Great Awakening
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What was the Great Awakening?
The Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the British American colonies, mainly from about 1720 to the 1740s. It was a reaction against secularism and materialism in the established churches.
During the Great Awakening, preachers emphasized the importance of personal conversion, God's grace, and a "new birth" in Jesus Christ. Figures such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield inspired both fear of sin and a return to faith. The movement democratized Calvinist theology by making conversion accessible to all who recognized their sinfulness.
The Great Awakening led to divisions within denominations, the growth of educational institutions, and broader toleration of religious diversity. It also helped make the doctrines of denominations, especially Baptists and Methodists, more accessible, and it stimulated the fervor that resulted in the American Revolution.
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When did the Great Awakening happen in America?
The Great Awakening was a religious revival that occurred in the British American colonies, mainly between the 1720s and the 1740s. It revitalized religion in the region, under the leadership of figures like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. The Great Awakening resulted from a reaction against the secularization of society and the materialistic nature of churches, and it democratized Calvinist theology by making conversion the first step toward salvation. This movement also stimulated the growth of educational institutions and broader toleration of religious diversity.
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Who were some key leaders of the Great Awakening?
The Great Awakening was a religious revival in the British American colonies that occurred mainly between the 1720s and 1740s. Key leaders of this movement included Jonathan Edwards, a Congregational pastor who emphasized justification by faith alone, and George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who preached throughout the colonies.
Gilbert Tennent was another significant figure, known for his passionate sermons and role as a revivalist preacher. These leaders shared a focus on personal conversion experiences and the revitalization of religious fervor, contributing to the democratization of Calvinist theology and the growth of evangelical denominations.
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What changes did the Great Awakening bring to American churches?
The Great Awakening brought significant changes to American churches in the 18th century. It was a reaction against the increasing secularization of society and the corporate, materialistic nature of churches, with leaders like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield revitalizing religion in the region.
The movement democratized Calvinist theology by making conversion the initial step toward salvation, accessible to all who recognized their sinfulness, thus promoting an evangelical Calvinism. This led to the growth of denominations like the Baptists and Methodists, whose doctrines became more accessible to a wider population. The Awakening stimulated the founding of educational institutions, including Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth, and increased tolerance of religious diversity.
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How did the Great Awakening affect people's daily lives and beliefs?
The Great Awakening, a religious revival in the American colonies between the 1720s and 1740s, profoundly impacted people's daily lives and beliefs. Preachers emphasized the importance of personal conversion and recognizing one's own sinfulness, democratizing Calvinist theology.
This movement stimulated a fear of sinful lifestyles, but also offered a return to faith as a means to avoid divine punishment. The evangelical worship styles promoted by the Great Awakening made religious doctrines more accessible, increasing church membership among diverse populations, including Black Americans. It also led to divisions within denominations, as some members supported the revival while others rejected it. The revival also spurred the growth of educational institutions and a broader toleration of religious diversity.
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What impact did the Great Awakening have on American society and future movements?
The Great Awakening was a religious revival that swept through the British American colonies, mainly from about 1720 to the 1740s. It countered the increasing secularization of society and the materialistic nature of established churches.
The Great Awakening had a democratizing effect on Calvinist theology by making conversion the first step toward salvation and opening the conversion experience to all who recognized their sinfulness. This led to broader toleration of religious diversity. It also stimulated the growth of educational institutions, including Princeton, Brown, and Rutgers universities, and Dartmouth College. The democratization of religious experience during the Great Awakening also fed the fervor that resulted in the American Revolution. A subsequent revival, the Second Great Awakening, occurred from about 1795 to 1835 and led to the founding of colleges and seminaries, as well as mission societies.
