thesis--pre-1st great awakening and its influence on the american revolution

7/29/2019 Thesis--Pre-1st Great Awakening and Its Influence on the American Revolution

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AMERICAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

THE INFLUENCE OF THE 1ST GREAT AWAKENING ON THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO

THE FACULTY OF DR.NICK CEH

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS IN GLOBAL HISTORY

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY HIST699 SPR 13

BY

JOHN MICHAEL ANDERSON

3123909

CHARLES TOWN, WEST VIRGINIA

AUGUST 2013


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Copyright 2013 by Author

All rights reserved.


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CONTENTS

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ABSTRACT

The focus of the influence of the Great Awakening on the American Revolution is not about

Valley Forge, the Saratoga, Lexington, or any other infamous revolutionary battles. The emphasis is

placed in an historical-theological perspective of the influence of the Great Awakening on the

American Revolution. As the title suggests, it does have theological interpretation and, as such, uses

historic religious references from a very conservative viewpoint. During one of the first George Bush

Jr, debates for the President of the United States, when asked to name a favorite philosopher and briefly

state why, Candidate George Bush, calmly stated, Jesus Christ . . . because HE changed my life. Just

as the liberal media pounced all over this statement with much criticism, many liberal historians would

criticize the continual references to Judeo-Christian ethics and of the references to Jesus Christ. The

United States of America was built on Godly principles, based on the Judeo-Christian ethic. Many of

the early settlers came here seeking several thingsamong those were religious freedom. Yet, the

religious freedom was still Christian based. Different ideas of interpretation developed but that

development did not deny the God of the Old and New Testaments, of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses,

the prophets, Jesus Christ, the Disciples, and the Apostles. Some people even question the place of

religion in history; yet, even the basic secular school textbooks address religion on an introductory

level. Some may challenge The Influence of the Great Awakening on the American Revolution, as

being a work of religion or philosophy, but they need reminding that without the historic God of the

Bible, there would be no need for religion or philosophy. Americans, whether they accept conservative

Christian historian views of the influences of the Great Awakening, need to be unashamedly reminded


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of these views and their believed effects on the historic past as they relate to the future. The Great

Awakening was not the only contributing influence on the American Revolution; but it was a major

contributor. The reliable sources used in this work will remind, if not convince that the effects of the

Great Awakening on the American Revolution, as supported by many historians, were paramount.


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INTRODUCTION

In considering the history of civilizations, the application of discovery forces the historian to

consider the roles and impacts of religion, as evidenced by the texts and application of the discipline.

The study of history and religion intertwine and are inseparable. As mankind invariably seeks the

origins of identity, scholars continuously debate the uniqueness of that origin. The origin of the world

and its inhabitants, of man and his fall, combined with the hope of restoration, all seem meaningless

without acknowledging the connection of religion.

Man, in his demented state, oppresses subordinates, enslaves, and causes riot and insurrection

and, sometimes, revolutions. Human history can no more be separated from morality and religion than

it can be separated from historic battles and the notorious leaders who led them and the stuff of which

history is made; or, from the differences in race and culture. Such components of history must be

boldly addressed for a true understanding, perception, and application of history. C. Thomas McIntire

is an accomplished professor of history and religions at the University of Toronto. In an essay, The

Renewal of Christian Views of History in an Age of Catastrophe: Christianity and History, from his

book, God, History, and Historians, McIntire confirms the issues of history and the need for morality in

history, and the renewed Christian interest in history,

The range of issues concerning history that they [main contributors] and many others have

addressed themselves covered the theology of history, the philosophy of history, and

historiography. It includes questions of the meaning of history, time, the nature of history,Gods work in history, laws in history, religion and culture, the characterof historical study and

historical knowledge. The renewed Christian views of history are no narrow phenomenon.1

McIntire's perception of the elements of history seems to support the natural historical

1 C.Thomas McIntire, The Renewal of Christian Views of History in

an Age of Catastrophe: Christianity and History, C.T. McIntire,

http://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/McIntire/RenewalHistory.pdf(accessed August 6, 2013).
http://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/McIntire/RenewalHistory.pdfhttp://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/McIntire/RenewalHistory.pdfhttp://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/McIntire/RenewalHistory.pdf


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chronology of events as they are commonly placed in most secular textbooks and other references.

This chronology usually begins in the Mesopotamian Valley, where it is generally accepted as the birth

of civilization, and the various presentations and discussions concerning the ancient near eastern texts,

the epic of Gilgamesh and ancient Sumeria is credited for major contributions of importance to

civilization. The vividly colored story of historic chronology flows through the development of the

Hebrew nation, through their Egyptian enslavement, through the Hellenization and conquests of Egypt

by such conquerors as Alexander the Great and the beginning of Westernization. According to the

outlines of most secular textbooks the natural understanding and perception of history leads to

discussions concerning the West and Westernization, and, unfortunately, ignores or forgets the

influences and importance of the East.

Although Americanization has replaced Westernization, when talking about relevant histories

of America, specifically, of the United States, still considered by most historians as a Western nation,

the influences of Westernization cannot be ignored. These influences have been witnessed on a

personal level, having traveled to Egypt and South Korea. Acknowledging these worldwide influences

does not elevate Westernization and Americanization to superior statuses. However, the world envy of

the American ways of life deserves a footnote and the relevance will be obvious in the conclusion of

this thesis. Arriving in Cairo, Egypt during the nighttime impresses the American tourist as merely

being transported from one large city to another. The city lights dazzle with expressions of excitement,

industrialization, modern lifestyles, and predominant Western influence. Common sites of business

districts are fast food chains, like Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonalds; Mobil gas stations and

convenient stores; lighted advertisement signs such as Colgate toothpaste, Lipton tea, Coca-Cola, and

Pepsi; in the very elite sides of the city, there are shopping malls in the Western style; grocery stores

where the isles are mostly imported American foods; and even street vendors selling American

products like Hostess snack cakes. Historian Ernst Breisach, a Professor Emeritus of History at the


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University of Vienna, Austria, in Historiography: Ancient, Medieval & Modern, discusses the superior

dynamics and progress of the West, and how it has transformed many cultures through its influences of

advances in hygiene, education, science, self-government, and individualism. Religious freedom and

tolerance helped many empires, like the Ottoman Empire, to survive for many centuries. Just as

religious suppression and intolerance of the Ottoman Empire was one reason for its decline, similar

suppressions and intolerance caused Romes decline.

Perhaps the real criticism of the Westespecially Americahas to do with the values and

ethics we still maintain. While there have been growing pains and lessons to learn from mistakes, along

with the slowly healing wounds from the treatment of the Native Americans and slavery. America

adamantly opposes genocide, racism, totalitarianism, dictatorships, Holocaustic situations, religious

suppression, and forms of communism. America continues to oppose the Joseph Stalins, the Augusto

Pinochets, the Adolf Hitlers, Osama Bin Ladens, and the Pol Pots in world societies. Even though

Israel has been roguish at times, America remains her friend. Roger Scruton compares the

governments of Western Civilization to those of dictatorships, communism, and socialism, in The West

and the Rest,

Western civilization is composed of communities held together by a political process, and bythe rights and duties of the citizen as defined by that process. . . . Having consigned the business

of government to defined offices, occupied successively by people who are the servants and not

the masters of those who elected them, we can devote ourselves to what really mattersto theprivate interests, personal loves, and social customs in which we find our satisfaction. Politics,

in other words, makes it possible to separate society from the state, so removing politics from

our private lives. Where there is no political process, this separation does not occur. In the

totalitarian state or military dictatorship everything is political precisely because nothing is.Where there is no political process everything that happens is of interest to those in power,

since it poses a potential threat to them. In Saddams Iraq, as in Soviet Russia, social life iscarried on furtively, under the vigilant eyes of a secret police force that can never be certain that

it has discovered the real conspiracy that may one day destroy it.2

2 Roger Scruton, Chapter 1: The Social Contract, in The West

and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat(Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2002), 16-17.


