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Activities: Context Activities The Doctrine of Weaned Affections: In Search of Spiritual Milk  Back to Context Activities
One of the most important theological doctrines for many Puritans is what has been called the "doctrine of weaned affections." This doctrine holds that individuals must learn to wean themselves from earthly attachments and instead make spiritual matters their priority. Obviously, inappropriate earthly attachments included material possessions such as one's home, furniture, clothing, and valuables. But the doctrine of weaned affections could also proscribe things that we do not usually think of as incompatible with spirituality, such as a love of natural beauty, a dedication to secular learning, or even an intense devotion to one's spouse, children, or grandchildren. According to orthodox Puritan theology, anything tied to this world--even relationships with family members--should be secondary to God. While the idea of weaned affections may have been emotionally practical given the seventeenth century's high mortality rates, it was still a difficult doctrine to live by. Mary Rowlandson's bitterness about being separated from her home, family, and domestic comforts attests to the power these attachments held for her, even though she insists that she welcomes and has been purified by God's testing of her spiritual commitment. Anne Bradstreet's vivid poetic evocations of her love for her family and her home also offer evidence of the tensions created by the doctrine of weaned affections. Her reflections on her relationships with nature, her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and even her house are poignantly balanced by her reminders to herself that her affections belong elsewhere. Implicit in the language of "weaned affections" is the imagery of breast feeding, nursing, and weaning. In fact, Puritan ministers frequently employed breast and breast feeding imagery in their sermons and poetry, appropriating this female bodily function as a metaphor for proper spiritual nourishment and dependence upon God. In the Puritans' symbolic understanding, the Bible was spiritual milk, and the minister was the breast at which his congregation suckled. Male ministers were comfortable figuring themselves as feminine "breasts" because the metaphor granted them a kind of spiritual, parental authority as vessels for God's word and providers of sustenance for their congregants. The Peter and Mary Tufts gravestone (Malden, Massachusetts, 1702) exemplifies the willingness of Puritan men to appropriate breast imagery to spiritual ends, featuring an obviously male, mustached figure with breasts. Puritan children were taught from an early age about the importance of renouncing earthly nourishment and affection in favor of "spiritual milk." One of the first texts written and printed for an audience of children, John Cotton's Spiritual Milk for Babes, Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments for their Souls Nourishment (England, 1646; Boston, 1656), emphasized the doctrine of weaned affections. Spiritual Milk offered a formal catechism for children to memorize, imparting a sense of the corruption and depravity of the earthly human condition through a series of ritualized questions and answers: Q: Are you then born a Sinner?Cotton's Spiritual Milk was often included in the New England Primer, a popular Puritan textbook designed to promote children's literacy and religious training. The Primer itself worked to instill in children a sense of the transitory nature of earthly existence and the necessity of focusing on spiritual concerns. Teaching the alphabet through moral aphorisms, the Primer preached "G: As runs the Glass / Man's life doth pass" and "Y: Youth forward slips / Death soonest nips." Puritans thus learned early that, since life on earth was fleeting, they should not become attached to things of this world and should instead reserve their most intense affections for the spiritual realm. Questions
[1219] Anonymous, The Mason Children: David, Joanna, Abigail (1670), courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, 1979.7.3. This rare early New England portrait of children offers insight into the merchant class. Children were considered small, sinful adults--hence the adult head-to-body ratio, clothing, and posture. The lack of sensuality reflects the religious mores and plain style of the time. [1355] Joseph Badger, Faith Savage Waldo (ca. 1750), courtesy of the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts. Originally a house, ship, and sign painter, Joseph Badger took up portraiture in Boston around 1745. Here Faith Savage Waldo (Mrs. Cornelius Waldo, 1683-1760) holds a book, perhaps signaling her piety as well as her social position, which is reinforced by the quality of her dress and drapes. [4643] Anonymous, Detail of the left panel of the Peter and Mary Tufts Stone, Malden, Massachusetts (1702), courtesy of Wesleyan University. This detail from the Peter and Mary Tufts gravestone, erected in Malden, Massachusetts, around 1702, features a male figure with breasts. Puritan ministers frequently employed breast and breastfeeding imagery in their sermons and poetry, appropriating this female bodily function as a metaphor for proper spiritual nourishment and dependence upon God. [6749] Anonymous, New England Primer (1807), courtesy of the Gettsyburg College Special Collections. The New England Primer (first published in Boston in 1690) was a popular Puritan textbook designed to promote children's literacy and religious training. [7179] Emory Elliot, Interview: "Winthrop and the Puritan Motivations for Settlement" (2001), courtesy of Annenberg Media. Elliott, professor of English (University of California, Riverside), discusses John Winthrop and the rallying of the Puritans to work together. |
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