1.It took the Mayflower 66 days to cross the ocean. When you read Bradford's description of what awaited them in the first two paragraphs on the top of can you think of any comparable religious group TODAY that would be willing to take the risk of crossing the ocean, land in an unknown and threatening environment, and call it home? If not, why not?
2."Amid fears of religious decline and socioeconomic change, Puritans often resorted to a more insidious side of their theology, namely confronting the dangers of Satan and his minions. Witchcraft, demonic possession, curses and necromancy were theological no less than biblical realities, and they were regularly inserted into one social conflict after another, sometimes with terrifying results." Do you know of any examples in our society today of any of this? Are there still figurative "witch hunts?"
3."Once again, out of the supposed pit of pious decline, New England was recalled in the 1740s by a wave of religious excitement and revivalism, a movement that eventually came to be known as the Great Awakening." Is there another Great Awakening happening now in our country? If not, do you think one is needed? If so, what would it take?
4."Just as in Holland, the [West India] company preferred to follow a relaxed policy that would not make religion an issue of such difficulty or magnitude as to interfere with commerce and economic growth." What is the relationship between religion and commerce? In what ways have religion and commerce influenced each other today?
5."Colonial New York bustled not only with religions of all sorts, but also with those uninterested in the churches. Effective Christianization was thin. Does too much religious diversity result in all religions becoming "thin?"
6."Earliest settlers and administrators soon learned that the ‘blessings of liberty' also seemed to carry a few curses. Many mistook liberty for license and freedom for the equivalent of moral anarchy." Is this still true today for our society?
7."Here [in Philadelphia in 1794] the seeds were planted for what was to become the first independent black denomination in America: the African Methodist Episcopal Church." Martin Luther King, Jr. said in the 1968 that the Sunday morning was the most segregated hour of the week in our country. Why is that? Why is religion, Christianity if you will, still segregated?