논문 / 토마스 페인의 계몽사상과 퓨리터니즘 = Thomas Paine's Enlightenment and Puritanism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Enlightenment thinking of Europe and the Puritanism that developed in New England were the two main trends of thought that dominated the intellectual mainstream of the 18th century in America. The convergence of Enlightenment and Puritanism was historically inevitable. But can Enlightenment and Puritanism, which means reason and revelation respectively, come together in harmony? Although blending of the Enlightenment and Puritanism may seem incompatible we see, however, the fusion of these two in this period. In the context of the intellectual history of America, the American Revolution was a fusion of reason and revelation. Thomas Paine, who greatly inspired the American Revolution through his Common Sense, was certainly a part of this intellectual tradition. He was an Enlightenment thinker and a strong advocate of rationalism and progress. He accurately understood the Puritan tradition and the Christian world view of the American people. He accepted the republican theory of government propagated by Locke and was able to appropriately incorporate it into a religious context. In other words, he effectively fused the rational political thought of the 18th century with Puritanism. In Paine`s Common Sense, science and religion struck a balance and herein lies the uniqueness of Paine. He sought a fusion of what may seem like opposite elements: science and religion, and the ideology of the elite and the language of the masses. He proved to revolutionary America that such seemingly conflicting elements can be united under one purpose. Paine may have foreseen that young America was destined, in its history thereafter, to an incessant seeking of a union of opposing elements. Paine showed the American people how to overcome such a fate and succeed in fusing seemingly opposite elements.