Inner-Worldly Individualism and the Institutionalization of Puritanism in Late Seventeenth-Century New England

Abstract

This paper argues that one important « moment » in the development of the modern notion of the ethically autonomous individual was predicated on a particular set of historical circumstances connected with the transformation of Puritanism in the late seventeenth century. These included : a) the introjection within the individual of a particular dimension of grace; b) the development of a new set of individual and collective identities; c) the emergence of the above as a result of the particular problems of institutionalizing Puritan salvational doctrines within the orders of the world. Argument is made that these developments can only be properly appreciated when treated as a particular instance of the articular instance of the articulation and institutionalization of charisma in society. Analysis concentrates on seventeenth-century New England Congregational Puritanism as a paradigmatic case of the institutionalization of sectarian or ascetic-Puritanism. The problems of the early communities of « visible saints » to construct a polity based on « grace are analysed in terms of the particular contradictions inherent to Puritan ideas of grace as a charismatic model for social and political organization