If you are looking mostly at the Puritans, the importance
of religion was that the church played a central role in people's lives. The Puritan
church was established in the colonies of New England and church leaders held temporal
power as well as religious power.
The Puritans gave the
leaders of the church power over almost every aspect of community life. As the link
below shows us, the church elders had the power to do things like banning dancing and
playing cards. They even had the power to take children away from families who were not
raising them in ways the church accepted.
The fact that the
New England colonies were willing to give this kind of power to the church shows the
importance of religion in 17th century America.
No comments:
Post a Comment