Intellectual Foundations Intellectual Foundations ofof

18th Century America18th Century America

PuritanismPuritanism

The Great AwakeningThe Great Awakening

The EnlightenmentThe Enlightenment

The Great Awakening (1730s-1760s)

• Political Change• Upsetting the status quo• Attack on the established church - Loosened

ties [new denominations formed (Methodist, Baptist, etc.)

• Equal opportunity for salvation [importance of individual]

• Best fit the frontier and the common Man• Equality [age, sex, or social status didn’t

matter when it came to salvation]• Individualism

The Debate

“Old Lights”Puritan Tradition

[intellectual]• Contract• Reason and Logic over

emotion [basis of faith]• Well educated

[education]• Ordered liberty• Community

responsibility before individual freedom

“New Lights”A New Theology• Anti-intellectual - not

uneducated and opposed to education [see Jonathan Edwards]

• Revivalists [emotional]• Progressive• Tied America together• Nationalism• “New Light” promise

[slavery should end]

Leading Ministers of the Great Awakening:

Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards George WhitefieldGeorge Whitefield Gilbert TennentGilbert Tennent

Promoted religion of the Promoted religion of the “heart” while de-“heart” while de-emphasizing religion emphasizing religion with the intellectwith the intellect

Outcomes of the Great Outcomes of the Great AwakeningAwakening

• Reinvigorated American Protestantism• New Congregations over New/Old splits• Strong strain of anti-intellectualism created• Conversion - a message to which anyone can

respond• New Colleges - Princeton - William and Mary• Eroded authority of organized religion• Political democracy?

Secularism and Individualism

• God’s presence is not emphasized [“watchmaker” concept]• Notion of the perfectibility of

society• Deists, Unitarian Universalists

Enlightenment - the Age of ReasonEducation - important to perfect societyMoved from Europe to North America

Natural Law• Man can know and understand them (Aristotle)• Judge institutions by them and fix them.• Individual perfected society by fixing unnatural laws• Scientific approach guided life

Outcome:• Reduced the power of organized religion by removing

the sense of God’s presence• While many acknowledge a sovereign God and his

Providence, they viewed him as distant and aloof.

Reshaping the Intellectual Reshaping the Intellectual Climate of the 18th Century Climate of the 18th Century

1. Toleration1. Toleration

2. Secularism - Materialism, Frontier 2. Secularism - Materialism, Frontier PreoccupationPreoccupation

3. Reason3. Reason

Historians believe that the Great Awakening and Enlightenment were responsible for the creation of values appropriate to the coming revolution and the establishment of a new nation.