The Great Awakening - Spiritual Revival in Colonial America - Essay Example

? The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening refers to the wave of religious revival which swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s. This “ revival was part of a much broader movement, an evangelical upsurge taking place simultaneously on the other side of the Atlantic, most notably in England, Scotland, and Germany” (Heyrman, 2009). This revitalization of religion may be seen as an Age of Faith born in reaction to the Age of Enlightenment, in which logic and scientific reason superseded religious belief and dogma. The Great Awakening had its roots in seventeenth century England. Under Oliver Cromwell’s influence, political maneuvering extinguished excessive religious piety. The Puritans gained ascendency as a reaction to the perceived corruption and worldliness of the Church of England, while Catholics were a small minority. In 1670, Charles 11, followed by James 11, reestablished Catholic control. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw William and Mary put an end to Catholicism, repress other minority religious groups and unequivocally reinstate the Church of England as the dominant religion. The Anglican clergy shunned doctrinal extremes and adopted a moderate path. Religious belief was confined to mere nominal participation in church services. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Charles and John Wesley, along with others like George Whitefield, “reacted against the coldness of religion and the deistic rationalism which prevailed” and revived the personal significance of the gospels (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). These were the seeds of the Great Awakening. The winds of religious revival crossed the Atlantic to reach the American colonies, which also experienced “a decline in piety and a laxity of morals within the Congregational Churches of New England” (Valkenburg, 2011). This decline in piety among the second generation of Puritans of the colonies was due to economic instability, political uncertainty, and Enlightenment rationalism. The increase in manufacture and inter-colonial trade ensured a higher standard of living for a large number of merchants and manufacturers. However, the constant fluctuations in overseas demand and the wars in Europe made the colonial market very unstable. The political scene in England, described above, engendered an atmosphere of uncertainty in the colonies. These economic and political changes diverted the populace from religious concerns. Orthodox Calvinism was also challenged by the rationalism of the Enlightenment, which rejected the Puritan emphasis on the “inherent depravity” of human nature. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on logic and reason led to the study of theology being superseded by the introduction of math, science, law, and medicine into the college curriculums. Economic success and rational thought took precedence over religion and led to a laxity of morals. This weakening of religious commitment was further exacerbated by compromise within the Congregational Church. In order to stop the sharp decline in church congregations, the Congregational Churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts adopted the Halfway Covenant in 1662, by which churches baptized the second generation of Puritans as infants, with the assumption that they would be converted later in life. Again, the churches ignored the failure of this generation to adhere to this conversion stricture. The children of unregenerate Puritans were baptized but forbidden communion. By thus isolating the third generation of Puritans from the traditional means of receiving God's grace, this Covenant furthered the degeneration of the church. In 1690, the “halfway members” of the church were allowed to receive Communion. In effect, “the second and third generations of Puritans failed to demonstrate the same devotion and discipline that the original Puritans had practiced” (Valkenburg, 2011). In 1708, the Saybrook Platform, or fifteen “Articles for the Administration of Church Discipline,” attempted to reestablish control over the churches, but failed in the face of controversy and only resulted in further fragmentation of the churches in the colonies. Circumstances were ripe for a revival, spearheaded by the charismatic clergymen whose inspirational preaching sparked the fire of the Great Awakening. The beginning of the Great Awakening in America was among the Presbyterians of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Reverend William Tennent, a Scots-Irish immigrant, served as the pastor of two churches in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the 1720’s. As was common then, he also ministered to many scattered settlers. Tennent educated his four sons to become clergymen and the family initiated religious revivals in the colonies during the 1730s. In 1735, Tennent established a school for ministers in Neshaminy, Pennsylvania, which critics called “Log College” (present-day Princeton University). Tennent provided an excellent ministerial education and also established a seminary to train clergymen “whose fervid, heartfelt preaching would bring sinners to experience evangelical conversion”. These were the ministers who went on to preach personal conversion and the revivals which constituted the Great Awakening (Heyrman, 2009). Religious enthusiasm spread to the Puritans and Baptists of New England. The leading figure here was Jonathan Edwards of Massachusetts. In 1729, Edwards became the pastor of Northampton. His sermons on sin and salvation through the grace of God, were devoted to stirring “people’s affections, speaking to the heart as much as it did to the head” (BJU, 2009). Edwards’ powerful sermons ignited religious fervor in the youth, who professed conversion and joined the congregation. His tract, Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God was widely influential. Edwards “evoked vivid, terrifying images of the utter corruption of human nature and the terrors awaiting the unrepentant in hell.” His most famous sermon, in 1741, was “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in which he depicted the sinner as “a loathsome spider suspended by a slender thread over a pit of seething brimstone” (Heyrman, 2009). The revival reached the South with the preaching of Samuel Davies among the Presbyterians of Virginia. The more radical James Davenport extensively toured Connecticut preaching anticlericalism in fields and barns, using loud music and rousing congregations into a frenzy. However, it may be argued that the strongest moving force of the Great Awakening