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Scruton points out, It is thanks to Western prosperity, Western legal systems, Western forms of

banking, and Western communications that human initiatives now reach so easily across frontiers to

affect the lives and aspirations of people all over the globe.3

Most importantly has been its embracement of the cross of Jesus Christ and the adherents of the

Christian faith, Ernst Breisach, in Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern,

The Christian and progress interpretations of human history had defined the unity of world

history and given direction to all historical phenomena through, respectively, Divine Providence

and the inexorable development of rationality. . . This no teleological view sounds plausibleuntil one tries to locate in this scheme the scientific-technological achievements of Western

culture that are presently transforming most other cultures. . . Did either objectivity or respect

for the sensitivities of the new non-Western nations obligate history to neglect the fact ofWestern cultures apparent superior dynamics? Believers in progress among historians claimed

that Western influence on other cultures by pointing to the advances in hygiene, education,

science, self-government, and individualism.4

Mentioning the West is very relevant because of the outcomes of the Italian Renaissance and

the Protestant Reformation that enhanced the discovery of America and proponents of religious

freedom. The West or Westernization became so enticing because of the elements of the Italian

Renaissance that brought religious freedom and expression to Europe. This created the environment

for the Protestant Reformation, which promoted exploration and discovery of America.

Social science and moral philosophy was brought to light by such philosophers as Diderot and

Rousseau resultant of the Industrial and French revolutions. The influence was so great that much of

the eighteenth century is referred to as the Age of Revolutions. The word revolution brings to mind

many historical images of fundamental change in power and organizational structures. For example,

one may think of Charles Dickens's novel, A Tale of Two Cities, and the French guillotine, which is so

3 Ibid., 130.

4 Ernst Breisach, 28. The Enigma of World History, in

Historiography: Ancient, Medieval & Modern, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 395-96.


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vividly portrayed. Many images of shifting paradigms come to mind when considering the various

revolutions that have shaped history. New found freedoms and rediscovery of the old law codes, now

available to the common people through the printed word and better educational facilities, rendered

entirely new ideas of government, religion, culture, and citizenship. Law codes begin in the roots of

ancient philosophythe Law of Moses, the Hammurabi Law Code (died c. 1750 BC)first king of the

Babylonian Empire, Solon (c. 638 BC558 BC)the Athenian Lawmaker, Lycurgus of Sparta (800

BC?730 BC?), the Spartan Lawgiver, and numerous other less familiar law givers. The elements of

these codes were the blueprint for the American ideal or the American Way. These new interpretations

laid the groundwork for our common understanding of democracy and liberty. Phrases like

inalienable rights, all men are created equal, endowed by our Creator, and, the pursuit of

happiness are the basic tenets of our democratic republic.

Citing the various ideals from world religious leaders places conservative fundamental

Christian views and interpretations in the appropriate place in history. The history, literature, and oral

works of antiquity taken from crumbling libraries more influenced cultural change than the study of the

natural sciences in the medieval world. During the Italian Renaissance, the resurgence of learning

based on classical sources brought widespread educational reform and many revolutions in many

intellectual pursuits including those of social and political. This cultural movement impacted the

characteristics of humanism, art, science, and self-awareness. Theodore K. Rabb, an historian of the

early modern period and is Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University. In The Struggle for

Stability in Early Modern Europe, he discusses the pre-Renaissance era in Europe,

Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinistsnot to mention the radical sectsclung to irreconcilableworld views; overseas discoveries revealed the falsity of ancient geographic assumptions, and

brought to light human beings, such as cannibals, whose principals were unthinkable to a

European; departures in social, political, and economic affairs changed traditional relationshipsand institutions beyond recognition: the autonomy of the locality, the supremacy of the

aristocracy, and the subservience of the merchant no longer seemed unchallengeable; the

mordant cynicism of a Machiavelli and a Rabelais were both symptom and cause of unease; and


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then Copernicus and Vesalius announced that the descriptions of nature associated with

Ptolemy and Galen, which had been revered for over a thousand years, were wrong . . .

Europes leaders, philosophers, and artists grappled with a world that seemed to be crumbling

about them.5

This new birth or renaissance of religions, government, politics, and society contributed to

the Protestant Reformation, which vividly symbolizes these changes. According to the Abingdon

Dictionary of Living Religions, The Protestant Reformation called for a reform of morals and of the

institutions of the church . . . In 1517, Martin Luther was the voice of many late medieval Christians

who were dissatisfied with the spiritual and pastoral guidance provided by the church of that day.6

These people were hungry for a feeling of personal worth and self-confidence. This is similar to the

pre-dawning of the Great Awakening in America, specifically, the preaching of Jonathan Edwards,

which brought about cohesiveness among the people and revived spiritually, emotionally, socially,

politically, and economically. The impact in America has been directly related to the Christian view of

God, as evidenced in such historical documents as The Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the

Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and even, the Constitution of the United

States of America. It is easy to recognize the God alluded to in these historic events, evidenced by

these historic documents, was the Jehovah God of Judaism and Christianity. With this in mind, it is a

logic assumption that America was built on the basic Godly tenets of Judaism and Christianity.

Historic documented Christian revivals show the impact of Godliness nationwide, in

international influences. The writing of the previously mentioned documents preludes The First Great

Awakening (1730s-1740s), usually referred to as The Great Awakening, which was the time of

national revival and true renaissance in the life of the American people which brought about

5 Theodore K. Rabb, V: Beginnings and Cultural Malaise, in The Struggle for Stability in Early

Modern Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), 37.

6 Keith Crim and general, eds., Reformation, Protestant, in Abingdon Dictionary of Living

Religions (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1981), 606.


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reformation. Revival swept many states and gripped people with conviction and gave them a desire to

be holy or to seek Godliness. Before it was over, it had swept the colonies of the Eastern seaboard,

transforming the social and religious life of the land. The Great Awakening and each of its components

correspond to important periods of national need. The aforementioned documents were penned,

desiring the freedom to uphold Godly tenets while anticipating the blessings from such freedoms, were

raised as beacons of light sat upon a hill. God and the ideas of holiness were interwoven in the hearts

of settlers, pilgrims, patriots, and revolutionists. The shot heard around the world resounded in

reverberation as the proponents of liberty matched the proclamation of freedom similar to that of

Moses when he proclaimed, in Leviticus 25:10, Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the

inhabitants thereof. While application was slow to some inhabitants, the United States was eventually

all inclusive in unifying her inhabitants.

The website, Great-Awakening.com: Analysis and Information on the First Great Awakening,

provides downloadable primary sources and thoroughly demonstrates the effects of this spiritual revival

on the American Revolution. This great spiritual revival of the late eighteenth century greatly impacted

the course of the United States and gave a national identity to Colonial America.7 It was brought

about by a [disassociation] with the established approach to worship at the time . . .8and was

characterized by great fervor and emotion in prayer.9 This spiritual revival promoted and allowed

people to express their emotions more overtly in order to feel a greater intimacy with God.10

Previous

historic religious suppressions, religious complacency, dead spirituality, and a lack of deeply felt

7 The Great Awakening, inAnalysis and Information on the First Great Awakening,

http://Great-Awakening.com(accessed August 8, 2013).

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.
http://great-awakening.com/http://great-awakening.com/http://great-awakening.com/


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convictions yielded to the personal ambitious need of spiritual fulfillment.

