The Correlation Between Hymns And Great Awakening

1087 Words3 Pages

How do hymns such as “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” and the fear-provoking sermon “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” correlate? The two both belong to the period of religious revival in Early America known as the Great Awakening that occurred from the 1730s-1750s. The transition from the religious doctrine of the Puritans to the newfound teachings of the main evangelists Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield changed the religious beliefs of the colonies in many different ways, from encounters with Native Americans to the introduction of hymns. With the new ideals of Christianity, newly composed hymns and Great Awakening tenets commonly shared themes of emotion, conversion experiences, signs from God, union, and acts in the community or pilgrimage.
Before addressing the correlation between …show more content…

As Marini explains in “Hymnody as History: Early Evangelical Hymns as Sacred Music,” emotional appeals to congregations not only remained in Edwards’s sermons of fear, but they also ranged in other sermons with appeals to guilt and obligation as well (134). Similarly, hymns also appealed to the emotional side of the singers and listeners. For example, in the hymn “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed” by Watts, emotionally provokes the singer and listener to feel obligated to repent from causing Jesus to die on the cross for their sins (250,). In the song, the reoccurring theme of redemptive love that should be followed with action prevails throughout all verses: “But drops of grief can ne’er repay / The debt of love I owe;/ Here Lord, I give myself away: / ‘Tis all that I can do” (228). The hymns throughout the Great Awakening provoked the audience members emotionally whether through explaining redeeming love or the desolate situation that Christ saved them from. Overall, both the hymns and religious texts of the Great Awakening utilize pathos to provoke the

Open Document