SOURCE: Baritz, Loren. “Political Theology: John Winthrop.” In City on a Hill: A History of Ideas and Myths in America, pp. 13-39. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964.

In the following excerpt, Baritz examines how “A Modell of Christian Charity” outlines not only Winthrop's argument for the journey to Massachusetts but also his thoughts about the meaning of the organic community.

It is a mistake to think that Winthrop's view of politics was separate from his other views. His intellectual system was a political theology; its purpose was the Christianization of the state. The westward-moving Puritans thought that they had a special commission from God to establish a Zion in the wilderness, a commonwealth whose foundation and purpose was Christian. It was the intention to establish a community made up of persons whose behavior at least would appear to be Christian. But in order to acknowledge man's inability...