ABSTRACT
Puritan theology, church rituals, and devotional practices applied and reinforced patriarchal goals and assumptions within and through religious ideas and institutions, particularly in terms of an emphasis upon erudition and sanctification in the face of their mystical convictions. Man, with his superior intellect, would far surpass woman in his ability to interpret the Bible, understand God through the natural world, and grasp the intricacies of theological debate. So, too, man’s superior strength of will, rooted, like his intellect, in his biological nature, was far better equipped to control his behavior and traverse the pathways of preparation in hopes of divine grace and salvation. Still, despite these intellectual efforts, spiritual and political leaders found themselves and their arguments caught by the spiritual foundations of Puritan religiosity. They recognized that within Puritan mysticism lay sources of charismatic power not only for the patriarchs, but also for those very inferiors that patriarchs had hoped to control.
