Thursday, June 6, 2013

If you were speaking/preaching in front of a church and you were going to present a message about Anne Hutchinson, what would your title be, what would be the body of your message, and what would you want those in the congregation to learn? What theological or historical lessons are there represented in these pictures for people in the church to learn from?

Several possible titles might apply to a talk about Anne Hutchinson, such as “Hero, Not Heretic” or “Puritan Feminist Pioneer.”
Hutchinson became an important teacher as well as a student of theology. Anne Hutchinson’s study of theology in Massachusetts, the Bay Colony, was largely conducted with the blessings of the Reverend Cotton, with whom she and her husband had moved from England. From him, she adopted the Covenant of Grace in preference over the Covenant of Works. This meant that belief in Salvation by the grace of God alone, rather than based on evidence of devotion through works, was a guiding principle. She hosted study groups that were not only attended by women but by men and women together, which was not common at the time. Not only did these become increasingly popular, she also often challenged the views that the men expressed.
Hutchinson’s teachings resonated with many Puritan beliefs, but her outspokenness as a woman earned the wrath of many church fathers. The Reverend Cotton turned against her, saying that her behavior was not appropriate for a wife and that she seemed to act as a husband instead. Although she was a devout Christian, her beliefs were condemned as too unorthodox. Hutchinson was tried for heresy, and the meetings she had held were denigrated for encouraging the promiscuous mingling of men and women. In 1638, Hutchinson was excommunicated and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony; she subsequently moved to Rhode Island, with its leader Roger Williams, where freedom of religion was a deeply cherished conviction.
After her husband’s death, another move followed for her and her children, as they relocated to Long Island in the colony of the New Netherlands. Tragically, the family perished in an attack by Native Americans; only one daughter survived. The motivations for the attack may have been anti-colonial or religiously motivated and linked to Puritans.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/anne-hutchinson

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