Block #4 Puritan Influence

After reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's, "Minister's Black Veil" and Jonathan Edward's, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," various similarities and differences can be noted, especially toward the attitudes of sin, guilt, and conditions necessary for salvation.

Hawthorne and Edwards's attitudes toward sin throughout both of the selections read were very similar and different in other. Hawthorne saw sine as a weight on his shoulder. A shadow of impurity following him everywhere. Hawthorne felt that his sin needed to be shared with the public, prayed over, and would then be removed. Unlike Hawthorne, Edwards viewed sinners and sin as the greatest upset to God. Although according to Edwards sin could be kept personal, it was up to the sinner to ask God for forgiveness. Both viewed sin as forgivable in accordance to the Holy Bible, but thought that committing the same more...