Anne Hutchinson’s Attack on Puritanism

In Chapter 21 of David Hall’s Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology, the examination of Anne Hutchinson before the court and followed by her own written response gives an interesting (although somewhat confusing) view of her beliefs and the church’s disapproval. Anne Hutchinson was brought to court for defying the magistrates and ministers of the church. She believed that the teachings of all New England ministers, apart from John Cotton, were false and even went as far as to suggest the possibility that they are the teachings of the antichrist. She was not alone in her beliefs and certainly did not keep quite about them either, attracting the attention of many women of the community, along with a few men, who met in her home to dissect the minister’s sermons while attracting the unwanted attention of the ministers and magistrates.

Anne Hutchinson’s beliefs may not seem too drastic or rebellious to our modern day minds, but to a 17th century Puritan, her teachings were like the work of the devil. The main belief of Hutchinson and her fellow believers was that salvation was obtained through justification alone (the acceptance of Christ into one’s life) and not at all on sanctification (good works to obtain salvation). Even further, she focused her beliefs more on the actual moment of justification, or in other words, the actual second when an individual accepted Christ and became one with Him. Though, she did go as far as to say that justification will lead to sanctification; if a person accepts Christ, or really goes through justification, then they will express this through good works, or sanctification. However, sanctification cannot come before justification. If it does, it is a sign of “a covenant of works” (214).

This goes against the Puritan belief in both justification and sanctification. Although this part is a bit fuzzy for me personally, the Puritans seemed to have believed in justification, but only through the predestination of God choosing them. In other words, they believed that God granted salvation to certain people and only those people are justified. They also believe in sanctification though that a person must live a good and moral life, doing good works. The main foundation of the Puritan faith was to lead a decent and moral life that pleased God, and thus, in a way, they created for themselves a foundation of sanctification for their entire faith.