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Puritanism in the Salem community 
 

 
 

Key Words and Concepts

Activity 1: Church and community

Key words and concepts

• Protestant/ Protestantism • Puritanism • the Pope • Roman Catholicism • authority • salvation • church • community

Key people (in addition to those in the play)

• Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Key places

• Salem, Massachusetts, America (United States) • Rome, Italy • Wittenberg, Germany

Activity 2: Authority and transgression

Key words and concepts

• Bible • Democracy/ theocracy • faith • fundamentalism • predestination • salvation

Key people (in addition to those in the play)

• Martin Luther (1483-1546) • John Calvin (1509-1564)

Key places

• Salem, Massachusetts, America (United States) • Rome, Italy • Wittenberg, Germany • Geneva, Switzerland

Activity 3: Witches, the Devil and the existence of evil (Part One)

Key words and concepts

• witches • Devil or Satan • evil • Gospel

Key people (in addition to those in the play)

• Samuel Parris (c. 1653-1720) • Dante (1265-1321)

Key places

• Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts, America (United States)

Activity 4: Witches, the Devil and the existence of evil (Part Two)

Key words and concepts

• Devil or Satan • evil • Gospel • The Book of Revelation (or Apocalypse)

Key people (in addition to those in the play)

• Jesus • Plato (c.429 BC–c.347 BC)

Key places

• 17th-century New England, America (United States)

Activity 5: Visions of utopia - extended learning

Key words/ concepts

• community • McCarthyism • Communism • the Communist Manifesto • totalitarianism • the United Nations

Key people (in addition to those in the play)

• Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) • Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) • Arthur Miller (1915-2005) • Senator Joseph McCarthy (1909-1957) • Karl Marx (1818-1883)

 

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