Great Awakenings
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The First Great Awakening is the name sometimes given to a period of heightened religious activity, primarily in the southwester belly US during the 1730's and 1740's. Although the idea of a "great awakening" is contested, it is clear that the period was, particularly in New England, a time of increased religious activity. The revival began with Jonathan Edwards, a well-educated theologian and Congregationalist minister from Northampton, Massachusetts, who came from Puritan and Calvinist roots, but emphasized the importance and power of immediate, personal religious experience. Edwards was said to be "solemn, with a distinct and careful enunciation, and a slow cadence." ^[1] Nevertheless, his sermons were powerful and attracted a large following. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is his most famous sermon. The Methodist preacher George Whitefield, visiting from England, continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone into his audiences. The Great Awakenings refer to several periods of dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American religious history. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Second Great Awakening  (1800–1830s) was the second great religious revival in United States  history and consisted of renewed personal salvation experienced in revival meetings. ... The Third Great Awakening was a period in American history from 1886 to 1908. ... The Fourth Great Awakening is a religious awakening that some scholars believe took place in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... For other persons named Jonathan Edwards, see Jonathan Edwards (disambiguation). ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation indepedently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... Nickname: Motto: caritas, educatio, justitia Location in Hampshire County in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country State County Hampshire Settled and Charter granted 1654 Incorporated as a city 1884 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor Mary Clare Higgins Area  - City  35. ... For the record label, see Puritan Records. ... In an unadorned church, the 17th century congregation stands to hear the sermon. ... Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was one of the most famous of all fire-and-brimstone sermons, first preached by Jonathan Edwards, a prominent Calvinist minister, in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741. ... George Whitefield (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770), was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...

Effects

Those caught up in the movement likely experienced new forms of religiosity. They became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner.^{[citation needed]} Ministers who used this new style of preaching were sometimes called "new lights," while the preachers who remained unemotional were referred to as "old lights."^{[citation needed]} People affected by the revival began to study the Bible at home. This effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious manners and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Reformation redirects here. ...

Historians have debated whether the Awakening had a political impact on the American Revolution, which took place soon after. Heimert (1966) argues that Calvinism and Jonathan Edwards provided pre-Revolutionary America with a radical and democratic social and political ideology and that evangelical religion embodied and inspired a thrust toward American nationalism. Colonial Calvinism was the basis for the American Great Awakening and that in turn lay at the basis of the American Revolution. Heimert thus sees a major impact as the Great Awakening provided the radical American nationalism that prompted the Revolution. Awakening preachers sought to review God's covenant with America and to repudiate the materialistic, acquisitive, corrupt world of an affluent colonial society. The source of this corruption lay in England, and a severance of the ties with the mother country would result in a rededication of America to the making of God's Kingdom. However, Heimert has been criticized for not recognizing the differences between educated and uneducated evangelists, and for not recognizing the significance of Separate-Baptists and Methodists.^[2] John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...

The First Great Awakening resulted from powerful preaching that aimed to convince listeners of their personal guilt and of their need of salvation through decisive action that included public repentance. The Great Awakening led people to "experience God in their own way" and taught that they were responsible for their own actions.^{[citation needed]}

Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion intensely personal to the average person by creating a deep sense of spiritual guilt and redemption, along with introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality.^{[citation needed]} Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom sees it as part of a "great international Protestant upheaval" that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival and Methodism in England.^[3] Revisionist Historian and Yale Professor b. ... Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late-17th century to the mid-18th century. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box:      The word evangelicalism often refers to... For other uses, see Methodism (disambiguation). ...

This brief period of revivalism brought Christianity to the slaves^{[citation needed]} and was an apocalyptic event in New England that challenged established authority.^{[citation needed]} It incited rancor and division between the old traditionalists who insisted on ritual and doctrine, and the new revivalists.^{[citation needed]} It had a major impact in reshaping the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed and German Reformed denominations, and strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist denominations. It had little impact on Anglicans and Quakers. This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. ... Presbyterianism is a tradition shared by a number of Christian denominations which is most prevalent within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity. ... The Dutch Reformed village church of St. ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Baptist is... For other uses, see Methodism (disambiguation). ... This box:      Anglicanism most commonly refers to the beliefs and practices of the Anglican Communion, a world-wide affiliation of Christian Churches, most of which have historical connections with the Church of England. ... Quaker redirects here. ...

Unlike the Second Great Awakening, which began about 1800 and reached out to the unchurched, the First Great Awakening focused on people who were already church members. It may have contributed to changes in some followers' ritual behavior, piety, and sense of self. The Second Great Awakening  (1800–1830s) was the second great religious revival in United States  history and consisted of renewed personal salvation experienced in revival meetings. ...

Debate

The First Great Awakening is a name sometimes given to a period of time when religious revitalization movements were highly active in the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. Some scholars have disputed the idea of a "Great Awakening."^[4] Jon Butler has suggested that both the name and the concept of the "Great Awakening" first arose in the work of nineteenth-century religious historians such as Joseph Tracy.^[5] Joseph Conforti has argued that ardent promoters of the eighteenth-century revivalists concocted the Great Awakening tradition.^[6] Frank Lambert lay the roots of the term not at the feet of secondary promoters, but upon the revival preachers themselves. He contended that the terminology and concept were indeed as old as the eighteenth-century events themselves, but that they existed more as press release than news report—more as an expression of what the preachers hoped would happen than as a realistic description of what did happen.^[7] Joseph Tracy (1793-1874) Joseph Tracy was a minister, newspaper editor, historian and leading figure in the American Colonization Society of the early to mid-nineteenth century. ...