The Awakenings biggest significance was the way it prepared America for its War of

Independence. In the decades before the war, revivalism taught people that they could be boldwhen confronting religious authority and that when churches werent living up to the believers

expectations, the people could break off and form new ones. Through the Awakening, theColonists realized that religious power resided in their own hands, rather than in the hands ofthe Church of England, or any other religious authority. After a generation or two passed with

this kind of mind-set, 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 . . . By 1775, eventhough the Colonists did not all share the same theological beliefs, they did share a common

vision of freedom from British control.11

Plutarch, the father of humanism, which started the Italian Renaissance, legitimately challenged

the authority of the Catholic Church, as the universal church, because of the immorality of many of her

leaders. There hadbeen conflicting views of nature. Mans will was imbalanced with the scientific

realmthe necessity of the physical man; the psychological realm, and the theological realmthe

relationship of Divine Sovereignty and human freedom. Hendrik Willem van Loon comments about

the availability of the printed word and its influencesspecifically, the Bible,

There is the rarely mentioned fact that Germany was the home of the printing press. In northern

Europe books were cheap and the Bible was no longer a mysterious manuscript owned and

explained by the priest. It was a household book of many families where Latin was understoodby the father and by the children. Whole families began to read it, which was against the law ofthe Church. They discovered that the priests were telling them many things which, according to

the original text of the Holy Scriptures, were somewhat different. This created doubt. People

began to ask questions. And questions, when they cannot be answered, often cause a great deal

of trouble.12

These conflicting views paralleled the problems with the social institutions, like the family, its origin,

parents and children, womens place and roles, child life and education. Other problems with the social

11 Ibid., Ibid. .

12 Hendrik Willem Van Loon, 43. The Progress of the Human Race Is Best

Compared to a Gigantic Pendulum Which Forever Swings Forward and Backward. The Religious

Indifference and the Artistic and Literary Enthusiasm of the Renaissance Were Followed by the Artisticand Literary Indifference and the Religious Enthusiasm of the Reformation, in The Story of Mankind

(New York: Boni and Liveright, 1921), 245.


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institutions relate to the state and the church. This rebirth brought about the Protestant Reformation,

and the first Great Awakening, which according to Paul Johnson, who, in A History of the American

People, boldly states, without a Great Awakening, there would have been no American Revolution.

The Great Awakening, according to Johnson,

Was . . . the proto-revolutionary event, the formative moment in American history, preceding

the political drive for independence and making it possible . . .

But even more important than the new geographical sense of unity was the change in mens

attitudes . . . The Revolution could not have taken place without this religious background [of

the Great Awakening].13

Based on this, it is evident that one of the greatest contributing factors to the American Revolution was

the first Great Awakening.

13 Paul Johnson, Part One: 'A City on a Hill': Colonial America, 1580 -1750: The Great Awakening

and Its Political Impact, inA History of the American People (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 85-86.


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CHAPTER 1: The Great Awakening: What was the Great Awakening?

It would be impossible to define the Great Awakening in the context of a specific date or a

specific person. Paul Johnson addresses the question of the definition of the Great Awakening,

It was, is, hard to define, being one of those popular movements which have no obvious

beginning or end, no pitched battles or legal victories with specific dates, no constitutions orformal leaders, no easily quantifiable statistics and no formal set of beliefs. While it was taking

place it had no name. Oddly enough, in the first major history of America, produced in the

middle decades of the 19th

century, George Bancrofts History of the United States (183474),

the term Great Awakening is never used at all. One or two modern historians argued that thephrase, and to some extent the concept behind it, was actually invented as late as 1842, by

Joseph Traceys bestselling book, The Great Awakening: a History of the Revival of Religion

in the Times of Edwards and Whitefield.

Whatever we call it, however, there was a spiritual event in the first half of the 18th century inAmerica, and it proved to be of vast significance, both in religion and in politics. It was indeed

one of the key events in American history.14

The discovery of new continents impacted exploration, exploitations, and colonization. The

history of many communities has been influenced by the various people who immigrated to that

community. Different people were attracted to different areas for different reasonsspecifically, the

United States, which include the lure of economic opportunity, the possibility of freedom of worship,

and inexpensive availability of land. Each nationality brought its language and customs, and many of

these people settled near family and friends, creating communities with a predominant single-ethnic

heritage. Tidal waves of immigration have taken millions of peopleIrish, German, Italian, Austro-

Hungarian, Russian, to name a few examplesto different parts of the world. This was the same for

America. These people are greatly responsible for forging the society and community influence in the

United States because of their hard work ethic and their settling in rural areas where educational

14 Paul Johnson, Part One: A City on a Hill: Colonial America, 1580 -1750: The Great Awakening

and Its Political Impact, inA history of the American People (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 81-82.

PDF e-book.


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facilities and organized churches were very limited, almost non-existent. Charles Hartshorn Maxon, in

The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies

In the middle of the eighteenth century a tidal wave of religious fervor and reforming zeal swept

overt the British colonies in America. When this wave of emotionalism had passed, when theextraordinary in Christian experience and activity had given place to the ordinary, the friends of

the revival, and after them their sons and sons sons, called it the Great Awakening.15

The influence of the Great Awakening on the American Revolution should be viewed similarly

to viewing the effects of the Italian Renaissance, which led to the Protestant Reformation. Feudalism

and medieval life of the Middle Ages left European human life bankrupt of worth and cultural

expression. The feelings of bankruptcy during the pre-Renaissance times in Europe were similar to

those feelings experienced by the colonists on the eastern seaboard prior to the Great Awakening.

However, the Renaissance, fueled by the reemergence of individual worth as emphasized by the

Humanists, revitalized both literary and cultural achievements of the great preceding civilizations of

Greece and Rome. Hendrik Willem van Loon the Renaissance and revival, the revival of learning and

art was bound to be followed by a revival or religious interests.16

This parallels the Enlightenment

period that took place during the eighteenth century in Western Europe, England, and America. During

this time, the authority of the English government and religious leaders was weakened to the extent that

citizens no longer feared voicing their opinions. Carlton J. H. Hayes and Parker Thomas Moon,

American inheritance and ideas in, Modern History, One might well say that we of the present day are

the heirs of countless ages: our inheritance consists of ideas, institutions, knowledge, civilization; and

some things in it come down to us from very distant ancestors, while others are almost new.17

It was

15 Charles Hartshorn Maxson, Chapter 1 Introduction, and Pietism in Pennsylvania, in The Great

Awakening in the Middle Colonies (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago press, 1920), 1.

16 Van Loon, The Story of Mankind, 244.

17 Carlton J. H. Hayes, General Introduction: Modern History: General

Introduction, inModern History (New York: Macmillan company, 1923), 3.


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the combination of the great spiritual revivalThe Great Awakening, advances in science and industry,

and the intellectualism of the Enlightenment which expanded the colonists' outlook, or their sense of

self-worth and independence in America.

In Europe, those promoting advancement attempted to improve human society through classical

education, which relied on teachings from ancient texts and emphasized a range of disciplines,

including poetry, history, rhetoric, and moral philosophy. The Renaissance influenced life in Europe

throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries and became the intellectual fuel for the

Protestant Reformation, which in turn provided the foundation stones for other evangelical movements,

as already mentioned.

The Reformation, the great sixteenth-century religious revolution, brought an end to the

traditional power of the Catholic Church and established the Protestant churches. When Martin Luther

first defied the authority of the Catholic Church with his published theses in 1517, he desired a church

revival; however, his hunger for Bible conformity initiated an avalanche of religious fervor and activity

that impacted subsequent centuries with a drive for Bible exploration and interpretation. Protestantism

that began in protest to the Catholic Church later initiated movements that pursued solid Bible doctrine

that greatly enhanced many evangelical movements. History shows that the printing press, credited to

Johannes Gutenberg, stands as one of the most significant inventions and powerful influences in human

history, both religiously and secularly. With the availability of the printed page, human literacy

increased, and both clergy and laity read their Bibles. The printed Word in tracts and newspapers

powerfully promoted advancement. Following Martin Luther, the works of John Calvin and his

Holland challenger, Dirck Volckertszoon Coomhert, greatly influenced concepts of Divine sovereignty,

human freedoms, and theological understandings.


