GREAT AWAKENING DEFINITION

• Enthusiastic renewal of Christianity

• Based on European religious movement called pietism

• Which stressed an individuals emotional devotion God

• Religion became intensely personal

• Worshipers became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion

• And cultivated a personal relationship with God

• As well as personal responsibility for one's own salvation.

• Rather than passively listening to an intellectual sermon by a detached minister.

• Stressed being "born again" and reuniting with God

FIRST GREAT AWAKENING (1730s - 1740s)

• Height in 1740s (during colonial period)

• Reaction to:

• Enlightenment, deism, Puritanism

• But drew on Enlightened admiration for individualism and rejection of traditional authority (British rule)

• Major Players

• Jonathan Edwards

• Wrote "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

• Based on Puritan/Congregationalist ideas

• But preached personal salvation (a person can save themselves)

• Puritanism = predestination.

• George Whitefield

• Revivalist minister from Ireland who traveled throughout the colonies

• More emotional than Edwards.

• Location

• Edwards was based in Northampton Massachusetts

• Whitefield traveled throughout the colonies.

• Influenced the "backcountry"

• In New England

• It was influential among Congregationalists (Puritans)

• In Middle and South Colonies

• influential among Presbyterians.

• New Lights and Old Lights

• New Light ministers adopted the new style of emotional preaching

• Old Lights ministers favored the traditional religious structure and less emotional sermons.

• Results

• Established a sense of unity

• Challenged power of priests (and by extension, British authority)

• Rising membership in new religious denominations

• Particularly southern Baptists (attracted African slaves)

SECOND GREAT AWAKENING (1790-1840s)

• Height in 1830s

• Reaction to:

• Industrial Revolution (1760-1820/40)

• Also resulted from increasing political participation of common citizens.

• People moving away from traditional homelands to frontier were searching for a sense of community.

• Major Players

• Charles Grandison Finney

• Location

• Western New York - the "Burned Over District" (along the Erie Canal)

• Result

• Increased membership in new religious sects

• Particularly Methodists and Baptists

• But also Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists and others.

• Spirit of revival and morality resulted in a wave of social activism.

SIMILARITIES

• Both Great Awakenings spread through revivals

• Large public meetings for preaching and prayer.

• Both focused on an individual's relationship to God

• Both Awakenings attracted more women than men

• Both resulted in new Protestant denominations.

#GreatAwakening