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• The First Great Awakening (or The Great Awakening) was a religious revitalization movement that swept Protestant Europe and British America, and especially the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American religion.
• It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal guilt and of their need of salvation by Christ.
• Getting away from all the strict rituals and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion more personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual guilt and redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality.
Great Awakening
• Churches would welcome anyone– Even without evidence of conversion
• Condemned establishment church officials– Called for piety and purity.
• Appealed to emotions; abandoned ‘spiritual coldness’– “Fire and brimstone”– Based on fear and hope
Great Awakening
• Traveling revivalists
• One of the first national events in American history
• Converted many slaves to Christianity– Some whites and blacks worshipped
together
• The Great Awakening appealed to women the most.
• It also appealed to younger sons who stood to inherit the least land.
• The revival emphasized the potential for every person to have a personal relationship with God.
New versus Old• Division of congregations• New Lights: embraced the new
revivalism• Old Lights: were suspicious of the
new revivalism and their threat to traditional authority
In the years before the war, revivalism taught people that they could be bold when
confronting religious authority, and that when churches weren't living up to the
believers' expectations, the people could break off and form new ones.
Through the Awakening, the Colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church of England, or any other religious
authority.
After a generation or two passed with this kind of mindset, the Colonists came
to realize that political power did not reside in the hands of the English
monarch, but in their own will for self-governance
The Enlightenment
Based on scientific and intellectual discoveries
Argued that reason, not just faith, could create progress and advance knowledge
Undermined traditional power
The Enlightenment
Emphasized educationThe Enlightenment did not challenge
religion but said rational inquiry would support, not undermine, Christianity
The Enlightenment did challenge the idea of some religious groups that the answer to all questions should come directly from God
The EnlightenmentScientific Revolution – must be measurable and
observable through experiments.Philosophers applied Scientific Revolution
principles to government, society, economics.Jean-Jaques Rousseau – “Radical Direct
Democracy” “Man is born free and everywhere is in chains.”
John Locke – “Social Contract” Government has certain responsibilities to its citizens,
and the citizens have responsibility to support the government. If government doesn’t do its part, people can rebel.
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property.”
The EnlightenmentMajor influence on colonists.
One reason – the colonists could readPuritans & others – importance of reading the
Bible Literacy rates – 85% of men, 50% of women By far the highest in the world
New colleges – Harvard, Yale, William and Mary
Example - Benjamin Franklin Intellectually inquisitive - Wanted to understand
everything.