Anne Hutchinson

           In the article "Anne Hutchinson and the Mortalist Heresy" by J.F. Maclear, the author talks about how the Puritan's doubt of immorality sprouted ideas across the whole country, and maybe even the entire world.  The author writes,  

         "Skepticism about the soul's immortality spread in various quarters in seventeenth-century England; one of these quarters was Puritan heterodoxy where, freed from all effective control by war and revolution, an advanced literal, rational, or mystical exegesis brought into question traditional meanings attached to death, resurrection, and the Last Things. Partly on this basis, argument has been seriously advanced that Puritan radicalism may have provided "one of the stimuli that went into the making of the Enlightenment."

         I find this interesting, but also probably true because up to this point the U.S. had been a predominantly Christian country, and therefore people were stuck in the concrete ideas that had always been.  But when individuals started to break apart from this social "norm" and create their own new ideas, it caused others to do the same.  So when Maclear claims that the "Puritan radicalism may have provided "one of the stimuli that went into the making of the Enlightenment," I would be persuaded to believe him.  Because without certain individuals starting to make  a stand and introduce new ideas, the Enlightenment might not have happened. Anne Hutchinson and those who rebelled against the Puritan normalcy with her helped cause new ideas to come into play in America.