• 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

•The Awakening's biggest significance was the way it prepared America for its

War of Independence.

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.