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The First Great Awakening

Page history last edited by Mr. Hengsterman 3 months, 4 weeks ago

 

 

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God  - The First Great Awakening [1739-1744] 
 Intercolonial religious revivals democratized religion and marked a direct challenge
to the
deferential thinking that dominated the colonies.

 

 

 

 

The Bible Belt 

 

1662 The “Half-Way Covenant” in New England eases Puritan rules about who can be a full church member. Some see this as a move away from the strict Puritan beliefs of the first settlers.

 

1693 Salem Witch Trials. Many people are accused of witchcraft. A large number are hanged. Some see this witchcraft as a sign that God is angry at the Puritans for giving up their strict beliefs. However, this is the last significant witchcraft scare in America. The trials were called off in 1693. Some jurors soon apologize for what happened.

 

1690’s Cotton Mather is a famous Puritan leader. In many of his writings, he worries about the fading away of strict Puritan beliefs and practices.

 

1720’s  Religious revivals are led by Theodore Frelinghuysen and Gilbert Tennant in New Jersey. These are the first signs of the Great Awakening.

 

1734-1737 Jonathan Edwards begins giving very moving sermons in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards is considered one of America’s greatest religious thinkers.

 

1739-1741 Methodist George Whitefield travels between England and America several times, preaching throughout the colonies. 

 

1741 Jonathan Edwards gives the most famous Great Awakening sermon of all, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

 

1751-1758 The Great Awakening splits Presbyterians into groups for and against the revivals. Similar splits into “Old Lights” and “New Lights” take place among Congregationalists (Puritans) in New England. 

 

 



 

What was the Great Awakening    "Protestant Evangelism

A wave of religious revivals began in New England  in the mid 1730’s.  The revival swept across ALL of the colonies during the 1740’s. It represents one of the first events to unify the colonies.

 

In New England, in particular, the Great Awakening represented a REACTION against the growing formality and the dampening of religious fervor in the Congregation Churches.   Colonist began  to  question the Puritan idea of an omnipotent God predestined some individuals for salvation. Elsewhere in the colonies no single church was able to satisfy the population's spiritual and emotional needs.

 

 Quotable " Churchgoers increasingly complained about the “dead dogs” who droned out tedious, over erudite sermons from Puritan pulpits." 

 



 

Context of the First Great Awakening 

 

Point #1 The development of religious toleration was partially established by Puritan dissenters, most notably Roger Williams. After he was banished from  Massachusetts Bay, Williams founded Rhode Island and is known to us for his insistence on the separation of church and state, as well  as his opposition to forced worship.  

 

Point #2 Religious conditions made Americans increasingly aware that they had religious choices to make. Indeed, everyone had to choose, even if they chose to stay where they were. 

 

Point #3 Two “established,” or tax-supported, churches were conspicuous in the colonies: Anglican ( largest religion in New York and the Southern colonies (same as the Church of England);  Congregational (largest religion in New England e.g. Puritans and others who broke away from the Church of England).

 

 A considerable segment of the population,  surprisingly enough, did not worship in any church.  And in those colonies that maintained an “established”  religion, only a minority of the people  belonged to it.

 



 

Content of the Message

 

Salvation came through faith and prayer, not just rituals or good works. God, the creator, was open to all who made an appeal to Him.

 

Many groups believed an organized Church was not needed.  The individual, not any religious authority, judged his or her own behavior based on one's understanding of God and the Bible.

 

Personal piety--break away from the constraints of the past and start fresh.

 

Revivals resulted in changed behaviors (decrease in card-playing, drunkenness, increase in church attendance, Bible study)

 

The conversion of all individuals to Christianity would improve society.  

 

 



 

The Spark that Ignited the Great Awakening 

 

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) Most influential theological writer and thinker of the movement.  Believed individual will can be an effective force in being saved.

 

Credited with starting the Great Awakening in 1734. Edwards gave gripping sermons about sin and the torments of Hell - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He painted a horrifying picture of eternal damnation for unsaved souls -  "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." 

