Would you escape the burdens of everyday life, if only for an hour? The Great Awakening made this possible in the 18th century for many men, women, and children. Trends by definition are “to have a general tendency, as events, conditions, etc.” (Dictionary, p.1) “The Great Awakening set many social and economic trends for the 18th century as well as the world today. The Great Awakening was a wave of revivals which historians have termed the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was a movement that set out to revive the piety of the faithful and to convert nonbelievers. (American Promise, p.131). Influential people like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield preached powerful sermons to win the hearts of the nonbelievers and refresh the believers that were losing their faith. “Whitefield’s preaching transported many in his audience to emotion-choked states of religious ecstasy.”(American Promise, p.131). “The revivals awakened and refreshed the spiritual energies of thousands of colonists struggling with the uncertainties and anxieties of eighteenth-century America.”(American Promise, p.131) People living in the 18th century needed a safe house. These people wanted a place to go where they would be accepted, forget their hardships, fellowship with people that were suffering like they were, and for once feel like they weren’t alone. Although no one denomination would dominate, “it was the first major event that all the colonies could share, helping to break down differences between them.”(US history, p.1). The Great Awakening brought diversity among people. “The spread of religious indifference, of deism, of denominational rivalry and of comfortable backsliding profoundly concerned many Christians.”(American Promise, p.130). Although there was difference in beliefs there was surprisingly closeness amongst all people. Economically everyone was everyone was faced with the same sort of problems. Men were worried of how to provide for their families, women were concerned with taking care of their children, and children were just that they were children. Many people during this time were burdened with poverty, hunger, insufficient amount of clothing, and no one to rely on. When the Great Awakening swept through, this changed how people viewed their situations. They were able to lose themselves in the messages that were being delivered and fellowship with people that were just like them, once again bringing the people closer together. I truly believe that America needs a Great Awakening. The people of this country have become so distanced from one another. I remember my grandfather telling me how he used to know everyone that lives in the city we’re he is from and now I don’t even know my neighbors first name.
Edwards died roughly 20 years before the American Revolution, which means he was a British subject at birth and death. Edwards believed that religion is tied to nations and empires, and that revivals were necessary in history. Edwards’ belief in revivals began what is known as The Great Awakening. Edwards’ purpose in ministry was the preaching that God is sovereign, but also loving towards his creation. Since God is sovereign, Edwards claimed that God worked through revolutions and wars to bring the message of the gospel (Marsden, Jonathon Edwards, 4, 9, 197). Edwards’ most known sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was preached to revive the demoralized congregations. The congregations of New England had low memberships within different churches, and competition from denominational pluralism was stagnant (Lukasik, 231). Getting the colonists to return back to God was the mission and purpose of The Great Awakening. Through this, Edwards hoped that this movement will foster a great increase in learning about God (Marsden, Jonathon Edwards,
The Great Awakening was a spiritual movement that began in the 1730’s in the middle colonies. It was mostly led by these people; Jonathan Edwards, a congregational pastor in Massachusetts, Theodore J. Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Byterian Pastor in New Jersey; Gilbert Tennent, a Presbyterian Pastor in New Jersey; and George Whitefield, a traveling Methodist Preacher from New England. The most widely known leader was George Whitefield. At the beginning of the very first Great Awakening appeared mostly among Presbyterians in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. The Presbyterians initiated religious revivals during these times. During this time, they also started a seminary to train clergyman. The seminary’s original name was Log College, now it is known as Princeton University. In the 1740s the clergymen of these churches were conducting revivals throughout that area. The Great Awakening spread from the Presbyterians of the middle colonies to the Congregationalist (puritans) and Baptist of New England.
The Pilgrims were also eager to experience new religious freedom from the state-ran church of Great Britain. This helped them build vibrant faithful communities in the New World. However, many individuals came to work not for God and were not all believers. After the establishment of the Church of England, other religions were inhibited. Everyone was expected to follow one religion and to believe in one religion. This led to a sense of stability from a political perspective because everyone practiced the same religion. However, instead of being a positive force for religious belief, it created spiritual dryness among believers. Individuals weren’t feeling anything spiritual or divine and it created a lack of relationships with individuals and their religion. The First Great Awakening arose at a time when people in the colonies were questioning the role of the individual in religion and society. It began at the same time as the Enlightenment, an insight that emphasized logic and reason and stressed the power of the individual to understand the universe based on scientific laws. Similarly, the Great Awakening had influenced individuals to rely more on a personal approach to redemption than the church and doctrine. There was national hunger for spiritual freedom and had wise and moral leadership. These convictions led to a spiritual revival in the colonies known as the Great Awakening. However, little did the colonists know that this spiritual movement would aid in their separation form Britain and lead to independence in the long
The Second Great Awakening swept through the United States during the end of the 18th Century. Charles Grandson Finney was one of the major reasons the Second Great Awakening was such a success. Finney and his contemporaries rejected the Calvinistic belief that one was predetermined by go God to go to heaven or hell, and rather preached to people that they need to seek salvation from God themselves, which will eventually improve society has a whole. Finney would preach at Revivals, which were emotional religious meetings constructed to awaken the religious faith of people. These meetings were very emotional and lasted upwards of five days. Revivalism had swept through most of the United States by the beginning of the 19th Century. One of the most profound revivals took place in New York. After the great revival in New York Charles Finney was known ...
