Modernity And Secular Salvation

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Modernity and Secular Salvation According to historian Charles Sellers, “the central characteristic of the modern ‘epoch’…was the increasing importance of autonomous individuals and the growing faith that men could win secular salvation – wealth and happiness – through individual enterprise”. According to this definition the colonies of Virginia (circa 1607-1624) were more modern than those of Massachusetts Bay (circa 1630-1648). The reason for this discrepancy is both economic and social. When the economic systems of both colonies are examined there are wide variances in their base. While Massachusetts Bay utilized more of a subsistence economy, growing enough food for their community and without a concern for wealth, Virginia’s agricultural industry was commercial and geared toward bringing in huge profits. The founding of Virginia was an attempt to reap the material rewards of the New World. Therefore the settlers of Virginia mostly grew tobacco for export and depended on the money they made from these exports for subsistence. The hunger to earn more and more profits gave the settlers the motivation to improve their methods and drove the demand for slaves in that area. All of these gains added to the wealth and supposedly the happiness of those in the upper echelons of Virginian society. Meanwhile the Puritans had come to the New World to establish and grow their faith, not to indulge in the material pleasures of the New World. Another distinct difference between these two colonies is the social makeup of the colonies themselves. Massachusetts Bay was founded by the Puritans who came to the new world as families in an effort to create a “city on a hill that would stand as a beacon of righteousness for the rest of the Christian world” (Divine 30). These were deeply religious people, and land was handed out in “sufficient quantity to build a house

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