John Winthrop1588-1654

A Modell of Christian A Modell of Christian CharityCharity

John Winthrop Winthrop obtained a royal

charter along with other wealthy Puritans for the Massachusetts Bay Company (another name for the colony in present day Salem and Boston). He escorted a group of Puritans to the New World in 1630.

Winthrop was elected Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Aboard the Arabella Winthrop, with

hundreds of other Puritans, travelled aboard the Arabella to the New World.

While aboard, Winthrop wrote and delivered the sermon A Modell of Christian Charity to fellow passengers.

A Modell of Christian Charity “...For wee must consider that we shall be

as a citty upon a hill. The eies of all people are uppon us. Soe that if wee shall deale falsely with out God in this worke wee haue undertaken, and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a by-word through the world...”

A Modell of Christian Charity The previous words are a

vocational charge upon the community.

This parallels the tasks laid on the people of Israel who believed they had a specific duty to serve God.

Winthrop’s sermon gave rise to the widespread belief that America is God’s Country because metaphorically it is a city upon a hill.

Modern Uses On January 9, 1961

President-Elect John F. Kennedy quoted Winthrop in his address to the General Court of Massachusetts.

Ronald Regan used the image of a city upon a hill in his 1989 farewell speech to the nation.

Analysis of Modell of Christian Charity How does John Fitzgerald

Kennedy use the phrase “city upon a hill” to bolster 20th century values?

How does Kennedy’s address to the Massachusetts Court help answer the following essential question– How does the conception of faith as established by the Puritans affect Americans today?

Hint- you must write of the paradox explained yesterday, and the modern concept of “a city upon a hill”.