Which statement describes predestination in this era?

• A. No more predestination
• B. Predestination remains central
• C. Predestination shifts into fatalism
• D. Predestination is expanded

Answer: (A)

Predestination being treated as no longer central captures the shift this era shows from earlier theological determinism toward human agency and secular explanations. In the colonial and early American periods, predestination often shaped religious and literary worlds, with writers and sermons emphasizing whether individuals were among the elect and how fate governed life. As the nation moves into later eighteenth- and nineteenth-century thought, literature increasingly foregrounds personal choice, self-reliance, and social or psychological forces over fixed divine decree. With this shift, predestination ceases to drive the main motifs and plots, making the statement that it is no longer central the best reflection of the era. The other options would imply that predestination remains a primary lens, shifts to fatalism, or expands, which contradicts the historical movement toward greater emphasis on individual autonomy and question of fixed fate.