was George Whitefield. Whitefield was an itinerant preacher and evangelist in England. Along with John Wesley, he founded the Methodist Church. Whitefield’s style of preaching was revolutionary. He adopted a crowd-pleasing dramatic style, shouted and wept, engaged in imagined conversations and used his powerful voice to preach instant conversion through “faith in Jesus Christ for a personal salvation from sin, to experience a new birth through the Holy Spirit” (BJU, 2009). Whitefield preached several sermons daily, attracted massive crowds and often preached outdoors. He made multiple trips to the American colonies and gave sermons which were more in the nature of “gripping theatrical performances” (Heyrman, 2009). In 1759, Whitefield made his most momentous tour of the colonies, travelling from New England to Georgia, covering a year. He skillfully ensured publicity for his mission through media coverage, pamphlets and sermons. His gatherings “numbered in the tens of thousands” (Valkenburg, 2011). The greatest significance of Whitefield’s tour was that he was instrumental in drawing together the various, unconnected local revivals in the colonies into one Great Awakening. As he travelled through the colonies, Whitefield preached alongside Jonathan Edwards in Pennsylvania, in New Jersey with William and Gilbert Tennent, and in Virginia with Samuel Davies. The revival spread to North Carolina and the surrounding colonies. The Great Awakening truly assumed ‘great’ reach and proportion. Evangelical converts accounted for about ten percent of the church-going population (Heyrman, 2009). The significance of the Great Awakening was considerable. Individual religious experience took precedence over church dogma, leading to a decrease in the influence of the clergy and the church, while strengthening the power of the congregations. As revivalist preachers proliferated, so did their schools and churches. This resulted in the rise of manifold new denominations catering to individual faith and salvation. America became divided on religious lines, between the ‘New Light’ preachers of the Awakening and the ‘Old Light’ ministers who held fast to theology and its link to rationalism (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). Revivalist preachers such as David Brainerd, Eleazar Wheelock, and Samuel Kirkland instigated missionary activity among the Native Americans. It made the first step in the movement against slavery, as the Negroes were included in conversions. The Great Awakening strengthened opposition to the Anglican Church. It not only increased church membership but also stimulated education and promoted a separation of church and state. Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, Dartmouth, Washington and Lee, and Hampden-Sydney were established as a part of the movement. The Great Awakening engendered a democratic ethos in religion. By emphasizing that all men were sinners in the eyes of God, regardless of social class, and criticizing materialistic values, revivalism undermined deference to social superiors. The common emotional upheaval experienced by the rich and poor in conversion was a unifying factor in congregations. The Great Awakening introduced an informal language into church services, encouraged democracy within the church and the community, promoted religious tolerance and ushered in voluntarism. It may be said that the Great Awakening was instrumental in the elimination of the itinerant regulation and the Saybrook Platform, and in the passing of new Tolerance Acts in 1777 and 1784. The multitude of Protestant denominations resulted in the rejection of the clergy as intermediaries and a direct relationship between the individual and God was mooted (Valkenburg, 2011). The implications of the Great Awakening were not confined to religion alone. Above all, the Great Awakening was a truly national occurrence. As all the colonies shared this experience, there was an increased sense of unity and identification among the colonies (Valkenburg, 2011). It may be taken as “a unifying drive which helped to create a ‘national consciousness’ and a growing sense of an ‘American identity’” (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). As the colonists overthrew the authority of the established Christian churches, they asserted “religious control over their own nation’s destiny” (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). It may even be said that the Great Awakening laid the foundation for the American Revolution. It engendered the concept of consensual government and of state rule as a contract with the people. The understanding of Puritanical covenant theology by the revivalists was mirrored in the ‘social compact’ of the Declaration of Independence. As no single religious denomination was able to complacently dominate the Great Awakening, the religious zeal of the colonists persisted and ignited the drive for independence. William Knox confirmed this aspect saying, “Every man being thus allowed to be his own Pope, he becomes disposed to become his own King” (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). The Great Awakening also polarized religion in the colonies, with conservative and moderate clergymen criticizing evangelical emotionalism. The Great Awakening was a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and its attendant decline in religious fervor and moral values. The period witnessed an unprecedented religious ferment and transformed the religious landscape of the American colonies. The revivalist preachers revolutionized the church, increased the population of the church congregations tremendously and made personal faith the heart of Protestantism. A new emotionalism was introduced into religious experience. The hegemony of Church authority was overthrown. The religious movement also had political and social consequences. Even after it subsided, the principles of the Great Awakening lingered on in the colonial ethos and paved the way for American independence. It was definitely a defining moment in the history of the USA. Bibliography. “The Great Awakening. Spiritual Revival in Colonial America.” Bob Jones University. (BJU). 2009. http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/ Heyrman, Christine Leigh. “The First Great Awakening.” Divining America, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center. 2008. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/grawaken.htm Valkenburgh, Sarah. “A Dramatic Revival: The First Great Awakening in Connecticut.” Society of Colonial Wars in Connecticut. 2011. http://www.colonialwarsct.org/1740_s.htm “The Great Awakening.” Great-Awakening.com. http://www.great-awakening.com/ Read More