James A. Henretta

Philip Greven, "'Some Roots of Bitterness': Corporal Punishment, Child Abuse, and the Apocalyptic Impulse in Michael Wigglesworth," in James A. Heretta, Michael Kammen, and Stanley N. Katz, eds., The Transformation of Early American History: Society, Authority, and Ideology (New York, 1991), 93-122, 280-286.

Pointing to the origins of the apocalyptic impulse in colonial New England long before Jonathan Edwards, Greven note that

Historians, however, have not yet explored the psychological and experiential roots of this apocalyptic impulse, nor have they sought out the hidden and usually forgotten memories of pain and hurt, of physical violence and abuse in the name of discipline and parental authority that underpinned the anxieties, fears and sufferings of the adults whose consciousness was marked by a keen sense of the approaching Apocalypse. (p. 93)

By studying the writings of Michael Wigglesworth, Greven hopes to rectify this gap in our knowledge. His attempt to overcome his own physical affliction is written into his writing, which are clearly marked with suppressed rage. This rage was directed at himself, as is often the case with victims of child abuse. Obsessed with "affliction, pain, suffering and punishment, "[c]orproral punishment is the experiential core of his entire theology, fundamental to an understanding of his career and thought." (p. 94)

Fantasies of Punishment

Poems about punishment for sins written by Wigglesworth were full of imagery of physical punishment. Describing the punishments of hellfire, MW has little sympathy for the damned. This lack of sympathy is also typical for victims of child abuse. Filled with sadomasochistic fantasy, MW's poetry focus on the need for punishment to impose God's discipline. His descriptions of God the Father inflicting punishment are clearly written form the perspective of one who has endured abuse. Confused and enraged by the punishment inflicted upon him as a child, the adult MW was a victim of what pediatricians in the 1960s began to call called "Battered Child Syndrome."

The Experience of Affliction

A neurotic young man, MW's pain separated him from his earthly and his heavenly father. Greven reads his afflictions as hypochondriac and links them to those of his father. After being rejected by his father, MW emulates his father's experience. Ill health is a key to understanding his life, as he saw this affliction as coming from God. Seeing sexuality as inherently depraved, MW could not deal with his own natural sexual maturation. Wet dreams sent him into fits of self doubt and fears of having somehow contracted an STD. Though he married and even had a child, there is no indication that he ever had a "normal" sex life with his first wife.

The Meaning of Affliction

From the late 20th C perspective it was MW's pent up rage that made him sick. He likely suffered from clinical depression for much of his first 50 years of life. He was "in denial" about the abuse he had suffered as a child and his ailment resulted from the strain of justifying the abuse through sublimation into theology. In Greven's words "The adult obsession with punishment mirrors the realities of childhood, but the denial of these realities is the root cause of his subsequent illness." (p. 120) Something changed when he turned 50, almost like the effect of a mid life crisis, MW seemed to come to terms with his demons and cease the self loathing, reaching out instead to the community, becoming sexually active and living his life as "an active, assertive, adult man." He married two more times and had a second child which he named after his father. Once he dealt with his hang-ups, he was able to get on with life.… (meer)