Original Documents Relating to Hawthorne and his Framework of Faith
Original Documents Relating to Hawthorne and his Framework of Faith
Document with John Hathorne's signature
Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestor, John Hathorne, was active in the persecution of accused witches.(courtesy
of the Peabody Essex Museum)
Excerpt from "A Model of Christian
Charity" by John Winthrop (courtesy of The
Winthrop Society)
John Winthrop's famous address would have been readily available to Hawthorne.
In this passage, Winthrop offers a divine justification for the stratification
of society that recalls what Claudia Durst Johnson
writes about Hawthorne's vision of social harmony.
Excerpt from "A Model of Christian
Charity" by John Winthrop (courtesy of The
Winthrop Society)
In this passage John Winthrop offers the idea that Love is the "bond of
perfection," an idea that expresses the essential unity of all men, a unity
that can and often is willfully violated. Hawthorne characters like Arthur
Dimmesdale, Ethan Brand, Young Goodman Brown and others are examples of
human beings who deny this unity with others due to an overwhelming sense
of pride or a destructive concern with self. Winthrop, as the passage suggests,
understood this as the sin of Adam, or original sin.
Excerpt from "A Model of Christian
Charity" by John Winthrop (courtesy of The
Winthrop Society)
In this famous passage Winthrop exhorts his listeners to follow with whole hearts the spirit of Christian love and unity for they are to be a shining example for the rest of mankind. It is useful to contemplate how difficult a task he assigns them. On the one hand they are to be humble because only in being so will they be exalted.
Masthead from the Salem Gazette on December 7, 1830 Vol. XLIV--New Series Vol. III No. 98 featuring biographical sketch, "Mrs. Hutchinson," by Hawthorne. Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) was tried for her antinomian preaching that God's grace was the road to salvation; this was in conflict with the Puritan view that good works was the only path leading to salvation. (courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA)
"A Modell of Christian Charity" in The Winthrop Papers It is possible that Hawthorne read John Winthrop's famous address in a version that appeared very much like this one.
