In the Old World, Reformed Christians drew confidence from a moral and economic order shaped by thinkers such as John Calvin, whose Institutes (1559) emphasized disciplined vocation as a fruit of grace. Social historians like Max Weber, in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), and R. H. Tawney, in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926), later showed how thrift, steadiness, and prosperity became cultural indicators of God’s favor.
But in New England’s early settlements, the accounts of William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation (1630–1651) and John Winthrop’s Journal (1630–1649) reveal a different reality: starvation, disease, and loss struck the righteous and the unrighteous alike. To make sense of this, ministers like Thomas Shepard (The Works of Thomas Shepard, 1853), Increase Mather (A Discourse Concerning the Subject of Baptisme, 1675), and Jonathan Edwards (Religious Affections, 1746) shifted assurance away from outward prosperity toward inward regeneration—the seed of America’s later “born-again” spirituality.
Neither Europe’s confidence in prosperity nor America’s intense focus on conversion tells the whole story. Catholic teaching—from the Rule of St. Benedict (6th century), to Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae, to the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church—affirms that grace sanctifies both daily labor and interior renewal, without making either the measure of salvation. The Church rejects the extremes: equating blessing with wealth, or equating faith with emotional experience. This essay traces that historical journey across continents and shows how Catholic tradition gathers the valid insights of both Protestant worlds into a unified sacramental vision.
I. Europe Before the Atlantic Crossing
Long before the Pilgrims sailed, the Reformed Protestant world of Europe had developed a particular moral and theological rhythm. Salvation, in Calvinist teaching, depended entirely on God’s eternal decree, not on any human cooperation. Yet believers still sought reassurance that they were among the elect. Because good works were understood as the outward fruits of God’s regenerating grace, a disciplined and orderly life became a possible sign—not a cause—of having been chosen for salvation. Christians examined their conduct and prosperity not to earn heaven, but to discern whether God’s saving work was already present in them.
John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (Book III, ch. 24) reinforced this pattern by teaching that good works are the “effects and signs of that regeneration” which God alone produces in the saved. Reformed societies took this seriously: vocation became a spiritual calling, thrift a mark of grace, and orderly prosperity a reflection of divine purpose. Social historians such as Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism) and R. H. Tawney (Religion and the Rise of Capitalism) later showed how this theology translated into culture—where disciplined labor and worldly success came to be interpreted, not as pathways to salvation, but as outward confirmations that salvation had already occurred. In this way, the association between prosperity and salvation became deeply woven into the fabric of European Protestant life.
Max Weber, analyzing the cultural consequences of Reformed doctrine in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued that disciplined labor, thrift, and economic sobriety became not merely moral habits but sources of spiritual assurance. Because salvation in Calvinist theology depended entirely on God’s decree, believers sought visible signs that they belonged among the saved. Weber showed how vocational success and steady prosperity often served that psychological function. R. H. Tawney, in Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, similarly traced how Reformed piety shaped the commercial and civic life of England and the Dutch Republic, where outward blessing was frequently read as evidence of God’s saving favor.
Thus prosperity was never formally taught as a guarantee of heaven, nor as a theological proof of salvation. But in the lived experience of many European Protestants, the connection was emotionally strong and culturally pervasive. A well-ordered household, faithful labor, and the prosperity that often followed were taken as reassuring signs that God’s saving work was present in the soul. Believers did not say, “I am saved because I am wealthy,” but many did say, in effect, “My prosperity shows that God’s saving grace is in me.” In this way, visible order and success functioned as practical indicators of salvation—confirmations that one’s life reflected the favor of God.
II. When Providence Turned Hard: The New England Crisis
The Atlantic crossing shattered these assumptions.
William Bradford, governor of Plymouth, described the colonists’ arrival in stark language. In Of Plymouth Plantation, Book I, Chapter 9, he writes of finding “a hideous and desolate wilderness,” with “no friends to welcome them,” and facing sickness and starvation almost immediately. Half of the colony died in the first year.
In Massachusetts Bay, John Winthrop’s Journal records repeated trials—crop failures (1631, 1635), epidemics (1632, 1633), harsh winters, and shipwrecks that removed both supplies and manpower. Winthrop himself reflected on the difficulty of reading providence correctly: “The Lord hath more tried us with prosperity than with adversity,” yet adversity overshadowed much of the early decades.
European patterns no longer applied. The righteous suffered as intensely as anyone else. Prosperity or misfortune could no longer be taken as reliable indicators of God’s favor.
Perry Miller, in Errand into the Wilderness (1956), concluded that the Puritans entered the New World believing God would make His providence legible through their efforts, only to find that His purposes were more hidden than expected. Edmund S. Morgan, in Visible Saints, also showed how the absence of predictable providence forced Puritans to rethink the grounds of assurance.
The old European equation—order equaling favor—was failing.
III. The Rise of the Conversion Experience
In response, New England ministers articulated a new focus: internal regeneration.