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American history tells the story of the various settlements in America and the religiosity of the

Quakers and the Puritans and their influences on early America. Neither the Anglicans who came to

dominate religious life in Virginia after royal control was established over Jamestown, nor the Puritans

in Massachusetts Bay, were terribly successful in putting down roots. The reality was that on the

frontier, the settled parish system of England-- which was employed by Puritan and Anglican alike--

proved difficult to transplant. Unlike the compact communities of the old world, the small farms and

plantations of the new spread out into the wilderness, making both communication and ecclesiastical

discipline difficult. Because people often lived great distances from a parish church, membership and

participation suffered. In addition, on the frontier concern for theological issues faded before the

concern for survival and wrestling a living from a hard and difficult land. Because the individual was

largely on his own, and depended on himself for survival, authoritarian structures of any sort--be they

governmental or ecclesiastical--met with great resistance. As a result, by the second and third

generations, the vast majority of the population was outside the membership of the church. The

dogmatism of the Puritans and Quakers, combined with corruption and power struggles, caused a

waning of church influence, which led to apostasy on the Eastern seaboard. People were tired of rules

and regulations in the face of hypocrisy and were weary of congregate conviction. This is emphasized

by John F. Thornbury, in Reformation & Revival,

Already the deism of the continental enlightenment was beginning to infect the upper classes

of New England, a trend which culminated in Europe in the French Revolution with its violent

reaction to all authority, especially religious. America was desperately in need of a spiritual

awakening. Without such a movement a breakdown of the social order seemed likely.18

This apostasy gave way to the previously mentioned era of Enlightenment. According to

18 John F. Thornbury, Background of the First Great Awakening,Reformation & Revival4, no. 3

(Summer 1995): 4.


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Christine Leigh Heyman, in The First Great Awakening, some scholars and historians believe that

the Great Awakening, or new Age of Faith rose to counter the currents of the Age of

Enlightenment.19

For further elaboration, the Age of Enlightenment emerged in the 18th

century as a

period of intellectual curiosity and experimentation. People had come to assume that through the use

of reason, an unending progress for humanity would be possibleprogressive advancement in

knowledge, technical achievement, and even moral values. The Enlightenment thinkers followed the

philosophy of John Locke and understood that knowledge resulted from experience and observation

guided by reason, rather than authoritative sources, such as Aristotle and the Bible. They taught that

proper education could improve human life, and therefore placed great premium on the discovery of

truth through the observation of nature. Restoration denotes the restoration of what was lost from the

relationship with God and man.

Paul Johnson's comment concerning the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment's influence on

the American Revolution is relevant,

Just as in France, rather later in the century, the combination of Voltairean rationalism andRousseauesque emotionalism was to create a revolutionary explosion, so in America, but, in a

characteristically religious context, the thinking elements and the fervid, personal elements

were to combine to make Americans see the world with new eyes.20

The Great Awakening was so influential because of several things, which included creating the

desire for better education, for learning to read the printed word. High illiteracy levels prevented the

common people to understand tracts and pamphlets being mass produced. Many tracts, pamphlets, and

19 Christine Leigh Heyman, Divining America the First Great Awakening: Religion in AmericanHistory, TeacherServe, August 11, 2013, accessed August 11,

2013,http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/grawaken.htm.

20 Paul Johnson, Part One: A City on a Hill: Colonial America, 1580 -1750: The Great Awakening

and Its Political Impact, inA history of the American People (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 85. PDF e-

book.


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newspapers provided relevant information politically, socially, and theologically. The realization of

illiteracy caused immigrants in the rural areas to develop schools. They were unable to attend the

established churches in the cities, so church was brought to them. Often, they had church around a

campfire. The new found religious freedoms resultant of the Protestant Reformation impacted pioneer

America. Paul Johnson confirms the influences of the early Great Awakening,

It is also important to note that this Protestant revival, unlike any of the previous incarnations ofthe Reformed Religion, began not in city centers, but in the countryside. Boston and

Philadelphia had nothing to do with it. Indeed to some extent it was a protest against the

religious leadership of the wellfed, selfrighteous congregations of the longestablished

towns. It was started by preachers moving among the rural fastnesses, close to the frontier,among humble people, some of whom rarely had the chance to enjoy a sermon, many of whom

had little contact with structured religion at all. It was simple but it was not simplistic. Thesepreachers were anxious not just to deliver a message but to get their hearers to learn itthemselves by studying the Bible; and to do that they needed to read. So an important element

in the early Great Awakening was the provision of some kind of basic education in the frontier

districts and among rural communities which as yet had no regular schools.21

One of the most powerful influences during this time was the Christian leaders themselves.

Amazingly, even during a time of apostasy, revival fires were rekindled. As if through Divine

guidance, the phenomenon of revival made historic indelible impacts on the hearts and minds of the

people, which laid the groundwork for the budding fertile fields that culminated in the American ideals

of democracy and, eventually, the American ideals of capitalism and free-enterprise system.

One of the first Great Awakening spiritual leaders was Theodore Frelinghuysen (1691-1747).

Frelinghuysen was a German pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Jersey (1719) that, from

the websitewww.greatawakeningdocumentary.com, Mark Sidwell, stressed a faith that could be felt

(not emotionalism, but not dead and formal) and that resulted in a sanctified life that was consistent

21 Paul Johnson, Part One: A City on a Hill: Colonial America, 1580-1750: The Great Awakening

and Its Political Impact, inA History of the American People (New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 82. PDF e-

book.
http://www.greatawakeningdocumentary.com/http://www.greatawakeningdocumentary.com/http://www.greatawakeningdocumentary.com/http://www.greatawakeningdocumentary.com/


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with a Christian profession.22

William Tennent (1673-1746), according to Paul Johnson, developed a

Log College, a primitive rural academy teaching basic education as well as godliness. This was 'Frontier Religion'in its pristine form, conducted with rhetorical fireworks and riproaring hymn-singing . . . Many of Tennent's pupils,

or disciples, became prominent preachers themselves, all over the colonies, and the Log College became the

prototype for the famous College of New Jersey, founded in 1746, which eventually settled in Princeton.23

In discussing the famous clergy that impacted the Great Awakening, to say that Jonathan

Edwards (1703-58) was one of these great preachers is an understatement. Most historians and

theologians agree that Jonathan Edwards was the greatest evangelist of his time. Jonathan Edwards

sermon and pamphlet, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, are examples of the fundamental

preaching which established America and her constitution. Hell was preached so hot, the congregation

could feel the heat. While Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is considered to be his most

famous sermon, he was most effective in preaching on the Joy of salvation.24

In Edwards'Narrative

of Surprising Conversions, he remarks on the joy of witnessing salvation,

This work of God, as it was carried on and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made aglorious alteration in the town, so that in the spring and summer following, Anno 1735, the

town seemed to be full of the presence of God.

It never was so full of love, nor so full of joy . . . there were remarkable tokens of God's

presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on the account of salvation'sbeing brought unto them, parents rejoicing over their children as new born, and husbands over

22 Mark Sidwell, Lesson: Theodore Frelinghuysen, The Great Awakening: Spiritual Revival in

Colonial America, August 11, 2013, accessed August 11, 2013,http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/items/show/70.