People of all groups, social status, and gender realized that they all had voice and they can speak out through their emotional feels of religion. Johnathan Edwards was the first one to initiate this new level of religion tolerance and he states that, “Our people do not so much need to have their heads filled than, as much as have their hearts touched.” Johnathan Edwards first preach led to more individuals to come together and listen. Than after that individual got a sense that you do not need to be a preacher to preach nor you do not need to preach in a church, you can preach wherever you want to. For the first time, you have different people coming together to preach the gospel. You had African American preaching on the roads, Indian preachers preaching and you had women who began to preach. The Great Awakening challenged individuals to find what church meets their needs spiritually and it also let them know about optional choices instead of one. The Great Awakening helped the American colonies come together in growth of a democratic
The Second Great Awakening was significant because reform movements were connected with religion. Most of reform movements were in fact influenced by the religious ideas expressed during the Great Awakening. Religious congregations and sermons challenged the true faith of people, and as a result different religious groups emerged in order to purify the society. With the ongoing religious revivals, different group of people also began to question the governing norms, which contradicted with religious teachings. In David Walker’s, “African American Abolitionist David Walker Castigates the United States for Its Slave System, 1829,” Walker also raised the question of African slavery, and how it did not agree with Christianity. Walker said:
During the Second Great Awakening, a mass revival of American society took place. Reformers of every kind emerged to ameliorate women’s rights, education and religious righteousness. At the forefront of the movement were the temperance reformers who fought for a change in alcoholism, and abolitionist who strived for the downfall of slavery.
In the early 1700's spiritual revivalism spread rapidly through the colonies. This led to colonists changing their beliefs on religion. The great awakening was the level to which the revivalism spread through the colonists. Even with this, there was still religious revivalism in the colonies. One major reason for the Great Awakening was that it was not too long before the revolution. The great awakening is reason to believe that William G Mcloughlin's opinion and this shows that there was a cause to the American Revolution.
The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival. It influenced the entire country to do good things in society and do what was morally correct. The Second Great Awakening influenced the North more than it did the South and on a whole encouraged democratic ideas and a better standard for the common man and woman. The Second Great Awakening made people want to repent the sins they had made and find who they were. It influenced the end of slavery, abolitionism, and the ban of alcohol, temperance.
In the North we saw a different religious awakening. Reform was popping up all over the Northeast. This reform came in different faces, depending on which state it wa...
The third Great Awakening began approximately in 1850 and lasted until the turn of the twentieth century. This time was a time of reform, and the third Great Awakening paralleled this ideal with a strong sense of social activism. It also placed emphasis on evangelizing and spreading the gospel, which also paralleled the United States growing imperialism. This was a time of growth for both the church and the state. This was also a time for waning Christian faiths. The second Great Awakening
The Great Awaking was an awaking of religious beliefs and spirits, another movement, later labeled the “enlightenment” was an awakening of learning. Great improvements in science and technologies were coming out of Europe. Great thinkers were writing and challenging the norm. They brought up ideas of leaving England and questioned the Authority of the crown.
The First Great Awakening was a religious revival from the 1730s-70s, where we see an increase in the importance of Christianity, in addition to a challenge to traditional authority. One of the most important causes was known as The Enlightenment. This was a movement away from religion where individuals were becoming more encouraged to make decisions based on reason and logic rather than faith. People were starting to make decisions dependent on experiences and facts, rather than the individual beliefs of their religion. This can be credited to philosophers of that time advocating that, should people want change in their society, they should rely on education and reason to do so. John Locke, an English philosopher was one of the most well known contributors to the beginning of the Enlightenment. Before the Great Awakening, there was an increase in church absenteeism and religions piety was waning, meaning that the people were becoming less pure and less religion. In order to reverse the cause of the Enlightenment, we have people like, Jonathan Edwards, a Christian preacher, who is recognized as starting the Great Awakening, along with the simultaneous migration of German settlers who ignited a spark of Pietism in some New England states.
I totally understand from reading and my research that these die-hard supporters of the First Great Awakening were trying to draw people out of the depressing tenets of Puritan religion. These preachers realized that people throughout the American colonies were in utter darkness believing that their good deeds and works would provide them an eternal life in Heaven. However; these great ministers wanted people throughout the colonies to understand and realize that the only way to have eternity in Heaven was through salvation in Jesus Christ. “The Great Awakening was said to be so effective because it sparked spiritual renewal by suggesting that redemption was available to everyone who would accept it, not just those that were the privileged ones in society.” It is good to see that these men totally understood the heartbeat of God; that the gospel is meant for all people. I also believe that the unity and shaping that came from the Great Awakening is what helped bring the American colonies together to fight and gain its freedom from England. These believers came to the New World seeking and desiring freedom from England and they gained it; while at the same time coming into a deeper relationship with Jesus
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.