Hutchson's Trial Debate Analysis

This article suggests that until recent years, sexism and rhetoric had not been considered heavily enough as a factor in the “content and style” of the trial debates of Anne Hutchison. Hutchison is a key instigator and an integral milestone in the antinomian crisis. Around the time of Hutchison’s trial, society was lead by upper-class religious leaders and tended to be heavily patriarchal. The article suggests that puritan values formed a social construct based around the idea that, “If Christ is to man as husband is to wife, then a woman who shows anything less than unquestioning obedience to her husband is guilty of a kind of heresy” (257). According to Tobin, Puritan leaders relied on metaphors to reinforce the power of the courts in a
Tobin hints at unspoken misogynistic motives by questioning Winthrop’s statement, “We do not mean to discourse with those of your sex”. The article suggests that she posed a significant threat to the leaders, because she questioned not only traditional puritan social and religious values, but the faith and relationships with Christ of the leaders themselves (258). Hutchison gained a large following of people and suggested her followers seek a relationship directly with god rather than the church. This was not a new idea at the time, but the fact that a woman from the bottom of the hierarchy had gained a following by breaking culture norms and speaking in public about ideas that directly interfered with the basis of power held by those judging her in the trial. Tobin brings up the idea earlier proposed by Theologian David Tracy, that religion revolves around a basis of metaphors to explain human situations (256). The author suggests that Hutchison’s sex was a significant factor simply because it was relatively unprecedented in their society for a woman to challenge the metaphorical interpretations of the Puritan leaders. Hutchison interprets scripture instead by stressing new values of intimacy and