 

 

 

 

 

Edwards's aim was to teach his listeners about the horrors of hell, the dangers of sin and the terrors of being lost. Edwards described the shaky position of those who do not follow Christ's urgent call to receive forgiveness.   Edwards compares sinners to spiders and serpents, creatures despised by humans just as sinners are despised by God. This shows his unconverted congregation how poorly God thinks of them.

 

Jonathan Edwards was interrupted many times before finishing the sermon by people moaning and crying out, "What shall I do to be saved?"   

 

 


The Celebrity Itinerant Preacher 

 

George Whitefield (1714-1770) 

George Whitefield spread the “New Light” fervor as he preached emotional sermons to huge crowds of enthralled listeners. Gripped by fear of divine justice, audiences from Georgia to New England promised to repent and accept Christ. Founded Methodism in Georgia and South Carolina.  

 

 


SOURCE: Nathan Cole in Connecticut, 1740 

 

“When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the Scaffold he looked almost angelical, a young, slim slender youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted countenance, and my hearing how God was with him every where as he came along it solumnized my mind, and put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach; for he looked as if he was Cloathed with authority from the Great God, and a sweet solemn solemnity sat upon his brow. And my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound; by Gods blessing my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me; then I was convinced of the doctrine of Election and went right to quarrelling with God about it, because all that I could do would not save me; and he had decreed from Eternity who should be saved and who not.”

 

 

 Quotable" George Whitefield loosed a different style of  evangelical preaching on America and touched off a conflagration of religious ardor that revolutionized  the spiritual life of the colonie

 

 



 

 

Elements of the Great Awakening 

Main issue was religious style: personal faith, church practice, & public decorum.

 

#1 Enthusiasm--emotional manifestations (weeping, fainting, physical movements) in contrast to staid and formal Anglican and Congregational worship. Whitefield would preach to crowds as large as 30,000 with great emotion.   ClipA Contemporary PreacherContemporary speaker

 

 

#2 Itinerancy--preachers roamed rural and urban areas and holding meetings and gatherings outside a traditional church setting 

 

#3 Democracy

Itinerant preachers insisted that all should have the religious experience


Participation in revivals stirred impulse towards independence among colonists


Movement broke down strong denominational ties

 

Presented a challenge to religious authority. for example, Baptists in the South preached to slaves and against the ostentatious wealth of the planter class.

 

 



 

Consequences of the  Great Awakening  

 

The Great Awakening undermined the authority of the established churches and led to a decline of the “Old Light” Puritan ministers. 

 

The Great Awakening split the Presbyterian and Congregational churches into “New Light” factions that supported the Great Awakening and “Old Light” factions that opposed it. 

 

The Great Awakening fragmented American Protestants thus promoting religious pluralism and toleration since single denominations could impose its dogma on the other sects.

 

The older groups that dominated the early colonies – the Puritans and the Anglicans – eventually began a drastic downward trend in popularity. Although they accounted for about 40% of American congregations as late as 1760, that number eventually dropped to under 2.5% by 1790.

 

 

 


The Great Awakening encouraged missionary work among Native Americans and African slaves.

 

The Great Awakening led to an increase in the number of women in church congregations

 

The Great Awakening led to the founding of “New Light” colleges such as Princeton, Rutgers, Dartmouth and Brown. 

 

Some historians speculate that the Great Awakening provided a religious rehearsal for the American Revolution , because it psychologically armed people to stand up to the authorities and if necessary questions and challenge the power that be 

 

The Great Awakening had a strong democratic component as people  People increasingly had more choice over religion

 

 

13 colonies: religion

 

variety of religions were practiced in the 13 American colonies. The New England region, in the north, was dominated by Congregationalists, including Puritans and Separatists such as the Pilgrims. The Middle region had great religious diversity, with many Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Quakers, and members of German and Dutch Reformed churches. Anglicanism was predominant in the Southern colonies.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARCHIVES from GREAT AWAKENING NOTES

 

 

 

 

 

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