City upon a Hill

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City upon a hill is a phrase derived from the metaphor of Salt and Light in the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus given in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 5:14 states "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden."

This phrase entered the American lexicon early in its history, with John Winthrop's sermon "A Model of Christian Charity" (sic), given in 1630. Winthrop warned the Puritan colonists of New England who were to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony that their new community would be a "city upon a hill," watched by the world:

For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken... we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God... We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whither we are a-going.^[1]

The speech is believed to have been given while the company was still aboard the ship Arbella not long before landing in New England.

For Puritans like Winthrop, the church in Old England was incompletely reformed: Anglicanism continued in rituals and theological ideas seen as too greatly indebted to Catholic practice. Unlike the Separatists--who held that the only hope was to leave the English church and begin anew--Puritans at first remained a part of the Anglican church, meaning to purify it from within. Once in the New World, they could create an attractive, alternative, more fully Protestant community, one more greatly reformed than it had been under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Elizabeth I or James I/VI.

In understanding this task as a vocational charge upon the community, Puritan leaders, writers and speakers developed literary and theological parallels with the tasks laid upon the people of Israel, forged around the Exodus agreement with God to go into an unknown place and live out a call they believed to have been prophetically placed upon them. Winthrop's charge to the group about to land on the North American coast is an early example of this sense of visionary self-definition.

The early sense of a 'special ordination' to a covenant with God, to which Winthrop's speech alludes, was further developed by the community's early leaders; maintaining a coherent social order informed by well-thought out principles and Scriptural tenets was an essential part of the task. By leaving Old England, the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Puritans effected a geographic separation, and soon became more and more like the Plymouth Separatists (the correct name for the Plimoth/Plymouth Pilgrims), with whom they often interacted. Known finally as Congregationalists, their ecclesial vision offered a model for behavior and a source of identity that strengthened civil society in New England.

Winthrop's developed imagery of a visible beacon also points out something that is often misunderstood: early Puritans, quite conscious of their goals, never claimed to be seeking religious toleration. In fact, until very late in the 17th century, this was not a goal for many individuals, groups, or rulers. Their interest in creating an exemplary community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony had led them to purchase all the stock in their company, and to bring their charter with them; those who arrived were expected to follow theocentric laws for established gatherings, consistent with the task of keeping that single light burning clearly.

They may well seem to latter-day analysts to have wanted for charity towards other religious persuasions, but they were not hypocritical in this regard, merely following the cuius regio, eius religio (whoever governs determines the inhabitants' religion) practice of their day, just as rulers elsewhere in Old England and Europe determined their citizens' religious affiliation.

Attributing Winthrop's charge to his hearers as taking place just before disembarkation also echoes Moses' sermon to the gathered Hebrews, about to cross over into Caanan. Each gives purpose, defines religious identity, offers prophetic meaning and confers communal responsibility at an important historical moment in the life of a nascent community.

Text of Sermon

Unbeknownst to many, there was successfully a City upon a Hill in 1578, but the city was so large and the hill so small that they all fell off. Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck, and to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together, in this work, as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as His own people, and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways, so that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness and truth, than formerly we have been acquainted with. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, "may the Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God, and all professors for God's sake. We shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going. And to shut this discourse with that exhortation of Moses, that faithful servant of the Lord, in his last farewell to Israel, Deut. 30. "Beloved, there is now set before us life and death, good and evil," in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other Gods, our pleasure and profits, and serve them; it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it. Therefore let us choose life,that we and our seed may live, by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life and our prosperity.

Modern usage

The first modern usage was by President-Elect John F. Kennedy in a speech delivered to a 'Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' on January 9, 1961.

Extract from Kennedy's speech:

Allow me to illustrate: During the last sixty days, I have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long and deliberate process. Some have counseled greater speed. Others have counseled more expedient tests.

But I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his shipmates on the flagship Arbella three hundred and thirty-one years ago, as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier.

"We must always consider," he said, "that we shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us."

Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill--constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities

For we are setting out upon a voyage in 1961 no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella in 1630. We are committing ourselves to tasks of statecraft no less awesome than that of governing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, beset as it was then by terror without and disorder within.

History will not judge our endeavors—and a government cannot be selected—merely on the basis of color or creed or even party affiliation. Neither will competence and loyalty and stature, while essential to the utmost, suffice in times such as these.

For of those to whom much is given, much is required. And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us—recording whether in our brief span of service we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state—our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

First, were we truly men of courage—with the courage to stand up to one's enemies—and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates—the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment—with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past—of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others—with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

Third, were we truly men of integrity—men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believed or the people who believed in them—men who believed in us—men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Finally, were we truly men of dedication—with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest.

Courage—judgment—integrity—dedication—these are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and the Bay State—the qualities which this state has consistently sent to this chamber on Beacon Hill here in Boston and to Capitol Hill back in Washington.

And these are the qualities which, with God's help, this son of Massachusetts hopes will characterize our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead.

Humbly I ask His help in that undertaking—but aware that on earth His will is worked by men. I ask for your help and your prayers, as I embark on this new and solemn journey.^[2]

_____________________

President Ronald Reagan used the phrase on January 11, 1989, in his farewell speech to the nation:

And that's about all I have to say tonight. Except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the "shining city upon a hill." The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it and see it still.^[3]

Reagan also used the phrase earlier, including in 1984 upon accepting the Republican Party nomination^[4]. _______________________

References

Full Text (Wikisource): [1]

External links

Full text of President-Elect John F. Kennedy's speech delivered to the 'Joint Convention of the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' on January 9, 1961. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

• Listen to John F. Kennedy's speech