23 Paul Johnson, Part One: A City on a Hill:

Colonial America, 1580-1750: The Great Awakening and Its Political Impact, in A history of the American People (New

York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 82. PDF e-book.

24 Ibid. 82.
http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/items/show/70http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/items/show/70http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/items/show/70http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/items/show/70


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their wives, and wives over their husbands.25

William J. Federer, in America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations, talks about the

influential effectiveness of George Whitefield (1714-1770), His preaching up and down the Eastern

seaboard of America did more than anything else to turn the thirteen isolated, individual colonies into

one country.26

In America's God and Country: Encyclopedia Of Quotations, William J. Federer

inserts Benjamin Franklin's comments on the effect of George Whitefield from Franklin's

autobiography,

It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From beingthoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so

that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different

families of every street.27

Although the Great Awakening lasted less than a century, and even though it is difficult to

define, it is impossible to ignore the lasting impact of the Great Awakening on the cultural, religious,

and political mindset of the people. The Great Awakening set the stage for the American Revolution.

25 William J. Federer, comp.,America's God and Country: Encyclopedia of

Quotations (Coppell, Tex.: Fame Pub., 1996), 223-24.

26 Ibid. 684.

27 Federer,America's God and Country, 686.


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CHAPTER 2: A new paradigm and the many facets of revolution

Paul Dienstberger, discusses the impact of the Great Awakening on Colonial America, in

The American Republic: A Nation of Christians,

When the Great Awakening started the only thing the thirteen colonies had in common was that

they were loosely tied to the English crown. At the close the most noteworthy feature of theevent was that it was the first national experience in American history. From New England to

Georgia an inter-colonial visitation by the Holy Spirit had touched America. In every colony a

new enthusiasm for Christianity appeared. The awakening even reached over denominational

lines; churches cooperated with each other in a spirit of Christian brotherhood. When it was

over, no one doubted that God had moved across America.28

While many Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity, a shift took place in the ways

people approached religion, as reflected in other areas of cultural life as religious learning and freedom

replaced religious ignorance and suppressions. This shift not only affected the era of the Italian

Renaissance, it also affected Colonial America and the times leading up to the American Revolution.

Global impacts from learning opportunities and options come from working to establish solid

foundations that would hold up over a period of time and would continue into the future. Samuel

Huntington discusses the higher levels of civilization through the advancement of greater education,

awareness, and understanding of the human society in a modern society but he also talks about the rise

of chaos, and moral reversion in prophetic form,

Conceivably modernization and human moral development produced by greater education,

awareness, and understanding of human society and its natural environment produce sustained

movement toward higher and higher levels of Civilization . . .

Modernization has generally enhanced the material level of Civilization throughout the world.

28 Paul R. Dienstberger, Chapter 2. The First

Great Awakening:VI. The Impact on Society, in The American Republic a Nation of Christians(Ashland, Ohio.: P. Dienstberger, 2000?),www.prdienstberger.com/nation/Chap2fga.htm#VI . The

Impact on Society.
http://www.prdienstberger.com/nation/Chap2fga.htm#VIhttp://www.prdienstberger.com/nation/Chap2fga.htm#VIhttp://www.prdienstberger.com/nation/Chap2fga.htm#VIhttp://www.prdienstberger.com/nation/Chap2fga.htm#VI


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But has it also enhanced the moral and cultural dimensions of Civilization? In some respects

this appears to be the case. Slavery, torture, vicious abuse of individuals, have become less and

less acceptable in the contemporary world . . .

Much evidence exists in the 1990s for the relevance of the sheer chaos paradigm of world

affairs: a global breakdown of law and order, failed states and increasing anarchy in many parts

of the world, a global crime wave, transnational mafias and drug cartels, increasing drugaddiction in many societies, a general weakening of the family, a decline in trust and social

solidarity in, many countries, ethnic, religious, and civilizational violence and rule by the gunprevalent in much of the world. In city after cityMoscow, Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok,

Shanghai, London, Rome, Warsaw, Tokyo, Johannesburg, Delhi, Karachi, Cairo, Bogota,

Washingtoncrime seems to be soaring and basic elements of Civilization fading away.29

Culture is the sum of the distinctive characteristics of a peoples way of life. Culture is the

definition by which people order their lives, interpret their experience, and evaluate the behavior of

others. But, since we are born into a particular social context and family, we all have a personal culture.

We develop personal lifestyles and a set of standards and values by which to order and organize our

lives.

The face of the world is changing. There is a multicultural revolution. Differences in race and

culture can no longer be ignored. For example, Canada and the United States has become a salad bowl

of minority groups, languages, and cultures. We live in a world with cultural ties to every race and area

in the world. World news tells of global issues that directly affect every individual as they relate to

national security, cultural diversity, the environment, and goods and services. Mankind are not just

citizens of a specific community, they are citizens of the world. There is a commission to hear and

listen to the rallying cry.

David Christian, in A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, confirms this statement,

There is nothing new in the attempt to understand history as a whole. To know how humanity began

and how it has come to its present condition is one of the oldest and most universal of human needs

29 . Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and The

Remaking of World Order, 320-21.


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expressed in the religious and philosophical systems of every civilization.30

Renewed interests in

these works, including many Greek Christian works and the New Testament, paved the way for the

Protestant Reformation, which in turn, impacted the New World and its ideals. The transcendent

idealism found in the mystic tale of the Epic of Gilgamesh, still under great philosophical analysis,

seems to have influenced many famous literary works, in the quest for a peaceful soul, explorations of

the inner self and combatant questions of eternal existence, which relate these discoveries to

understanding life in appreciation of the journey. Moses, the Hebraic teacher, leader, and, sometimes,

prophet, gave the people a strict law code that contained the basic laws for living. The Torah contains

613 commandments, including the Ten Commandments, that cover every aspect of life, including

law, family, and personal hygiene and diet. David Kling, in The Bible in History: How the Texts Have

Shaped the Times, traces the story of how specific Biblical texts have at different times emerged to be

the inspiration of movements that have changed the course of history.31

Man, now, wants to deny the

purpose of liberty. Sociologist John Macionis, in Society: The Basics, refers to Max Weber in

discussing religious impacts in society, Religion is not just the conservative force portrayed by Karl

Marx. In fact, at some points in history, as Max Weber (1958; orig. 1904-5) explained, religion has

promoted dramatic social change.32

Clothed in a new paradigm of thinking in regards to politics, religion, and culture, though the

fervor of the Great Awakening may have dimmed, the colonists were not left with the lees in the cup

30 . David Christian, Series Editor's Preface, in A

history of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire (Malden, MA:Blackwell Publishers, 1998), xi.

31 David W. Kling, The Bible in History: How the

Texts Have Shaped the Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

32 . John J. Macionis, "Chapter 13: Family, and " in

Religion: Religion and Social Change, Chapter 13: Family: Religion: Religion and Social Change, in Society: The Basics,

6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), 357.


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but a steady burning momentum fueled by new courage. The previous alluding of the colonists

obtaining the courage to challenge the religious authorities and the political authorities brought about

by the Great Awakening now came to fruition. John F. Thornbury, confirms the relationship and the

relevance of the Great Awakening on the American Revolution, in Reformation & Revival, Students

of American church history are unanimous in their opinion that the Great Awakenings have had a

major role in the formation not only of the American church but of American culture as a whole.33

Paul Johnson reminds of the changes or metamorphoses the Great Awakening brought about in the

minds of the people, who were now seeing themselves with a unity and a new identity, but also shows

the importance of the alteration of the American attitudes. Johnson shows this by quoting John Adams'

ideas of revolution by the people,

But even more important than the new geographical sense of unity was the change in

mens attitudes. As John Adams was to put it, long afterwards: `The Revolution was

effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the mind and hearts of the

people: and change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. It wasthe marriage between the rationalism of the American elites touched by the

Enlightenment with the spirit of the Great Awakening among the masses which enabled

the popular enthusiasm thus aroused to be channeled into the political aims of the

Revolution.34

It would not be outside the realm of reason to accept Divine inspiration. In contemplating this,

it is easy to understand the inference of the definition of inspiration, which, according to Webster,

literally means, God-breathed. From this, even the most hard core agnostic would be hard pressed to

deny the effects of this revival. The dynamic charisma created vibrancy in the very core of Colonial

33 John F. Thornbury, Another Look at the Great

Awakening,Reformation & Revival4, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 2.

