved far away from their Puritan origins.

The New England Puritans were Congregationalists. Presbyterians also have ties to the state church of Scotland, which was allied to the more moderate Puritans.

Most Congregationalists today are very liberal, though not all. The Christians who are most closely related to the Puritans theologically would be conservative Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. However, there are also now nondenominational churches and small Reformed denominations that adhere to a kind of neo-Puritan theology.

 

[Esdra]

The Puritans were originally a movement within the Church of England. By 1662 most of them had been kicked out of the C of E (though there remain Puritan-friendly elements in Anglicanism). The denominations that derive from Puritanism would be primarily Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists, though not all Baptists are of Puritan origin and many have moved far away from their Puritan origins.

The New England Puritans were Congregationalists. Presbyterians also have ties to the state church of Scotland, which was allied to the more moderate Puritans.

Most Congregationalists today are very liberal, though not all. The Christians who are most closely related to the Puritans theologically would be conservative Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists. However, there are also now nondenominational churches and small Reformed denominations that adhere to a kind of neo-Puritan theology.

Thank you, you two.
So, from the theology they were more Calvinistic, right? I don’t mean the present day congregationalists, but the Puritans of the 17th century.

 

[Contarini]

Thank you, you two.
So, from the theology they were more Calvinistic, right? I don’t mean the present day congregationalists, but the Puritans of the 17th century.

Yes, I think it’s fair to say that the Puritans were Calvinists. There were groups even in the 17th century who derived from the Puritans to some degree but rejected Calvinism–the General Baptists, for instance (though you could also argue that they were influenced by the Anabaptists), and the Quakers. But Puritanism is very much a Calvinist tradition.

Edwin