The Jeremiad and Mary Rowlandson

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The Jeremiad and Mary Rowlandson

• August 14, 2008

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What is Jeremiad?

• SEVERAL DEFINITIONS
• Literary Dictionary Jeremiad is either
  a prolonged lamentation or a prophetic warning
  against the evil habits of a nation, foretelling
  disaster.
• Is usually found in moralistic texts that condemn
  a society for its wickedness and thus prophesize
  its downfall (wikipedia.org)
• John Winthrop describes it as a sermon that seeks
  to unify people by creating tension between ideal
  social life and its real manifestations
  (http//www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/149/149syllabus
  5jeremiad.html)
• In other Words
• we commit sins because of societys bad habits
  and the morals that it has (I.e social moral
  evils). Jeremiad is thus a lamentation of
  societies doom, which is seen as a just
  punishment
• -can either be in prose, captivity narratives
  such as Rowlandson, or any other form of poetry.

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More on Jeremiad

• The jeremiad works when one recognizes the
  tension between the public ideal (the sins we
  have committed because of society) and their
  individual efforts (what we do to repent those
  sins) and seeks to purify themselves to improve
  the community
• And we try to comprehend jeremiad because it
  has a role in the construction and critique of
  public life, that is, in the society that we live
  in (http//www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/149/149sylla
  bus5jeremiad.html)
• The term derives from the prophet Jeremiah and
  Book of Lamentations.
• In fact, Puritans strongly believed in
  following/worshipping what was commanded to them
  in the Bible. They were not swayed by idolatry
  (worshiping of images, idols, etc.)

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Discussion

• What elements of the jeremiad do you see in Mary
  Rowlandsons account?

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Jeremiad Structure

• THREE PART DIVISION
• Doctrine/Biblical text
• People are pursued for their sins, review of
  afflictions
• Typological interpretation
• Covenant
• Announcement of laws and reasons
• lessons
• Uses
• Describes how doctrine related to New England way
  of life
• Proposed scheme for reformation
• Threatened more judgment if the listeners/readers
  failed to follow the advice

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Jeremiad Structure, cont.

• Increase Mathers wrote several sermons in
  jeremiad fashion. He also edited Rowlandsons
  account.
• There are several examples in the text which
  evoke elements of the jeremiad
• P. 67 Lots Wife comparison
• P. 82 Daniels Story comparison

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History of Jeremiad

• Ceremonial of the fast day
• Ministers gave sermons that called for reform as
  they identified sins and the following terrors if
  the people did not repent
• Election sermons
• In the spring when officers were sworn into
  office and oaths taken
• Ministers would give a sermon as a review of
  recent afflictions and the possibility of new
  growth (Miller, The New England Mind)
• 2nd Generation (1660-1690) thought of jeremiad as
  a distinct form
• Ministers reputation based on the skill with
  which he could devise prognostications of a
  mounting disaster (Miller)
• Circulation of jeremiads in print during
  1660-1690
• virtually the only works for which there was a
  domestic sale (Miller)

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Notable Jeremiads

• Trace the forming of the jeremiad as early as the
  late 1640s with the writings of Thomas Shepard
  (preacher) and John Cotton (scholar)
• Theme first fully set by Michael Wigglesworth in
  1662, in poetry, Gods Controversy with
  New-England
• Samuel Danforth in 1671, A Brief Recognition of
  New England Errand into the Wilderness
• Increase Mathers in 1676, A Brief History of the
  Warr with the Indians in New-England
• Synod gathering of churches in 1679, Result
• Digest of previous inventories
• Construed as the climax of an emerging ritual
• Admitted in its existence that the form had
  become a stereotype
• First indication during 1680s that that
  listeners were getting bored with jeremiad form

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Discussion

• What contemporary examples of the jeremiad can
  you think of?

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Ronald Reagan

• Ronald Reagans February 5th Address to the
  Nation on the Economy
• Looking back
• I regret to say that we're in the worst economic
  mess since the Great Depression.
• What's happened to that American dream of owning
  a home?
• Covenant breaking
• That didn't bother us. But if we look back at
  those golden years, we recall that even then
  voices had been raised, warning that inflation,
  like radioactivity, was cumulative and that once
  started it could get out of control.

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Ronald Reagan, cont.

• Maintaining hope
• But rather will try to explain where we are, how
  we got there, and how we can get back.
• It's time to recognize that we've come to a
  turning point. We're threatened with an economic
  calamity of tremendous proportions, and the old
  business-as-usual treatment can't save us.
  Together, we must chart a different course.
• American Exceptionalism
• We will restore the freedom of all men and women
  to excel and to create. We will unleash the
  energy and genius of the American people, traits
  which have never failed us.
• Puritan Ideals and Repentance
• We can leave our children with an unrepayable
  massive debt and a shattered economy, or we can
  leave them liberty in a land where every
  individual has the opportunity to be whatever God
  intended us to be.
• http//www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid43
  132