Thomas Shepard, minister in Cambridge, Massachusetts, required each prospective member of his church to deliver a “relation of experiences,” a testimony recounting how God had awakened, humbled, and converted the heart. His sermons and writings (preserved in The Works of Thomas Shepard, ed. Evans, 1853) reveal a consistent message: assurance must be inward, not circumstantial.
Increase Mather, one of the most influential Puritan pastors of the late seventeenth century and a leading figure in Boston from the 1660s through the early 1700s, defended the conversion-centered model of church membership as essential for preserving a spiritually “pure” congregation. In his treatise A Discourse Concerning the Subject of Baptisme (1675), Mather insisted that only those who could give credible evidence of regeneration should be admitted to full communion. His preaching, delivered at the height of New England’s second generation, reinforced the shift from reading providence through outward prosperity to seeking assurance in the inward experience of saving grace. Edward Taylor’s devotional poetry, written in the same period, and later Jonathan Edwards’s theological works, continued this movement by turning attention away from external blessing and toward the transformation of the affections—the inner signs of God’s saving work.
Edwards’s Religious Affections (1746) argued that true conversion produced lasting changes in one’s desires, not merely emotional experiences or outward reform. Authentic Christianity meant the heart had been genuinely reordered toward God.
Thus the Puritans of America, unable to read providence reliably in external events, sought assurance in the profound inward work of grace—a theology that set the stage for the First Great Awakening and the entire trajectory of American evangelicalism.
IV. A Tale of Two Protestantisms
By the eighteenth century, two distinct Protestant temperaments existed on opposite sides of the Atlantic.
Europe produced a Protestantism rooted in civic order, disciplined labor, and confessional identity. The believer lived out faith through vocation and public morality. The church sanctified the rhythms of ordinary life.
America produced a Protestantism rooted in personal crisis, introspection, and conversion. The believer sought assurance in the internal witness of the Spirit. Faith was authenticated not primarily by civic order but by the story of personal transformation.
Historians such as Miller, Morgan, and T. H. Breen (The Puritan Experiment, 1976) demonstrate that this shift was not doctrinal innovation but pastoral necessity. The New England experience compelled a turn from providential reading of external events to experiential reading of the heart.
David D. Hall, in Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment (1989), shows how early Americans blended scriptural reflection, spiritual testimony, and daily struggle into a uniquely American religious identity—restless, searching, revivalist.
Europe tended to sanctify the social order. America tended to sanctify the inner conscience.
V. Catholic Teaching: Affirming Truth, Correcting Extremes
The Catholic tradition offers a synthesis that preserves what is true in both Protestant worlds while rejecting the distortions that emerged when either element became isolated.
1. The truth in Europe’s vision: grace sanctifies work
Centuries before the Reformation, the Rule of St. Benedict united prayer and labor—ora et labora—as twin paths to sanctification. Aquinas’s principle that “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it” (Summa Theologiae I.1.8) explains why ordinary work contributes to holiness.
Catholic teaching agrees that vocation is real and sacred. But it never treats prosperity as an indicator of election. The Catechism (CCC 1999) describes grace as God’s own life shared with us— a personal relationship, not something measured by external success.
2. The truth in America’s vision: grace transforms the heart
The Catholic tradition also affirms that faith must be interior and personal. The Catechism teaches that “faith is a personal act” (CCC 166) and speaks often of the necessity of ongoing conversion. Saints like Augustine, Francis, and Thérèse exemplify profound inward renewal.
But Catholicism insists that conversion is rooted in the sacraments:
Baptism is the true new birth (CCC 1215).
Confirmation strengthens it.
Penance restores it.
The Eucharist sustains it (CCC 1391–1405).
Emotion may accompany grace, but does not define it.
3. Rejecting the extremes
Catholicism refuses:
The temptation to equate God’s blessing with material prosperity (CCC 2444–2447; Mt 5:3).
The temptation to equate faith with subjective feeling or solitary experience (CCC 1129; Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est, §31).
4. The Catholic harmony
Catholicism integrates:
Vocation and conversion
Community and conscience
Sacrament and experience
Daily work and inward charity
Grace is at once visible and interior, communal and personal, mediated and experiential.
VI. Conclusion
European Protestants often read providence through social order and vocational fruitfulness. American Protestants, struggling in a harsher world, sought assurance in the crucible of personal conversion. Both perspectives captured real truths, and both risked distortions when exaggerated.
Catholic teaching offers a broader and deeper synthesis. It affirms the dignity of work emphasized by European Reformers, and it recognizes the necessity of interior transformation emphasized by New England Puritans. But it grounds both in the sacramental life of the Church and refuses to let either external success or internal emotion serve as the measure of salvation.
Europe taught Christians to see holiness in labor.
America taught them to see holiness in conversion.
Catholicism teaches that the life of grace is found in the fullness of both.
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Sources
Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (Samuel Eliot Morison ed.).
Winthrop, The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630–1649.
Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.
Miller, Errand into the Wilderness.
Morgan, Visible Saints.
Breen, The Puritan Experiment.
Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment.
Shepard, The Works of Thomas Shepard.
Mather, A Discourse Concerning the Subject of Baptisme.
Edwards, Religious Affections.
The Rule of St. Benedict.
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae.
Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est.