34 Paul Johnson, Part One: A City on a Hill: Colonial

America, 1580-1750: The Great Awakening and Its Political Impact, in A history of the American People (New York, NY:

HarperCollins Publishers, 1998), 86. PDF e-book.


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culture. As previously mentioned in depth, the shifts in religious thinking paralleled the shifts in

political thinking. Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen, in A Patriots History of the United States

They [left-wing historians] fail to understand what every colonial settler every western pioneer

understood: character was tied to liberty, and liberty to property. All three were needed forsuccess, but character was the prerequisite because it put the law behind property agreements,

and it set responsibility right next to liberty. And the surest way to ensure the presence of good

character was to keep God at the center of ones life, community, and ultimately, nation.

As colonies became independent and as the nation grew, these ideas permeated the fabric of the

founding documents.35

Now, as the ideas of individual freedom, religious freedom, and national independence grew,

the American people became less tolerant of English exploitations. This is similar to how, sometimes,

when adulthood is reached, we become increasingly annoyed with our parents and seeks our own

independence. This annoyance is supported by Hendrik Willem van Loon, in The Story of Mankind,

The men who lived in this new land of fresh air and high skies were very different from their

brethren of the mother country. In the wilderness they had learned independence and self-

reliance. They were the sons of hardy and energetic ancestors. Lazy and timourous people didcross the ocean in those days. The American colonists hated the restraint and the lack of

breathing space which had made their lives in the old country so very unhappy. They meant to

be their own masters. The ruling classes of England did not seem to understand. Thegovernment annoyed the colonists and the colonists, who hated to be bothered in this way,

began to annoy the British government.36

The spiritual revival that produced religious freedoms also confirmed or produced ideals of

political freedoms that also affected our views of the code of law. Without offense, theological

references to the Biblical references of freedom are paramount because most theologians and

conservative historians would agree that liberty, itself, was a Godly contribution to mankind, especially

when considering the Great Awakening as a major contributing influence on the American ideals of

35 Ibid., 7.

36 Van Loon, The Story of Mankind, 314-15.


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independence that led to the shot heard around the world.

Upon closer inspection of this new paradigm of thinking, the basic reason why the American

Revolution was different than most revolutions throughout history becomes apparent. When

considering some of the revolutions of the world, like the English Revolution, the American Revolution,

the French Revolution, the Xinhai Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, the

White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution, and the Chinese Revolution, just to name a few, all indicate

an imbalance of law and ethics in the community, resultant of the new ideals and the applications of the

political philosophers of the times. James Livingston provides in, Anatomy of the Sacred, the

relevance of religious considerations to history because it discusses the vision of human life, the

importance of symbols to human behavior, the need for explanation, and truth within the religious

community,

First, a religion is a holistic system, a many-faceted model or envisionment of the world andhuman life. Second, such a system of symbols profoundly influences the moral ethos, that is,

human action, both in terms of the intensity of moral feeling and the direction of human

behavior. Third, religion creates not only deep-felt moral dispositions and behavior but also a

cosmology, that is, a set of rather simple beliefs or more developed conceptions of a general

order of nature and society that satisfies our human need for explanation. Finally, a religionclothes its system of symbols in an aura of factuality that gives to the symbols their realism

or quality of pointing to an objective order or reality outside of and independent of the

subjective experience of the religious community.37

The Great Awakening is placed in the time period between the 1730s to the 1760s and is

undeniably a major influence on the new ideals coming forth leading up to the American Revolution.

Now, the reasoning of the enlightened men, combined with the Judeo-Christian ethic of the spiritual

awakening, the concepts of the post-Italian Renaissance philosophers could be applied. Larry

Schweikart and Michael Allen, discusses patriotism, in A Patriots History of the United States, We

37 . James C. Livingston, Part I. The Study of

Religion: Chapter 1. What Is Religion?: Defining Religion, inAnatomy of the Sacred: An introduction to Religion , 3rd ed.

(Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998), 10.


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remain convinced that if the story of Americas past is told fairly, the result cannot be anything but a

deepened patriotism, a sense of awe at the obstacle overcome, the passion invested, the blood and the

tears spilled, and the nation that was built.38

Contemplate the above statement realizing the unity now

felt in Colonial America resultant of a spiritual revivalThe Great Awakening. These applications

caused frustration and annoyance with Great Britain; however, the American people had such an

attachment to England, they did not want the inevitablewar, to sever the relationship. They preferred

negotiation. Waller Newell, a Professor of Political Science and Philosophy and co-director of the

Centre for Liberal Education and Public Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. In Newells

book, The Code of Man, he discusses the journey or search for the manly heart in relation to morals

and ethics and how times of desperation, like war, causes an inward search, War is never desirable,

and there is no silver lining to the slaughter of innocents. Still, the history of all civilizations and

countries shows that war can spark a period of soul-searching, stocktaking, and moral regeneration,

spanning all subcultures and reminding us of our shared responsibilities as citizens.39

After this, it

seems that every maneuver England made magnified greater disdain and a greater conviction that war

was inevitable. On July 2, 1776, General George Washington issued this order,

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be

freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their

houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of

wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them.

The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage of this army. Our

cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject

submission. We have, therefore to resolve to conquer or die.40

38 Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen,

Introduction, inA Patriot's history of the United States: From Columbus's Great Discovery to the War on Terror(New

York: Sentinel, 2004), 6.

39 . Waller R. Newell, Introduction, in The code of

Man (New York: ReganBooks, 2003), xi-xii.

40 William J. Federer,America's God and Country:

Encyclopedia of Quotations [paperback] [2000] (author) William J. Federer(publication place: Amerisearch, 2000), page


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The American Revolution opened the door to the American way, as we know it, based on

Judeo-Christian values. This American way includes: personal control over the environment, self-

interests, the acceptance of change, virtue of hard work, individual responsibility. The use of time is

important and is limited--not a continuum, the idea of equality--viewed equally by God and, secularly,

that all people have the same opportunity to succeed in life, individualism and privacy, a strong belief

in self-help, competition and free enterprise, future orientationan optimism about the future, a strong

Quaker/Puritan work ethic, informality, honesty, directness, practicality, efficiency, materialism,

innovation, just to name a few. These things were the things that obtained definition before and after

the American Revolution, from the Jamestown settlers to the outreaches of Hawaii and Alaska, from

World War I to the Cold War, from the economic ideas of tariffs to most favored nation statuses,

these ideals that reflect the American way have become more tangible than intangible. When

supporting these American ways, other nations are compared. Often, they are envious of these ways.

This envy is commonly seen when Americans travel to other countries.

Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President

of the United States of America, posed the question, reminding, with conviction, that liberty is a gift

from God, Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conv iction in

the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but

with His wrath.41

The American way, as an ideal, is invisible; however, when viewed from the eyes

of foreign countries and foreign citizens, the American way is very visible and evokes the application

in the view of the actions and reactions of the American people. These ideas become prevalent when a

639.

41 Jefferson, The Library of Oratory, Ancient and

Modern, with Critical Studies of the World's great Orators by Eminent Essayists, xi.


