A Model of Christian Charity- A City Upon a Hill

When the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company first came to the New World, they were read a sermon by John Winthrop called A Model of Christian Charity before they had landed in their new home. In the sermon, he had implored his fellow puritans to act as though they lived in “a city upon a hill.” He knew that the Puritans living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony would be under the close scrutiny of others looking on the New World. The belief that the Puritans should act as though they were the model of the perfect colony helped shape the America that became the one it is today.

John Winthrop was born in 1587 in the town of Groton, Suffolk, England. After an unremarkable childhood, he graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1605 and became a Puritan with a natural talent for law. He wrote A Model of Christian Charity while on the Arbella to warn his fellow Puritans that should they fail to set a good example, they would bring shame to their God and faith. Winthrop often looked to the bible for wisdom, but occasionally he looked to Thomas Aquinas’s discussion of charity as a need for love and friendship in this close-knit community (Schweitzer, p.4). Once Winthrop became govenor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, he used this influence to assert his idea of “a city upon a hill.”

The need for the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company to be the model for their fellow Puritans was essential for the influence they held over the other immigrants to the New World. If they had failed in their goal to be the perfect society, they would have been lost to history as a failed social experiment. John Winthrop’s need for his Puritan society to be flawless led to the further settlement and eventual creation of our nation.


Sources Cited:

Schweitzer, Ivy. "John's Winthrop's "Model" of American Affiliation." Early American Literature 40.3 (Nov. 2005): 441-469. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. King Library, San Jose, CA. 31 Aug. 2009 .