What was the main religion of colonial Connecticut?

Answer 1

Somtime after Roger Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island, Thomas Hooker, another Puritan Minister, founded the colony of Connecticut. The followers who came from Massachusetts with Hooker were originally Puritans, practicing a modified form of Puritanism from that of the Plymouth Colony, one more tolerant and freer than the Plymouth version of the theology. After many years, several modifications, and the help of Ralph Walldo Emerson, the theology morphed into what is very much like the values of the present day Unitarian Universalist Church in the United States.

Answer 2

Puritans
Much of the Connecticut Colony was inhabited by Puritans. This meant that there was little to no religious freedom in that area. The Puritans were extremely intolerant of other types of religion.

Answer 3

About Religion in Connecticut During Colonial Times

There were many changes in the course of religion among the colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries. Religion was not just a spiritual or personal decision; it also had a political dimension and had great influence over the lives of the colonists. Colonial rule by the strict leadership of one type of church slowly gave way to the desire by colonists to practice the faith of their choice.

1. History

   • Connecticut was founded as a colony in the 1600s by Puritans, who established the Congregational Church. Until 1708, this was the only legal religion in Connecticut, and colonists were fined if they did not attend Sunday services.

   Significance

   • Colonial tax dollars supported the Congregational Church and its ministers, who exercised a great deal of power and control among the colony. In 1708, the colony released dissenters, or individuals who chose to practice certain other religions, from paying taxes to the state Congregational Church, as long as they were contributing to their respective churches of other denominations.

   Identification

   • The Saybrook Platform was developed by the colony of Connecticut in 1708. This document of religious proposals consisted of 15 articles. Under this platform, various churches and associations of pastors came together under shared authority to unify and restore discipline within the Congregational Church. It was similar to the Cambridge Platform in Massachusetts, established in 1648.

   Prevention/Solution

   • Occurring in the colonies during the 1730s and 1740s, the Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals that resulted in significant changes in religious doctrines. They helped to shape the view of religion being a more personal and individual decision. People began to focus more on a relationship with God, rather than focusing on the strict doctrines that had been forced upon them by the Congregational Church. Other religions began to strengthen and form churches of their own after this movement. However, there were still people that held fast to their Congregational beliefs.

   Identification

   • Congregational minster Jonathan Edwards and English Methodist minister George Whitefield were among the powerful ministers of this time and instrumental in the change in religious practices. Jonathan Edwards is referred to as the leader of the Great Awakening. He was a quiet man who delivered what many perceived as a powerful message. George Whitefield was a great orator with a powerful voice whose presence and message of Christianity also reached many people

Answer 4

The colony of Connecticut was founded for the most part by English settlers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Boston). They practiced Congregational Christianity; that is, Reformed or Calvinist Protestantism, with each congregation fully autonomous and no higher formal organization. This was essentially the same religion practiced by the Puritans in Massachusetts.

Congregationalism remained dominant in Connecticut until well into the 19th century. However, since there was no higher authority to enforce doctrinal conformity, many Congregational ministers and churches moved away from strict Calvinism, and some became Unitarian, as early as 1750.

Answer 5

Mainly Church of England, some Catholic and Jewish. In reality many of the colonial people did not attend services or call themselves a particular religion. We have the impression they were very religious and this isn't true.

Answer 6

The religion in the Connecticut colony is Puritan. Most people who lived there were puritan. They even had a puritan church!!

Answer 7

They were Puritans and had no freedom of religion.

Answer 8

Mainly the Church of England, some Catholic and a few Jewish.

Answer 9

it was mainly free of any religion