THE IMPACT OF “A CITY UPON A HILL” ON SHAPING AMERICAN CULTURE AND VALUES

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between Puritanism and American culture. It displays why this two cultures are often correlated with one another and the impact that Puritan culture have had on the other cultures. The importance of studying the Puritan legacy upon America is because it is crucial to understand the culture of a nation, thus to know and to understand the language of that nation. Therefore studying the influence of Puritanism in America makes it more facile to approach the language. This religious group, which was influenced by religious and political upheavals of the Europe, especially England, of the seventeenth century, moves to the New World. They brought new ideas and a new manner of life. Their simple, religious life and their vision of the world would shape the standpoints of the New Continent. Values such as individualism, exceptionalism, the values of the self-s (self-reliance, self-improvement), and their attitudes towards hard work and education serve as the core values of America today. Hence, this study makes an analogy of the same values being represented during seventeenth century Puritans and modern Americans. It describes the reflection of those values on American society and the changes, if there is any, that have these values have undergone through time. It draws the similarities between Protestant and American values.