On the other hand, scholars such as William G. McGloughlin have argued that the Great Awakening was "the key which unlocked the door to the new household of the [American] republic."^[8] Students of Christian revival movements and historians of the church have continued to write scholarly tomes analyzing Great Awakening.^[9]

The historicity of Edwards, Frelinghuysen, Tennent, and Whitefield is not disputed. The realignment of existing Christian denominations into pro-revival and anti-revival factions during the period is well attested, as is the emergence of new denominational bodies connected to the revival movement. Something happened to the American religious landscape between 1740 and 1776 to explain these phenomena. The nature of the debate goes less to the nature of the events themselves and more to the manner of their interpretation. For other persons named Jonathan Edwards, see Jonathan Edwards (disambiguation). ... Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-c1747) cenotaph in Elm Ridge Cemetery Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691 – c. ... Gilbert Tennent (February 5, 1703, County Armagh, Ireland - July 23, 1764, Philadelphia) was a religious leader. ... George Whitefield (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770), was a minister in the Church of England and one of the leaders of the Methodist movement. ...

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Jonathan Edwards, (C. Goen, editor) The Great-Awakening: A Faithful Narrative Collected contemporary comments and letters; 1972, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-01437-6.
• Alan Heimert and Perry Miller ed.; The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences 1967
• Davies, Samuel. Sermons on Important Subjects. Edited by Albert Barnes. 3 vols. New York: Robert Carter, 1845.
• ________. The Reverend Samuel Davies Abroad: The Diary of a Journal to England and Scotland, 1753-55. Edited by George William Pilcher. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1967.
• Gillies, John. Memoirs of Rev. George Whitefield. New Haven, CN: Whitmore and Buckingham, and H. Mansfield, 1834.
• Jarratt, Devereux. The Life of the Reverend Devereux Jarratt. Religion in America, ed. Edwin S. Gaustad. New York, Arno, 1969.
• Whitefield, George. George Whitefield's Journals. Edited by Iain Murray. London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1960.
• ________. Letters of George Whitefield. Edited by S. M. Houghton. Edinburgh, UK: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976.

Secondary sources

• Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People (1972) (ISBN 0-385-11164-9)
• Brekus, Catherine A. Strangers & Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845 University of North Carolina Press, 1998
• Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America Oxford University Press, 1988
• Bumsted, J. M. "What Must I Do to Be Saved?": The Great Awakening in Colonial America 1976, Thomson Publishing, ISBN 0-03-086651-0.
• Butler, Jon. "Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction." Journal of American History 69 (1982): 305-25.
• Butler, Jon. Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People. 1990.
• Conforti, Joseph A. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition and American Culture University of North Carolina Press. 1995.
• Gaustad, Edwin S. The Great Awakening in New England (1957)
• Gaustad, Edwin S. "The Theological Effects of the Great Awakening in New England," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 4. (Mar., 1954), pp. 681-706. in JSTOR
• Goff, Philip. "Revivals and Revolution: Historiographic Turns since Alan Heimert's Religion and the American Mind." Church History 1998 67(4): 695-721. Issn: 0009-6407 Fulltext: in Jstor and Ebsco
• Goen, C. C. Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740-1800: Strict Congregationalists and Separate Baptists in the Great Awakening 1987, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-8195-6133-9.
• Goff, Philip. "Revivals and Revolution: Historiographic Turns since Alan Heimert's Religion and the American Mind." Church History 1998 67(4): 695-721. Issn: 0009-6407 Fulltext: in Jstor and Ebsco
• Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity 1989.
• Heimert, Alan. Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution Harvard University Press, 1966
• Isaac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790 1982, emphasis on Baptists
• Lambert, Frank. Pedlar in Divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals; Princeton University Press, 1994
• Lambert, Frank. "The first great awakening: Whose interpretive fiction?" The New England Quarterly, vol.68, no.4, pp.650, 1995
• Lambert, Frank. Inventing the "Great Awakening"; Princeton University Press, 1999.
• McLoughlin, William G. Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977 1978.
• McLaughlin, William G. "Essay Review: the American Revolution as a Religious Revival: 'The Millennium in One Country.'" New England Quarterly 1967 40(1): 99-110. Issn: 0028-4866 Fulltext: in Jstor
• Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Holy Fairs: Scotland and the Making of American Revivalism (2001)
• Schmotter, James W. "The Irony of Clerical Professionalism: New England's Congregational Ministers and the Great Awakening," American Quarterly, 31 (1979), a statistical study
• Stout, Harry. The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism William B. Eerdmans, 1991
• Tracy, Joseph. The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield, 1842; reprinted 1997

Notes

1. ^ Holly Reed. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), from The Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Modern Western Theology (htm). Retrieved on 2007-06-09.
2. ^ McLaughlin (1966), Goff (1998).
3. ^ Ahlstrom p. 263
4. ^ Lambert 1995
5. ^ Jon Butler, "Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretive Fiction," Journal of American History 69, no. 2 (Sept 1982): 322.
6. ^ Joseph A. Conforti, Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition, and American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 12.
7. ^ Frank Lambert, Inventing the "Great Awakening" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 5-6.
8. ^ William G. McGloughlin, "'Enthusiasm for Liberty': The Great Awakening as the Key to the Revolution," in Preachers and Politicians: Two Essays on the Origins of the American Revolution (Worcester, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1977), 73.
9. ^ Alvin Reid and Malcolm McDow, Firefall: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 1997).