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2 - Drunkards and Fornicators on Meeting House Hill

Gendered Sin and Discipline

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2020

Monica D. Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
Saint Mary’s College of California
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Summary

Chapter 2 analyzes how congregations charged men and women with different sins, defined sins in gendered terms, and created distinctive expectations for male and female confessions. By gendering sins, laymen created a different Puritanism for men than for women. First-generation ministers preached communal obligation and individual piety. As discipline increased through the second and third generations, the focus of sermons changed, emphasizing individual piety for women and communal responsibility for men, which contributed to the formation of different religious identities. By the third generation, women outnumbered men 3 to 2 in the feminized setting of the church, which more frequently focused on an individual’s relationship with God. The Puritan focus on female piety put more of an emphasis on individual spirituality for women, while contributing to the development of a male religiosity that focused on public and civic affairs. While women stayed in the pews and developed a “religious self,” men went out into the secular arena and expressed their religiosity through their sense of duty to their communities, their families, their businesses, and their country.

Type
Chapter
Information
Puritans Behaving Badly
Gender, Punishment, and Religion in Early America
, pp. 46 - 68
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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