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weak President of the United States fails to apply these values in international and domestic realms.

The American way was defiled when forty American hostages were incarcerated too long in an Iranian

hostage camp because of the weak leadership. As [President Jimmy] Carter's advisor and personal

biographer, Peter Bourne, said, Because people felt that Carter had not been tough enough in foreign

policy, this kind of symbolized for them that some bunch of students could seize American diplomatic

officials and hold them prisoner and thumb their nose at the United States.42

Yet, the American way is positively demonstrated when a strong President boldly stands against

oppression and demands the release of these hostages; then, defies communism by ordering the Berlin

Wall to be removed because of its symbolism and suppression and disunity of many families. The

American way is exemplified with the anger felt as the twin towers crashed to the ground. People seek

definition of the American way, when it is still vividly portrayed in hearts of the American people

through their actions and reactions.

Images of General George Washington kneeling to pray in the snow, church bells triumphantly

ringing the neighborhoods of victorious news; the words of Theodore Frelinghuysen, Jonathan

Edwards, George Whitefield, William Tennent, Gilbert Tennent, John Wesley, Eleazer Wheelock,

Solomon Stoddard, Charles Chauney, Samuel Davies and other notable Great Awakening preachers,

along with, Samuel Adams, Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henrys pleas for liberty forever resounding

through time all combine together to establish a standard and elevate a city to a beacon upon a hill.

Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton was an English historian, who took a great interest in

America, in considering its Federal structure as the guarantor of individual liberties. Laura Ingraham,

an American radio host, author, and political commentator, in Power to the People, quotes Lord Acton

42 Peter Bourne, General Article: The IranianHostage Crisis, PBS,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-

hostage-crisis/(accessed August 14, 2013).
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-hostage-crisis/


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on the power of liberty and applies to the defense of morality as acquired through religious practice,

Lord Acton wrote that liberty is not the power to do what we like, but the right of being able to

do what we ought. This is a critical point. Our Framers understood that liberty must bedirected, restrained, and given a noble purpose to last. The guardsman of liberty was always

morality, informed by religious practice.43

Here, is good place to distinguish the differences of freedom and liberty. Liberty is an

individual personal freedom. Law School Professor Butler Shaffer makes such a distinction,

Liberty, he says, is what the state (meaning overweaning government) decides to grant you in

terms of personal freedom. Freedom, he says, is your individual ability to do what you want

with your time, believe what you want, think what you want. Freedom is in your core being

and cannot be taken away, even by most totalitarian governments, although they may try.

In other words, freedom is your free agency, given to you by the very act of being born. Libertyis a governmental structure that hopefully allows you freedom of life, liberty and property . . .

44

Citizenship, as debated by the Greeks, is the set of privileges and freedoms, duties and

responsibilities of people living in a governed community. Government has obligations to its citizens

and citizens have obligations to their government. The basic rules of citizenship lie in the balance

between what the government does for the people and what it asks of them in return. The

interdependence of todays world has broadened the meaning of civic virtue, our obligation to do the

best for all people in our communities. Civic virtue no longer means only defending our nation when it

is threatened. It also means respecting the global diversity of other people so that the world community

can cooperate for the good of all and, hopefully, avoid conflict. Dewey, discusses the purpose of

government and relates it to the moral responsibility to its citizens and to every member of society,

Government, business, art, religion, all social institutions have a meaningful, purpose. That

purpose is to set free and to develop the capacities of human individual without respect to race,

sex, class or economic status. This is one way of saying that the test of their value is the extent

43 Laura Ingraham, School's Out. Of Control:

Idealogues and Pedagogues, inPower to the People (Washington, DC: Regnery Pub., 2007), 203.

44 Butler Shaffer, The Difference between Freedom and Liberty,

The Millennial Star, July 22, 2011,www.millennialstar.org/the-difference-between-freedom-and-liberty/.


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to which they educate every individual into the full stature of his possibility. Democracy has

many meanings, but if it has a moral meaning, it is found in resolving that the supreme test of

all political institutions and industrial arrangements shall be the contribution they make to the

all-around growth of every member of society . . . We are weak today in ideal matters becauseintelligence is divorced from aspiration. The bare force of circumstance compels us onwards.

When philosophy shall have co-operated with the course of events and made clear and coherentthe meaning of the daily detail, science and emotion will interpenetrate, practice and

imagination will embrace. Poetry and religious feeling will be the unforced flowers of life.45

There must be rules and laws for even a small unit of people like a family; even more so in

communities. As communities grow to become nations, laws help provide and determine harmony and

order. Any time people are gathered together the need for structure is realized, thus, the need for

government. The code of law affects all themes of history: gender in world history, consumerism in

world history, warfare in world history, disease and medicine in world history, and Western

Civilization in world history. This order seems of divine origin. While the origins of the Laws of

Hammurabi are debated concerning divine inspiration, they, along with the Law of Moses, represent

two of the oldest set of laws known to mankind. To reiterate, the Law of Moses is believed,

overwhelmingly, divinely inspired. And through the Law of Moses, it can be greatly argued that God

gave order to mankind. Property rights, real estate laws, moral codes, and criminal laws were written

with the need for humanity to have such laws. The rule of law, based on Judeo-Christian values,

promote liberty, instead of oppression, of mind, spirit, body, and government. These Judeo-Christian

values include: honouring Jehovah, the God of the Bible, the Torah, and the Talmud; a separation of

church and state, but not an ignoring of the church; the belief of being heirs, as the seed of Abraham, in

the Old Testament and the New Testament, as demonstrated in the Declaration of Independence; the

belief in the Jews being God's chosen people, and the belief in America's obligation to support Israel; a

mission to spread liberty to the world; American exceptionalism, the Ten Commandments, Biblical

moral laws; the belief that mankind and every nation is responsible to the God of the Bible, not the god

45Dewey,Reconstruction in Philosophy, 186, 212.


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or gods of this world, for the sanctions of conduct; that marriage is sanctified and is meant to be

between men and women; that children are gifts from God; and that peace can only come through

strength.

The actions of the citizenry and the nations as a whole, affect the physical, legal, social,

religious, and moral sanctions of life with consequences. People debate war, capital punishment,

euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide out of concern for humanity and the need for order. There

has to be an enforcing agency to assure societys order and functions are maintained. James Q. Wilson,

in American Government: Institutions and Policies, provides two questions concerning government,

There are two questions about politics: Who governs? To what end?46 Wilson quickly moves on to

break government down into two important understandings, By power we mean the ability of one

person to get another person to act in accordance with the first persons intentions. . . . By authority we

mean the right to use power.47

Wilson provides four answers to the two questions:

1) The MarxistAccording to Karl Marx, those who control the economic system will controlthe political one. 2) The elitistAccording to C. Wright Mills, a few top leaders, not all of

them drawn from business, make the key decisions without reference to popular desired. 3) The

bureaucraticAccording to Max Weber, appointed civil servants run things. 4) The pluralist

competition among affected interests shapes public policy.48

Knowing these answers help provide insight to Max Webers ideas of hierarchy of authority;

which he calls bureaucracy or legal domination. He relates the body of officials to a bureau or chest

of drawers, The body of officials actively engaged in a public office, along with the respective

46 James Q. Wilson and John J. DiIulio Jr., PartOne: The American System: 1: The Study of American Government, in American Government:

Institutions and Policies, 6th ed. (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1995), 3.

