I have been thinking about something since Christmas, and if I was a graduate student in history, theology, or American studies I think it would make a fascinating dissertation.
The Orthodox see an unbreakable link between the veneration of Icons and the Incarnation of Christ. To deny one is to deny the other. Just look at the Puritans. They hated the holy Icons and today their descendants are the UCC and the UUC: Two groups that do not affirm that God became man and dwelt among us. Which means that in four hundred years the Puritans became Antichrist (1 John 4:3, 2 John 1:7).
So this would be the area of inquiry: Can a connection between the Iconclasm of the Puritans, which in their own day was manifested not only in destroying stained glass windows and statues, but also in banning Christmas (the principal feast of the incarnation) and severly punishing the bodies of sinners; is that Iconclasm traceable in their writing and practices all the way down to the Anticrhist of the UCC and the UUC?
Man, to be grad student with time and money to researh this!!! But I opened different doors in my life. And every time a door is opened another door is shut. Someone else, not me, will have to investigate this.
2 days ago
3 comments:
I had no idea that you hated the Puritans so much. I have a really hard time seeing how you link the Puritans and the Unitarians. It is the Reformed CHurch of America which is the closest descendent to the Puritans.
I don't hate the Puritans. I actually enjoy some of their writings. (Bunyan 's Plgrim's Progress was one of my fave books when I was a boy.) If it looks like I hate the Puritans then I did not write that very well. What I was trying to say is that the Iconoclasm of the Puritans lead to denominations that deny the incarnation.
I did not know that the Reformed Church of America is descended from the Puritans. I mentioned the UCC and the UUC because they are the only denomination I knew of as claiming descent from the Puritans.
That the Puritans in New England became Unitarians is a matter of history. You can read it in Chapter 2 of "Unitarianism in America: A history of its Origin and Development" by George Cooke (1902).
If you google "Puritan Unitarian" you will get lots and lots of info on the devolution from Puritanism to Unitarianism.
Now, taking what you've said about the Reformed Church in America, I think the propsed thesis could be expanded into an investigation of why the Iconpclasm of the Puritans bore the fruit of Antichrist in the UUC and the UCC but not in the RCA.
Jeff,
I just checked out the website of the RCA. (www.rca.org) It isn't descended from the Puritans. It is descended from the Reformed Dutch Protestant Church in New York (Charterd by William III in 1696.)
The Puritans were not Dutch. They were English and their movement was a reaction to the the Elizabethan Settlement. Essentially, they thought the Church of England was still to Catholic and they waned to purify it. It is a completly different Their history in the Massachusetts Bay Colony is completely different from the Dutch Settlers in New York (AKA New Amsterdam)
Were the Dutch Reformed influenced by the puritans? Probably. But theological influence is not the same as denominational lineage.
I'm really glad you mentioned the RCA. If you hdn't I wouldn't have learned that they still op3erate under the authority of their 1696 charter and are the oldest corporation in the USA. This might come in handy if I ever make it on to a tv quiz show.
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