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Great Awakening, religious revival in the British American colonies mainly between about 1720 and the 1740s. It was a part of the religious ferment that swept western Europe in the latter part of the 17th century and early 18th century, referred to as Pietism and Quietism in continental Europe among Protestants and Roman Catholics and as Evangelicalism in England under the leadership of John Wesley (1703–91). The Puritan fervour of the American colonies waned toward the end of the 17th century, but the Great Awakening, under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others, served to revitalize religion in the region.
The Great Awakening represented a reaction against the increasing secularization of society and against the corporate and materialistic nature of the principal churches of American society. A number of conditions in the colonies contributed to the revival: an arid rationalism in New England, formalism in liturgical practices, as among the Dutch Reformed in the Middle Colonies, and the neglect of pastoral supervision in the South. The revival took place primarily among the Dutch Reformed, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and some Anglicans, almost all of whom were Calvinists. By making conversion the initial step on the road to salvation and by opening the conversion experience to all who recognized their own sinfulness, the ministers of the Great Awakening, some intentionally and others unwittingly, democratized Calvinist theology. The Great Awakening has been seen, therefore, as a development toward an evangelical Calvinism. Indeed, the evangelical styles of religious worship promoted by the revival helped make the religious doctrines of many of the insurgent church denominations—particularly those of the Baptists and the Methodists—more accessible to a wider cross section of the American population.
The revival preachers emphasized the “terrors of the law” to sinners, the unmerited grace of God, and the “new birth” in Jesus Christ. They frequently sought to inspire in their listeners a fear of the consequences of their sinful lives and a respect for the omnipotence of God. This sense of the ferocity of God was often tempered by the implied promise that a rejection of worldliness and a return to faith would result in a return to grace and an avoidance of the horrible punishments of an angry God. There was a certain contradictory quality about Great Awakening theology, however. Predestination, one of the principal tenets of the Calvinist theology of most of the ministers of the Great Awakening, was ultimately incompatible with the promise that humans could, by a voluntary act of faith, achieve salvation by their own efforts.
One of the great figures of the movement was George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who was influenced by John Wesley but was himself a Calvinist. Visiting America in 1739–40, he preached up and down the colonies to vast crowds in open fields, because no church building would hold the throngs he attracted. Although he gained many converts, he was attacked, as were other revival clergy, for criticizing the religious experience of others, for stimulating emotional excesses and dangerous religious delusions, and for breaking into and preaching in settled parishes without proper invitation by ecclesiastical authorities.
Jonathan Edwards was the great academician and apologist of the Great Awakening. A Congregational pastor at Northampton, Massachusetts, he preached justification by faith alone with remarkable effectiveness. He also attempted to redefine the psychology of religious experience and to help those involved in the revival to discern what were true works of the Holy Spirit. Although the call for a return to complete faith and the emphasis on the omnipotence of God can be seen as the very antithesis of Enlightenment thought, which called for a greater questioning of faith and a diminishing role for God in the daily affairs of humankind, Edwards explicitly drew on the thought of men such as John Locke and Isaac Newton in an attempt to make religion rational. His chief opponent was Charles Chauncy, a liberal pastor of the First Church in Boston, who wrote and preached against the revival, which he considered an outbreak of extravagant emotion.
The Great Awakening stemmed the tide of Enlightenment rationalism among a great many people in the colonies. One of its results was division within denominations, for some members supported the revival and others rejected it. The revival stimulated the growth of several educational institutions, including Princeton, Brown, and Rutgers universities and Dartmouth College. The increase of dissent from the established churches during this period led to a broader toleration of religious diversity, and the democratization of the religious experience fed the fervour that resulted in the American Revolution.
Edwards maintained that the Holy Spirit withdrew from Northampton in the 1740s, and some supporters found that the revival came to an end in that decade. A revival known as the Second Great Awakening began in New England in the 1790s. Generally less emotional than the Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening led to the founding of colleges and seminaries and to the organization of mission societies.
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Kentucky was also influenced by a revival during this period. The custom of camp-meeting revivals developed out of the Kentucky revival and was an influence on the American frontier during the 19th century.