The Great Awakening was a religious revival movement that originated in the 1730s and 1740s in Britain and its American colonies. It arose in response to a perceived loss of piety due to the Enlightenment and a lack of traditional church structure on the frontier. The movement emphasized emotional religious experiences and justification by faith alone rather than good works. It promoted the idea that salvation was open to all and challenged the emphasis on predestination. The Great Awakening had consequences such as disputes over religious practices, the splitting of some churches, and a new vision of expanded religious liberty for individuals.

1. The Great Awakening

3. Sources of the movement
Grew out of
• Loss of piety due to Enlightenment
• Frontier establishments lacked traditional
church structure
• Seeming loss of piety among young
– Young delaying marriage due to lack of land-
increased sexual interests of unmarried
– Rise in # of pregnancies out of wedlock.
• Youth having co-ed parties
• Hay rides under blankets
• Bundling- parents actually allowed couples to sleep
together clothed (but apparently they didn’t stay
clothed)

4. Values of the movement: Emotion
Challenged emphasis on rationality
• Emotional experience a sign of
conversion
– Since everyone could potentially have
this sort of emotional experience,
listeners assumed salvation open to all.
• A leveling affect- all equal opportunity
– Whitefield preached that emotional
experience the key test of conversion.

5. Whitefield Preaching

6. Values of the movement: Faith
Justification by faith a key component of
revivalism
• “utter dependence on the saving Grace
of God.”
• Righteousness by God only
– Contrasting faith with reliance on human
virtue

7. Values of the movement: Faith
• Not really a repudiation of predestination
(although some listeners appear to have
taken in that way).
–Message of J. Edwards and others was that
God can save anyone He pleases, and
listeners hear that they can be saved.
Listeners responded to an opportunity to
pursue salvation through an emotional faith
experience.
–Began to see in sermons and publications a
contention that the number of “select” may
be very large (previously assumed small).

8. Values of the movement: Liberty(?)
In some cases spoke for expanded vision of
religious liberty-
• “This right of judging every one for
himself in matters of religious results
from the nature of man, and is so
inseparably connected therewith, that a
man can no more part with it than he can
with his power of thinking.” Elisha
Williams, The Essential Rights and
Liberties of Protestants, p. 62 Political
Sermons of the American Founding Era,
1730-1805, vol. 1.

9. Values of the movement: Liberty(?)
• “A Christian is to receive his Christianity from
Christ alone.” Ibid, p. 64.
• “The preservation of person or property, no ways
requires the giving up this liberty [religious] into
the hands of the civil magistrate. This therefore
must remain in the individuals. The civil interest
of a state is no more affected by kneeling or
standing in prayer, than by praying with the eyes
shut or open, or by making the figure of a triangle
or cross upon a person in baptism, than by
making no figure at all. They have indeed none of
them any relation to the ends of civil
administration. The civil authority therefore have
no business with it.” Ibid, p. 70.

10. Values of the movement: Liberty(?)
“Justice in rulers therefore put them upon leaving
every member of the community…freely to chose
his own religion, and profess and practice it
according to that external form… Nor is this all; but
they should guard every man from all insult and
abuse on account of his religious sentiments…
[Both freedoms predicated on the person in
question’s religious beliefs not being a threat to
public safety]” Charles Chauncey, “Civil
Magistrates Must Be Just, Ruling in the Fear of
God.” p. 158-9 Political Sermons of the American
Founding Era, 1730-1805, vol. 1.

11. Jonathan Edwards

12. Consequences of the Great Awakening
• Caused disputes over
– nature of conversion
– practices/roles of lay ministers
– qualifications of ministers
– style of preaching
– behavior of converts (too
emotional?)

13. Consequences of the Great Awakening
• Split churches: New Lights v. Old
Lights
– Old Lights often accused revivalists of
appealing to emotions only. Mistaking
emotional experience with Godly
communication.
• Unifying many Americans w/ a
common religious experience.
• Created dissent and raised the prestige
of dissent- challenging traditional views
of religious leaders was accepted.

14. Consequences of the Great Awakening
• Dissolving theocracy- disputes
between church leaders weakened
religious power structure.
• Breakdown in theological consensus
• Relieved people of much of their
anxiety regarding salvation
• New vision of religious liberty (?)-
see above