1. Or The Age of Enlightenment The Age of Reason The American Revolution
American Classicism Or
The Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Reason
The American Revolution

2. Differences Between Puritanism and Classicism
Part I
Differences Between Puritanism and Classicism

3. Dates
Puritanism
1620’s-1750’s
Classicism
1750’s-1820’s

4. Man is Mainly Interested in
Puritanism
The afterlife (predestination)
Classicism
His Earthly Life

5. Man is Concerned with his Role
Puritanism
Man’s role with God and Church
Classicism
Man’s role with Society and his Relationship with Other Man

6. Man Sought Guidance From
Puritanism
The Bible, Religious Leaders, Pious People
Classicism
Ancient Greece and Rome, Scientists, Philosophers, Thinkers.
Greco-Roman=Classicism

7. Believed that Men Were Puritanism
Focus on Difference: Men were good or evil, saved or doomed
Classicism Focus on Similarity: “All men are created Equal”

8. What’s Going on in the World
Part II
What’s Going on in the World

9. In Europe Centuries of War People are sick of it and want peace
Scientific Discoveries
The colonies have been (mostly) left on their own.

10. Sir Isaac Newton Jan 4, 1643 – Mar 31, 1727
Invented Calculus
3 laws of Motion
Theorized that Gravity is a Universal Law
Causes Religious Upheaval

11. Classicist View of Religion
Deism: Clockwork God: God set the world in motion and has been “hands off”
God gave Reason to Man
Man is a superior creature
Is Obligated to use the Gift of Reason
God created Natural Laws
Based on constants (rules)
Man could use reason (science) to discover these laws

12. What’s Going on in The (forgotten) Colonies
What do you think the “Pilgrims” were doing the whole time?
Animals Multiply
Farms get Bigger
Cottage Industries
Trade (Bootlegging)

13. Think about it
How do you think the colonists reacted to things like The Stamp Act and The Townsend Acts?

14. Puritans

15. Classic Thoughts
“The proper study of Mankind is Man”
-Alexander Pope

16. I think, therefore I am “cogito ergo sum” Classic Thought
-Rene Descartes

17. “Honesty is the best policy”
Man is facing a unique challenge; he must balance his religious beliefs with practical scientific findings.
*************Examples?
“Honesty is the best policy”

18. Man in Society Society is what elevates man above the animals
Social Contract
John Locke
Rights of Man
Thomas Hobbes
By using reason, man can make a great society
Common Needs and interests served

19. Part IV. Classicist Literature
Clear, Logical, Reasonable
Easily Understood by the Masses
About Politics and Philosophy
Writers were statesmen
Rooted in Reality

20. Types of Literature Evolved from the Puritan Journals Autobiographies
ex. The Autobiography of Ben Franklin
Evolved from the Puritan Journals

21. Types of Literature Evolved from the Puritan Sermons Speeches
Ex. Patrick Henry’s Speech to the Virginia Assembly, July 5, 1775.
Evolved from the Puritan Sermons

22. Types of Literature Evolved from the Puritan Poetry 3. Pamphlets
ex. “Common Sense”
“The American Crisis”
Evolved from the Puritan Poetry

23. Types of Literature 4. Political Documents
ex. “The Declaration of Independence”

24. Types of Literature 4. Political Documents
ex. The Articles of Confederation
Helped convince some states like New York to ratify the constitution
ex. The Federalist Papers
Helped people understand what The Constitution was all about