TRTR(1) Religious References in Chapter 1

[Richard Ryan]

Yup.  Very pertinent cross-reference, Michael; see the interesting (to
those who care about such things) link below:

http://www.mirrorofnature.org/JohnUpdike.htm

"I started my conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning author, John
Updike, by telling him I had learned from the book that he had been
Congregational. I showed him a picture I had taken of the
Congregational Church in Ipswich, MA in 1959. He recognized it and
confirmed that it had been one of the few "wooden gothic" churches in
the world before it had been struck by lightning in 1965. John said
that it might have been saved if the firemen had been more ambitious,
but that the fire got between the double walls of the church and had
burned to the ground. He said that the end of his book "COUPLES" has a
burning church. John Updike has written over forty books, in which
religion, art, and sex are the "three great secret things."





On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 7:31 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> aren't a lot of John Updike's characters Congregationalists?
>
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 12:22 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The "independent" strain of Congregationalism is important,
>> emphasizing the local control of specific churches by the independent
>> congregations.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregational_church
>>
>> Many Congregational churches claim their descent from the original
>> Congregational churches, a family of Protestant denominations formed
>> on a theory of union published by the theologian Robert Browne in
>> 1592. They arose from the Nonconformist religious movement in England
>> during the Puritan reformation of the Church of England. In Great
>> Britain, the early congregationalists were called separatists or
>> independents to distinguish themselves from the similarly Calvinistic
>> Presbyterians. Some congregationalists there still call themselves
>> "Independents", see Independent (religion).
>>
>> Congregational churches became widely established in the Massachusetts
>> Bay Colony, later New England. The model of Congregational churches
>> was carried by migrating settlers from New England into New York and
>> the Old Northwest: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. With their
>> insistence on the independence of local bodies, they became important
>> in many reform movements, including those for abolition of slavery,
>> and women's suffrage.
>>
>> As of the early 21st century, Congregationalism in the U.S. had split
>> into three major bodies: the United Church of Christ, which most local
>> Congregational churches affiliated with; the National Association of
>> Congregational Christian Churches, a fellowship of churches and
>> individuals formed to continue and foster classic Congregationalism as
>> the merger that created the UCC was being debated; and the
>> Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, an evangelical
>> group.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 1:30 AM, Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com> wrote:>
>>> ***Gwyon is the pastor of the First Congregational Church.
>>> Congregationalism is a fascinating denomination, in that it can
>>> encompass a very progressive social outlook (the Congregationalists
>>> were central to the abolitionist and suffragist movements) and very
>>> austere or even severe theological mindset.  Rev.  Gwyon and Aunt May
>>> or two different sides of the same Congregational coin.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "...seems the simplest things are hardest to explain" - Dave Mason
>
>



-- 
Richard Ryan
New York and the World
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