Week 7 Cobb Chapter 7

This chapter raised some interesting ideas as to how we're to understand the consequences of sin. I think Barker's analysis of how the Puritan foundations of this country relate to the "Jeremiad" cycles is really fascinating.

As Barker points out on page 215, "Jeremiah consistently advised that the people had to repent of their collective sins and change their ways if they hoped to be delivered from their enemies...They were in violation of this covenant, and consequently the anger of God had been kindled and calamity was about to overtake them if they did not repent and amend their ways. This idea that disaster falls upon those who refuse to repent and rectify their wrongs is the defining formula of the Hebrew prophets."

It's interesting to see how in the Jeremiad the covenant was used to explain early calamities as God's response to sin. It would seem that Puritan stubborn moral faith was a way of insuring the community would attend to their sin. In contrast, the Gothic script flows more with how the sins of ancestors transgress on the people today.

According to Cobb, in the Gothic script is centered less around an ever powerful God and more around the individual choices that we make and the effects those have on our future brothers and sisters. It would seem that God is rather absent in the Gothic script as it relates to sin.