Religion And Society In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

Religion and Society- A Complicated Relationship Throughout his novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne continuously illustrates the strong connection between religion and society in 1642. From the makeup of the government to the laws it enforced, this time period was essentially built around religion. Today, our state of affairs is a bit more complex. We do still have our connections to religion, but some aspects of this have been lost to time. During 1642, especially in Puritan Boston as portrayed in The Scarlet Letter, society was built on religion. In this time, the community’s common religion was held above everything. For example, religious leaders such as Reverend Dimmesdale and Revered Wilson were put in positions of political power, and in the

In some areas, the two are still closely linked. One of these areas is politics. In modern society, we may say we have a “separation of church and state”, but prayers are still said at inaugurations. People still have to swear on the bible in a courtroom setting. Is this really separation? On a more controversial level, marriage equality was put off far longer than it could have been. Why? Because religious groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church opposed those fighting for equality because of their own religious reasons. We as citizens of the 21st century also see individuals fighting against abortion using religious arguments, namely quoting the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. A country legitimately following an idea of the separation of church and state would not allow these things to continue, seeing as how they are highly contradictory to this ideal. From a social standpoint, weddings are still majorly religion based. An overwhelming majority of weddings (even those between non-religious people) revolve around a priest and prayers. Most are in churches. Again, if our political society today is claiming to be truly separated from religion, none of these occurrences should be