THE GREAT AWAKENING

Emerging Tensions in the Colonies

Ms. RamirezU.S. History

The Great Awakening

Content Standard & Objectives

11.3 Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.

2. Analyze the great religious revivals and the leaders involved in them, including the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Civil War revivals, the Social Gospel Movement, the rise of Christian liberal theology in the nineteenth century, the impact of the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of Christian fundamentalism in current times.

ObjectivesI. Summarize the effects that the religious

movement known as the Great Awakening had on colonial society

Quickwrite: Not One Community, but Many

Some of the first colonies in North America were founded by people looking for a place to practice their religion freely. But instead of creating one large community open to all faiths, the first settlers created a number of different religious communities.

Why do you think this happened?

RELIGIOUS TENSIONS

In early 1700s, colonial ministers believed colonists had fallen away from the faith

This belief led to the Great Awakening

GREAT AWAKENING- A spiritual renewal that swept American colonies in the 1730s-1740s

It began in England before catching fire across the Atlantic

WHAT CAUSED THE GREAT AWAKENING?

Glorious Revolution in England (1688)- left the Church of England as the primary religion

Other religions were repressed (Judaism, Catholicism, and Puritanism)

Religion became a boring and cold pastime

This complacency led to REVIVALISM

REVIVALISM

REVIVAL- A gathering where people are ‘revived’ or brought back to a religious life

Four great revivals swept the colonial era as a reaction to this perceived religious apathy

Revivalism

REVIVALISM Emphasized on personal conversion

and the emotional aspects of religious commitment

First wave began in 1730s and peaked in early 1740s

Advocates of awakening were known as “New Lights” those who opposed were “Old Lights”

Old Lights accused the revival movement of emotionalism and irrationalism

Revivalism

Revivalists Preached the terrors of hell to

awaken sinners to their need for conversion

Many converts separated from established churches to form churches with stricter rules

Colonial governments passed laws to keep ‘separation of church and state’

FIRST GREAT AWAKENING Brought ITINERANT (traveling)

preachers such as: George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards

These preachers sought to remind people of the power of God in their sermons

Preachers led revivals to encourage people to renew their religious faith

Itinerant Preachers

Great Awakening

Agitated several divisive issues, including:

1. Itinerant preaching2. Church membership

qualifications3. The role of emotion

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

“Oh Sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over by the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the dammed in hell. You hang by a slender thread.” Jonathan Edwards

George Whitefield (1714-1770)

Preached soul-searching sermons on conversion

He adapted commercial techniques, such as newspaper advertising, inexpensive publications, and the deliberate provocation of controversy, to stimulate interest.

He spoke charismatically and found in America a receptive audience for his message

George Whitefield Was known for its

“pathetical” or emotional style

He used his powerful oratorial skills to encourage ordinary people to believe that they too, could reach out to God

Attracted vast crowds in outdoor assemblies

Second Great Awakening (1790)

Brought people back to “spiritual life” as they felt a greater intimacy with God.

Characterized by great camp meetings, where participants danced in ecstasy

Methodists & Baptists opened churches in South and West, uniting blacks and whites

Preached universal salvation & perfectibility of society

Second Great AwakeningLed to the founding of

missionary, education, tract, and Bible societies as well as moral reform groups promoting temperance and chastity

Participation in moral-reform movements enhanced women’s moral and social authority

Second Great Awakening

Provided the matrix from which reform movements such as abolitionism, prohibitionism, and the women’s rights movement would come

1730-1770- Great Awakening prompts the conversion of many blacks, most of whom are slaves

EFFECTS of Great Awakening Rebellion against authoritarian

religious rule, later monarchial rule It prepared America for its War of

Independence Revivalism taught people that they

could be bold when confronting religious authority

When churches were not living up to the believer’s expectations, the people could break off and form new ones

EFFECTS of the Great Awakening

Colonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands of the Church of England

Colonists realized that POLITICAL POWER DID NOT RESIDE IN THE HANDS OF THE ENGLISH MONARCH, but in their own will for SELF-GOVERNANCE

Colonist realized that they all shared a common vision of freedom from British Rule

What Happens NEXT?

In Class Assignment

Respond to the following prompt, use information from the text and lectures. Also, make sure you state your opinions clearly by providing a detailed explanation for each of your points.

Fire and BrimstoneA religious revival called the Great Awakening

swept across the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, taking the colonists by storm. With their “hellfire and brimstone” sermons, preachers ignited scores of followers, some whom tried to convert the Native Americans and the slaves. A divide separated the older, more traditional clergy and the people who participated in the Great Awakening. The traditionalists were taken aback by the new methods of preaching and by the passionate responses of the people who experienced revival.

Why do you think the traditionalists reacted as they did?

CST Related Questions1.The First Great Awakening of the 1730’s and

1740’s was primarily aa. Movement to increase colonial loyalty to

the British monarchy.b. Revival of evangelical religion that

spread through the colonies.c. Process of assimilating immigrants into

colonial American culture.d. Period of economic prosperity brought

about by colonial trade.

CST Related Questions 2. What would be considered a significant

social effect of the First Great Awakening?a. The number of women assuming a

leadership role in religious institutions increased.

b. The number of Protestant religious denominations in the colonies declined.

c. The colonies experienced an increase in the number of Catholic immigrants.

d. The colonists began to challenge the hierarchical structure of existing religious denominations.