47 Ibid., 4.

48 Ibid., 14.


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apparatus of material implements and the files, make up a bureau.49

Weber contrasts traditional

authoritythe power legitimized by respect for longestablished cultural patterns, and rational-legal

authority, or bureaucratic authoritypower legitimated by legally enacted rules and regulations. His

concerns about bureaucracy are: the historical and administrative reasons for the process of

bureaucratization, especially in the Western Civilization; the impact of the rule of law upon the

functioning of bureaucratic organizations; the typical personal orientation and occupational position of

a bureaucratic officials as a status group; and the most important attributes and consequences of

bureaucracy in the modern world.

The principles of office hierarchy and of levels of graded authority mean a firmly ordered

system of super- and subordination in which there is a supervision of the lower offices by the higher

ones. Such a system offers the governed the possibility of appealing the decision of a lower office to its

higher authority, in a definitely regulated manner. With the full development of the bureaucratic type,

the office hierarchy is monotonically organized. The principle of hierarchical office authority is found

in all bureaucratic structures: in state and ecclesiastical structures as well as in large party organizations

and private enterprises. It does not matter for the character of private or public.50 Weber wrote

about bureaucracy at a very special moment in United States history. Tammany Hall, machine bosses,

electoral reform, tariffs, the farmers revolt, labor discontents, Cuban reorganization, currency and

banking reforms, the Federal Reserve Act, the attack on civil liberties, prohibition, and the Great

Depression were all substances of failed government, corrupt government officials, but the positive

ability for America to regroup, to access the situation, and the willingness to progress. Being of

49 edited Translated and and, Part II: Power: VIII:Bureaucracy, inFrom Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford university press, 1946),

197.

50 Ibid.


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German citizenry, dying in 1920, Weber could not have witnessed the American idea of democracy and

capitalism revive America after the stock market crash of 1929; but he cannot help but notice the

endurance and the differences in the American idea of democracy, Democracy reacts precisely

against the unavoidable status character of bureaucracy. Democracy seeks to put the election of

officials for short terms in the place of appointed officials; it seeks to substitute the removal of officials

by election for a regulated procedure of discipline. Thus, democracy seeks to replace the arbitrary

disposition of the hierarchically superordinate master by the equally arbitrary disposition of the

governed and the party chiefs dominating them.51

Francis D. Cogliano, in Revolutionary America

1763-1815

The secondparagraph of the Declaration of Independence famously declared: We hold these

truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

These words seemingly transformed the British-American contest from a relatively narrowdispute about taxation and sovereignty, to a more universal struggle over liberty and the

meaning of equality.52

Americans feel like they are losing certain rights. Sadly, most of the time rights have been lost

are because of complacency and of the people giving those rights up. History shows that morality is

universal. Every culture, every society, has a moral code. Lots of cultures have gotten along without

the wheel, or the steam engine. But none have gotten along without moral codes. Lifes principles are

forged from the basic prominent landmarks: faith, family, and friends. All three of these landmarks are

being challenged by liberal ideologies throughout the world. While this statement may sound

redundant, it is intended for emphasis. If the people refuse to accept the responsibility of freedom:

awareness of governmental decisions, civic duties of voting, serving on jury duties, actively showing

51 Ibid., 242.

52 Francis D. Cogliano, 1 Native

American and the American Revolution: A War of Conquest, in Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History,

2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2009), 15.


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support or non-support of the issues, then they willingly rescind the rights provided to them by the

founding fathers of this nation. When this happens, democracy is replaced by bureaucracy or worse. It

now appears even more clearly that the proponents of liberty and independence were guided, not by

chance but by a greater conviction, or divine guidance.

There are images of twenty-three lawgivers on the House of Representatives of the United

States of America. These images represent the need for man to have laws balanced with the necessities

of life and the physical, social, spiritual relationships of mankind. The general order becomes chaos.

The direction of order, of right and wrong has become confusingly clouded, resultant of the non-

religious community. David Bernard, founder and co-pastor of New Life Church in Austin, Texas, and

Superintendent-elect of the United Pentecostal Church International. Bernards commentary on

Romans, in The Message of Romans, discusses how conscience and reason establish moral law, how

disobedience to that law has strong consequences, and supports the belief that morality is both innate

and dependent upon a collective society and the interactions of the individual, Conscience and reason,

both in the individual and in the collective society, establish moral law.53

Application of Biblical

principles from the Judeo-Christian ethic, revived by the influential preachers of the Great Awakening,

influenced some of the greatest man made documents known to mankind. Randall Peerenboom, in

Chinas Long March Toward Rule of Law, discusses rule of laws place in modern society,

The hallmarks of modernity are a market economy, democracy, human rights, and rule of law. . .At its most basic, rule of law refers to a system in which law is able to impose meaningful

restraints on the state and individual members of the ruling elite, as captured in the rhetorically

powerful if overly simplistic notions of a government of laws, the supremacy of laws, and

equality of all before the law.54

53 . David K. Bernard, ?II. Universal Guilt: B. Guilt

of The Jews: 1. Principles of Divine Judgment (2:1-16): Verse 15,? In, in The Message of Romans ((Hazelwood, MO:

1987), 64.-Word Aflame Press, n.d.), 58.

54 Randall Peerenboom, 1. Introduction, in China's

Long March Toward Rule of Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 22.


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Some critics ask if the idea of Christianity is universal or is it just another system that has had its day.

However, when considering the universality of Christianity, it is natural to considered right and wrong,

good and evil, even in a historical context. The German philosopher, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Ethics,

addresses the question of history regarding good and evil in the midst of historical existence and shows

that questions of morality cannot be separated from questions of lifehistory,

The question of good is posed and is decided in the midst of each definite, yet unconcluded,

unique and transient situation of our lives, in the midst of our living relationships with men,

things, institutions and powers, in other words in the midst of our historical existence. The

question of good cannot now be separated from the question of life, the question of history.55

Bonhoeffer's statement confirms the belief of the American Revolution being superior, because

of the belief of following after Godly laws in its authorship. When society endeavors to ignore or

subvert the meaning of history by either denying or omitting these concepts of history, political

upheaval and revolution are inevitably paramount. The basic Rule of Law cannot be ignored by

historians. The principles of the basic Rule of Law are embodied in the United States Constitution.

Paul Moreno discusses limit of government and the credentials of the conservative revolutionaries, in A

Concise History of the American Constitution,

The American Constitution is the latest of a long line of efforts in Western civilization to limit

the power of government. The American founders were trying to accomplish an old thing

republican self-governmentin a new way. They were particularly conservativerevolutionaries. They were men of the enlightenment, excited about the discoveries of the

revolutions in natural science and the New World, of the Protestant Reformation as well as

secular philosophy. At the same time, they were steeped in the tradition of the ancient (Greco-

Roman) and medieval (Judeo-Christian) worlds.56

55 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Part One: VI. History and

Good: Good and Life, in Ethics, ed. Eberhard Bethge, trans. Neville Horton Smith (First Touchstone. 6th German Edition;

reprint, New York: Simon amp; Schuster, 1995), 1995, 75.

56 Paul Moreno, A Concise History of the American Constitution, The National

Association of Scholars.org, August 10, 2013,www.mydolley.net/public/concise.pdf
http://www.mydolley.net/public/concise.pdfhttp://www.mydolley.net/public/concise.pdfhttp://www.mydolley.net/public/concise.pdf


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The attachment to England was very similar to mother and child, or mother and newborn infant.

It must be understood that it did not bring great pleasure that the umbilical cord must be severed and

revolution was inevitable in order to gain the independence, already in their minds that was greatly

inspired from the Great Awakening. By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed, the

American people were ready for separation and their independence from Great Britain. Catherine

Bowen quoted John Adams, in John Adams and the American Revolution,

What do we mean by the revolution? John wrote at eighty. The war with Britain? That was no

part of the revolution; it was only the effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the

minds and hearts of the people, and this was effected fro

thesis--pre-1st great awakening and its influence on the american revolution

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