Poetry's Sin
Cotton Mather was a puritan in New England. He was also a minister making him socially and politically influential. Due to his amount of power and influence, he used his voice to speak out on sin and entertainment. Puritans believed that any form of entertainment that isn't done in the lord's name was a sin.
A puritan believed that entertainment of any kind was evil. According to puritans, if you are not in church praising the lord then you are sinful and praising the devil. Cotton Mather said no to choose "sauce, rather than food", here he was stating the in-importance of any form of art or expression. If it does not praise the lord then it is not needed and much less recommended. These are the things he was teaching the other puritans as a minister. Puritans followed the bible's every word and listened to the minister because he "knew best". Cotton told his followers, "preserve the chastity of your soul" after he said that any form of entertainment was a sin. Here he offered the congregation a chance to save themselves though becoming perfect Christians and thus keeping themselves pure.
As a minister he also had to use a rhetorical device to engrave this into his congregation's heads. One of his methods was pathos, he made them feel guilty. Mather said, "sickly appetite for the reading of poems" here he made all who enjoyed poems feel guilty for it. His method of unification of the people of his church was to guilt them into praising God. Mather told them that if they [the congregation] didn’t praise God then they were praising the devil, which only made them scared and guilt even more than they already were.
Cotton Mather was an important and influential figure during the late 1600’s and early 1700’s who spoke on entertainment as a sign of the devil’s temptation. Similar to now, guilt causes temptation (sometimes for good, sometimes for bad) and it is used to convince people to do something, however times have changed. One example, hair styles, it isn’t poetry, however it is still a form of expression, if one doesn't have a good hair line they're made fun of. Meanwhile back in the late 1600's cotton balls of hair symbolized a kind of wealth and if you didn't have one you'd be ridiculed for it.
A puritan believed that entertainment of any kind was evil. According to puritans, if you are not in church praising the lord then you are sinful and praising the devil. Cotton Mather said no to choose "sauce, rather than food", here he was stating the in-importance of any form of art or expression. If it does not praise the lord then it is not needed and much less recommended. These are the things he was teaching the other puritans as a minister. Puritans followed the bible's every word and listened to the minister because he "knew best". Cotton told his followers, "preserve the chastity of your soul" after he said that any form of entertainment was a sin. Here he offered the congregation a chance to save themselves though becoming perfect Christians and thus keeping themselves pure.
As a minister he also had to use a rhetorical device to engrave this into his congregation's heads. One of his methods was pathos, he made them feel guilty. Mather said, "sickly appetite for the reading of poems" here he made all who enjoyed poems feel guilty for it. His method of unification of the people of his church was to guilt them into praising God. Mather told them that if they [the congregation] didn’t praise God then they were praising the devil, which only made them scared and guilt even more than they already were.
Cotton Mather was an important and influential figure during the late 1600’s and early 1700’s who spoke on entertainment as a sign of the devil’s temptation. Similar to now, guilt causes temptation (sometimes for good, sometimes for bad) and it is used to convince people to do something, however times have changed. One example, hair styles, it isn’t poetry, however it is still a form of expression, if one doesn't have a good hair line they're made fun of. Meanwhile back in the late 1600's cotton balls of hair symbolized a kind of wealth and if you didn't have one you'd be ridiculed for it.
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