Carl Degler discusses many of the importances of religion, education and the stereotypes that came along with them. The Puritans viewed the bible very differently from many Christians today. They felt that, “God sent you not into this world as a Play-House, but a Work-House.” In the years before the revolution, the Puritans had a theocracy and religion and education coincided. These were very important in Puritan society.

Puritans had a gloomy and sad outlook on life. They thought that God did not intend for them to enjoy things but rather that they must work for God in order for him to accept them. The stereotype of Puritans is that they are strict in their work and school and life and not enjoying themselves because it is viewed as sin. Degler rebuts this because of the numerous accounts of confessions in church of premarital sexual relations, inebriation and swearing. He shows that the Puritans were human and they did indulge in the luxuries of life and enjoy themselves even if their actions were considered sins.

Education and religion, in the seventeenth century, were one in the same. The schools and colleges were built around religion and learning the bible. Since the Puritans had a theocracy, people needed to become very educated in the Bible to obtain a high position in government and church. People primarily went to universities to become ministers or high church officials. As stated by a Puritan divine, “Ignorance is the mother (not of Devotion but) of Heresy.”

The Puritans were also in some ways, hypocrites. They had separated from the Anglican church but they did not allow anyone in their own society to disagree or break off from them. They shunned Anne Hutchinson for her ideals of being “filled with god” and not needing to go to church or have a church official to talk to God. She spoke out against the Christian church and was persecuted for her beliefs. The Puritans had very hypocritical views in their church because even though they broke off from a church and had different beliefs, they did not accept anyone who believed differently than them.

The Bible and religion were studied in the early schools of the Puritans. The first college in the United States was Harvard, and it was made for the highest learning available in the seventeenth century. The school was made to primarily teach ministers. Preparatory schools were made to prepare people who were to attend the college. Many colleges and universities were built after Harvard, also. Education was of the utmost importance to the Puritans because their society was based on religion and in order to understand their religion, they had to attend school. This is shown when Degler states, of the importance of Puritan education, “To the Puritans the education of ministers could be nothing less than the best learning of the day.”

Puritans took education and religion very seriously. Their lives were devoted to the understanding of the Bible and to work for God and not to indulge in happy lives. H.L. Mecken stated of Puritan lifestyle, “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” They regarded education highly and needed it to survive and taught religion in school in order to have educated ministers. Their views on religion were very hypocritical and strict, but not all people abode by the rules of the church which contradicts the Puritan stereotype of the not happy and fun forbidding life.