Inequality and Love
Inequality is everywhere. But for John Winthrop, lay preacher and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, this unhappy fact is something to be embraced, not fixed. Rallying his group of early colonists to New England in the inspirational sermon “A Model of Christian Charity,” Winthrop argues that the infinite differences among people should be seen as evidence of God’s multifaceted power. These differences mean that people must depend upon each other rather than solely…
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Possession and Selflessness
In his sermon “A Model of Christian Charity,” John Winthrop sketches a rough utopian communism based on love and mutual dependence, one free from private property, devoid of personal investment, and abundant in public charity. To achieve this communism would require a selflessness most readers likely find impossible. In order to convince his original audience as they enter a trying new life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Winthrop, a firm Puritan, models his arguments on…
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Instinct, Law, and Scripture
John Winthrop’s “Model of Christian Charity” is remarkably free from the fear-mongering and moral injunctions typically associated with early American Puritanism. Though a short passage on God’s “wrath” comes near the end, Winthrop’s pressing insistence throughout the sermon is on “brotherly love,” “affection,” and “sympathy.” He does not define laws in the vein of the Ten Commandments, nor does he define the exact rules of a model Protestant community. Winthrop’s love and affection are…
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