What was the role of women in the church during colonial times?

Jonathan Edwards was a very powerful and persuasive minister during colonial times. He not only preached to the men about their salvation, but he also preached to women and even to children. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Edwards speaks to men, women, and children in his attempt to bring them to God, “And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. — And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?” From this we can see that all Puritans were encouraged to sit through the sermons no matter what their age or gender was, so who were the Puritans and what did the base their worship on? What does the Bible say about a woman’s role in church? What were the Puritan rules about women in churches? Even today there are still some religions that do not allow women to have a leading role or even speak in church, so what was the role of women in the church during colonial times?

So who were the Puritans and what did they believe?

[http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/puritans]

The Puritans are by definition the group of people who came to America from England in 1630. The Puritans are different from the Pilgrims because while the Pilgrims broke from the Church of England and the Puritans did not. The Puritans wanted to merely reform the church, make it more strict, and remove all of the corrupt clergy. The Puritans settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. Their services were simple, they did not allow any instruments in their services, and their worship centered around the Bible. The Puritans were Calvinists. This means that they believed that your destiny of heaven or hell is predetermined and they lived in “spiritual anxiety” about what their fate would be. This is why Edwards sermons were so strong and powerful because the Puritans lived in constant fear that they are not part of the “elite” and were destined for eternal damnation. [http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/puritans.html]

More about the Puritans:

Since the Puritans services centered around the Bible and what it said, what does the Bible say about a woman’s role in church?

[http://www.historyextra.com/oup/how-authentic-authentic]

It turns out that this is a difficult question to answer because the two writings of Paul in the Bible contradict each other. Paul writes both Romans and Corinthians, and in those books the role of women in the church differ. In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (King James Version) Paul says, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church,” [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+14%3A34-35&version=KJV] but in Romans 16:1-4 it says, ” I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+16&version=KJV] In Corinthians Paul says that a woman should never speak in church, but in Romans he names several women leaders in the church and even says that they have helped him spiritually before. It is clear that, just like today, in biblical times the people struggled with deciding what a woman’s role in the church should be.

So now that we have established who the Puritans are, their beliefs, and what the Bible says about women’s role in church, what did the Puritans enforce?

First off there are two different Puritan groups in the 1600s. There were the colonial Puritans and there were also the New England Puritans. However, the “New England Puritans” were not Puritans at all. You probably know them better as “the Pilgrims” who were not Puritans at all. The Pilgrims were Separatists. [http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/puritan2.html] The significance of mentioning the colonial Puritans and the New England Puritans, also known as the Pilgrims, is the fact that they were both settling in the area at the same time and enforced two different roles for women in the church. According to history of the Pilgrims, more women joined the New England “Puritan” churches than men did. Pilgrim women were the ones in charge of leading their family’s religious practice. The wife was also in charge of teaching the children to be good Christians. [http://www.academicamerican.com/colonial/topics/women.htm] So the Pilgrims, or Separatists, believed that women should be a big part in the church and have a voice in religion. These are not the same beliefs of the colonial Puritans, or the “true” Puritans. The colonial Puritans were much more strict and tended to lean towards the book of Corinthians for their instructions for role of women in the church. Colonial Puritan women, starting in 1636, were not allowed to speak in church. Plus, they could not lead discussions in theology unless it was with of group of all women. [http://www.davidglensmith.com/wcjc/2327/slides/2010SUM2-slides06-women.pdf] In another source I found out that Puritan women were not even allowed to speak there mind at home to their husbands. This does not mean that they were not allowed to participate in religion. In fact they were actually encouraged to meet with other women and talk about strengthening their “personal piety and growth” through religion. [http://relijournal.com/christianity/puritan-women-work-and-religion/] There are even documents that have survived from the era that show that wives and daughters would do a lot of charity work through the church.

To sum this all up and answer the question simply, the role of women in the church during colonial times was different between the Puritans and the Pilgrims. The Pilgrim women lead the family practices and the Puritan women were not even allowed to speak in the church or at home about religion. In my opinion, this is an example of the struggle we see in the Bible in Corinthians and Romans. The colonial Americans struggled deciding what a woman’s role in the church was the same way Paul struggled with deciding what a woman’s role in the church was biblical times. Even today we struggle with what a woman’s role in the church is. I think the answer will never be found. There will be always be people with opposing views on this topic. Deciding what a woman’s role in church is, is like deciding what is the best soda, Pepsi or Coca-cola, you are always going to have people, or groups, with different opinions.

On left: Colonial Puritan woman

On right: New England Puritan, also known as a Pilgrim woman.