Power and Grace of God

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Recommended: A narrative of the captivity and restoration of mary rowlandson summary

The Puritans held faith close to their hearts and believed in the overall righteousness and power of God, believing that He had the power to show gratitude when given the proper glory and also to show his wrath if the Puritans were not showing strong faith. They believed in predestination, which is the theory that God decided who would be saved into the kingdom of heaven or who would be deemed to suffer in Hell before each person was even born. Mary Rowlandson experienced what many people consider the greatest test of a strong Puritan woman’s faith and devotion to God. At the beginning of her captivity, she poses the questions, why did this happen to me, why did you do this to my family, and is this some sort of punishment? In numerous sections of the narrative, Mary Rowlandson states that she feels remorse for not acting in the way in which Puritans must act before God, for example, “The next day was the Sabbath. I then remembered how careless I had been of God’s holy time,”1 which leads her to believe that the invasion and her captivity by the Native Americans, or what she refers to as “Barbarous Creatures,”2 “Hell-hounds,”3 and “Savages,”4 is God’s way of punishing the Puritans. Mary Rowlandson’s experiences throughout her captivity shows that her strong Puritan Faith and belief in God can help her get through any situation, from the attack on 1Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, ed. By Neil Salisbury, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 74. 2Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, ed. By Neil Salisbury, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 70. 3Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, ed. By Neil Salisbury, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 27. 4Mary Rowlandson, The S... ... middle of paper ... ...y found her freedom. Because she thought that God had inflicted his wrath on the Puritans for not showing 13Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, ed. By Neil Salisbury, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 74. strong faith, she focused on showing his love for him from then on out. She looked at the past three months as a test of her faith and as an opportunity to repent for her sins. Mary Rowlandson’s experiences throughout her captivity demonstrated that faith and belief would alone be enough to overcome the torment of being held captive, as well as describe how the Native Americans lived and how she and other Puritans viewed their lifestyle, and also how the outcome of the war and captivity would change the way Puritans lived and believed in the Lord for the remainder of their lives. ing his love for him from then on out. She looked at the past

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