In the writings of Puritan Americans Cotton Mather, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson, we find detailed descriptions of experience which shine a light on the relationship between those details and the authors' belief in God and his will in the world. This study will examine that relationship, and will consider alternative explanations to the authors' religious interpretations.
In the poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband," Bradstreet employs her faith to move from an examination of the joy of her marriage to an appreciation of her belief that that marital happiness is but a sign and a beginning of what will be eternal bliss with him in Heaven;
Then while we live, in love let's so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever (Bradstreet 97).
When Bradstreet writes "when we live no more," she is referring only to the earthly existence of her husband and herself. Her faith tells her that the love she is experiencing with her husband is a sign of God's love on earth, as well as a sign that the marriage is a blessing for which she is properly grateful.
Of course, a non-believer's interpretation might be that the marriage is not a sign of God's will in the world at all, but is merely the result of two human beings in a big and cold universe who are clinging to one another in order not to be alone. Such a view would also hold that one reason that love between humans is so sweet and poignant is that it takes place in a universe which is completely indifferent to such a small and insignificant connection between two beings who know they are mortal.
In another poem, Bradstreet goes even further into the mystery of faith when she sees the burning of her house as an expression of God's unfathomable will:
I blest His name that gave and took,
That laid my goods now in the dust,
Far be it that I should repine (Bradstreet 100).
In these lines, Bradstreet is essentially saying that everything that hap...