Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Portent And Providence- An Investigation Of The Puritan Habit Of Deciphering The Will Of God In The Natural And The Preternatural With Special Reference To "The Scarlet Letter" By Nathaniel Hawthorne, Milton Sernett

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper has something to do with both Puritan history and Nathaniel Hawthorne. As originally conceived it was entitled The Puritan Prolapsis: A Study in the Conception and Collapse of the "Holy Commonwealth," with Special Reference to the Interpretation of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was to have been an attempt to isolate the basis, both experiential and theological, for the "Holy Commonwealth" and to determine what undermined the colony, especially as to the tension between the individual and the society in New England. However, after a good deal of research, it was found that such a problem would force a consideration …