to God in a community where they were free to worship, certain problems ensued. First, they believed that they had to live pure (sinless) lives because they had no way of knowing if they were among God's Elect (chosen people). This, of course, was an impossible task, since humans sin. All of them. 

Second, in this theistic society, sins were treated as crimes and people who sinned were punished as criminals. This practice, rather than promoting an environment of sinlessness, eventually caused people to call out (snitch on) other people's sins in an attempt to divert attention from or hide their own sins, in addition to their desire to rid their town of sin. The severity of the punishments for sin also drove people to hide their sins. Symbolically, the forest was the place where people met the devil; it was a place where their true selves were on display.

In this story, Goodman Brown goes to the forest to test his faith, and he sees all the people--including his beloved wife, Faith--cavorting there with the devil. After he returns home, whether this was a dream or real, Goodman Brown is changed by this experience.

On the Sabbath-day, when the congregation were singing a holy psalm, he could not listen, because an anthem of sin rushed loudly upon his ear, and drowned all the blessed strain. When the minister spoke from the pulpit, with power and fervid eloquence, and with his hand on the open Bible, of the sacred truths of our religion, and of saint-like lives and triumphant deaths, and of future bliss or misery unutterable, then did Goodman Brown turn pale, dreading lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer and his hearers.

The same people Goodman Brown saw dancing and partying with the devil in the forest are church members who live as if they are pious and holy. It is just to much for the man and he loses his faith; ultimately, this same kind of disillusionment is what causes Puritanism to fade away.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" is a short story published in 1835 and is one of the best-known of Hawthorne's pieces. The religion practiced by the townspeople and, eventually, by Goodman Brown himself is not necessarily a religion per se; rather, it is a disavowal of Christianity.

The story features a recently-married Goodman Brown, taking leave of his (aptly named) wife Faith, who is reluctant to see him go on an unnamed errand. The obliquely-described journey takes place at night, through a dark forest, with travel companions who are known to Goodman Brown. Some of these characters represent religious affiliations (e.g., Goody Cloyse, a former religious mentor of Brown's). Faith, too, appears in the woods. Goodman Brown, a heretofore pious community member, occasionally falters in his resolve to participate in the unnamed ritual. Referring to his mentor Goody Cloyse, Brown states,

Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil, when I thought she was going to Heaven! Is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith, and go after her?

The night-time ritual, attended by so many townspeople, is a form of devil-worship; however, its culmination is left ambiguous by Hawthorne, as Goodman Brown wakes up and finds himself in the woods. It is proposed that Brown perhaps "only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting." Whether in a dream or in reality, Goodman Brown declares, "Come, devil; for to thee is this world given." The story therein describes Goodman Brown raging among the pines "brandishing his staff with frenzied gestures... giving vent to an inspiration of horrid blasphemy."

The religion exhibited in Young Goodman Brown could, broadly speaking, be called witchcraft. Specifically, this "witch-meeting" takes the form of devil-worship, as the characters in the woods evoke and emulate the devil by carrying a staff. This devil-worship, however, is defined solely in counterpoint to the Christianity it rejects. This is made clear in the story's conclusion, in which the town minister preaching is declared "anathema," and Goodman Brown fears to himself "lest the roof should thunder down upon the gray blasphemer." Hawthorne's focus on "blasphemy" and on the devil reinforce the notion that the occult, town-wide religion is best defined as anti-Christianity.