Enlightenment and the Great Awakening - Essay Example

Enlightenment and the Great Awakening Enlightenment and the Great Awakening In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colonial America experienced a number of changes both in its political and economic setting. This was as a result of the cities and the seaports which the colonial powers had concentrated themselves in. Such changes made North America to become a great contributor in the colonial America’s economy. As a result of the major changes taking place in the cities, there was an increase in the rural urban migration.

This was attributed to the fact that there was need for them to search for employment in the industries that had been established in the urban areas. The growth of the plantations also encouraged the migration as the plantations required laborers. There were numerous productions of raw materials for the factories and this maximized production by the industries. As a result there was a continued intake of laborers a step that made it impossible to eradicate rural urban migration. During the same period, North America experienced revivals in terms of religion, government and human nature.

The role of enlightenment was to focus on challenging the existing religious standards and the divine rights that had been adopted by the people. It was through accepting the religious beliefs and tolerance among different individuals that they could be able to successfully experience enlightenment. It was through religion that they could be able to unify themselves. That is why they argued that religion was the opium of society an avenue through which individuals would understand each other.

Religious tolerance meant the freedom of worship giving rise top the protestant and Catholics each with their own religious beliefs that would suit their spiritual demands (Boyer, Joseph, Clifford & Neal, 2008). Enlightenment began in Europe but reached the colonial America after a century. It brought with it revived interests in different sectors especially education, where there was the introduction of formal education. Children were taken to school of their choice and taught the art of reading and writing.

There was a strict syllabus that had to be followed an indication that they had to pass examinations before proceeding to the next class. Children would do their class work under the guidance of their teachers who would be responsible for assessing their performance in order to decide whether they were qualified to move to the next step. Academic achievement had the major aim of ensuring that they would become successful in future through career development (Conlin, 2008). Science and literature was also being improved and this resulted in a number of discoveries.

The discoveries were made with reference to industrial advancement and agriculture. The stewards behind ensuring that education, science and literature stressed the need for human beings to remain active in ensuring that they would use the three in bringing about progress. Reasoning was considered as a steering factor to any progress that had to be made. Rational Christianity was adopted as a form of liberal theology through which the clergy were able to use it in promoting Christianity. According to this theology, they believed in the idea that, God gave salvation to all those who were willing but not to a chosen group.

This served as an encouragement to those who were willing to join the league of Christianity. It was used as a channel of bringing in progress as Christianity had been identified as one of the avenues. The Great Awakening on the other hand, had a number of spiritual and religious revivals that made them share the same spiritual views with the south. This made them to preach faith across all the races. As a result of the Great Awakening, most of the evangelists began to condemn slavery as a sin and tried to rise against it so that it could be prohibited.

As a result of the conference that was held by the Methodist, it was declared that having a slave as your laborer would lead to immediate expulsion (Price, 2006). This encouraged people to unite in understanding the Christian faith and as a result be against slavery. Through the Great Awakening, there was the creation of several sects and denominations that sought to understand God better. The merit of the sects and denominations formed was that they all preached the need for religious tolerance.

Through the movement, there was the challenging of traditional authority by the clergy and this made it easier for them to challenge the authority by the king. This made people to be put in charge of their own fate and were responsible for their sins before the eyes of God. The need for everyone to be responsible forced the government to insist on the importance of the personal rights. The rights were being used as a model for enlightening people and they began to see the need for a just government.

They began to pursue their personal happiness. They regarded taxation without representation as being unfair a move that forced the government to recheck its ways. With time there were boycotts and frequent strikes. References Boyer, P. S., Clifford E. C., Joseph, F. K. & Neal, S. (2008). The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Volume 1. New York: Cengage Learning. Conlin, J. R. (2008). The American Past: A Survey of American History. New York: Cengage Learning. Price, A. D. (2006).

FTCE Elementary Education K-6. Toronto: Research and Education Association.