Proclaim Liberty: Notes on the Next Great Awakening in America

Perhaps the greatest fuel added to the revolutionary fire that began burning in the latter half of the 18th Century was religious pluralism within the colonies. Unlike England, which after the Glorious Revolution of had become spiritually stagnant under the Church of England, the colonists adhered to no single denomination. The splits in churches that revivalism had caused prevented uniformity in religion from becoming a reality. While groups such as the Quakers and Anglicans still existed in areas, none could rise to dominate the religious scene and become the primary American religion.

So long as the colonists did not become complacent, their religious zeal would continue to burn strong. Eventually, this religious zeal turned to revolution and sentiments of self-governance. That the religious spirit of the colonists was a necessary component to the drive for independence is confirmed in the sentiments of those who lived during the period of fighting. The religious revival of the Great Awakening melded the colonists in a way that would not have been possible otherwise.

Eighteenth Century Americans thought of religion as something communitarian — a form of social cooperation — rather than a competitive endeavor of individuals that the world of commerce envisioned. Christians were told to be benevolent and to make self-sacrifices, and many were bound together by way of their shared mass conversions.

Thus, they could afford to make sacrifices for their land in times of need. Another shared sentiment of the chiefly Protestant nation was a fear of Catholic domination. While this feeling may have been contributed to by fear of foreign political domination, the revivalist zeal of the colonists no doubt played a part in the anti-hierarchical nature of anti-Catholic attitudes. Through cataclysmic events such as world earthquakes in and , expectations of the new millennial age increased. The colonists viewed these as divine signs, and so when questions arose about the Antichrist they turned to the Catholics.

They considered the pope to be the enemy during the French and Indian War, and celebrations in Boston and in other places, Anti-Pope Day furthered Protestant zeal. Anti-Catholicism was one of the most prominent traits in the colonies prior to the revolution. Popularity Popularity Featured Price: Low to High Price: High to Low Avg. Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love Jul 29, Available for download now.

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The Way Of Love: In the Middle Colonies, he was popular in the Dutch and German communities as well as among the British. Lutheran pastor Henry Muhlenberg told of a German woman who heard Whitefield preach and, though she spoke no English, later said she had never before been so edified. As revivalism spread through the Presbyterian churches, the old disputes between the subscription and anti-subscription parties were recast into conflict between the anti-revival "Old Side" and pro-revival "New Side", respectively. At issue was the place of revivalism in American Presbyterianism, specifically the "relation between doctrinal orthodoxy and experimental knowledge of Christ.

Whitefield's tour had helped the revival party grow and only worsened the Old Side—New Side Controversy. In , Whitefield began touring New England.

Significance of the Great Awakening: Roots of Revolution

He landed in Newport, Rhode Island , on September 14, , and preached several times in the Anglican church. He then moved on to Boston, Massachusetts, where he spent a week. The next day, he preached outdoors again to about 15, people. After traveling as far as Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he returned to Boston on October 12 to preach to 30, people before continuing his tour.

Whitefield then traveled to Northampton at the invitation of Jonathan Edwards. He preached twice in the parish church while Edwards was so moved that he wept. From there he traveled down the coast, reaching New York on October Whitefield's assessment of New England's churches and clergy prior to his intervention was negative. And the Reason why Congregations have been so dead, is because dead Men preach to them. Whitefield met Gilbert Tennent on Staten Island and asked him to preach in Boston to continue the revival there. Tennent accepted and in December began a three-month long preaching tour throughout New England.

Like Whitefield's, Tennent's preaching produced large crowds, many conversions and much controversy. While antirevivalists such as Timothy Cutler heavily criticized Tennent's preaching, most of Boston's ministers were supportive.

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Tennent was followed in the summer of by itinerant minister James Davenport , who proved to be more controversial than either Tennent or Whitefield. His rants and attacks against "unconverted" ministers inspired much opposition, and he was arrested in Connecticut for violating a law against itinerant preaching. At his trial, he was found mentally ill and deported to Long Island. Soon after, he arrived in Boston and resumed his fanatical preaching only to once again be declared insane and expelled. The last of Davenport's radical episodes took place in March in New London when he ordered his followers to burn wigs, cloaks, rings and other vanities.

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He also ordered the burning of books by religious authors such as John Flavel and Increase Mather. Whitefield, Tennent and Davenport would be followed by a number of both clerical and lay itinerants.

However, the Awakening in New England was primarily sustained by the efforts of parish ministers. Sometimes revival would be initiated by regular preaching or the customary pulpit exchanges between two ministers. Through their efforts, New England experienced a "great and general Awakening" between and characterized by a greater interest in religious experience, widespread emotional preaching, and intense emotional reactions accompanying conversion, including fainting and weeping.

It is estimated that between 20, to 50, new members were admitted to New England's Congregational churches even as expectations for members increased. By , the Awakening had begun to wane. Revivals would continue to spread to the southern backcountry and slave communities in the s and s. The Great Awakening aggravated existing conflicts within the Protestant churches, often leading to schisms between supporters of revival, known as "New Lights", and opponents of revival, known as "Old Lights". Old Lights saw the religious enthusiasm and itinerant preaching unleashed by the Awakening as disruptive to church order, preferring formal worship and a settled, university-educated ministry.

They mocked revivalists as being ignorant, heterodox or con artists. New Lights accused Old Lights of being more concerned with social status than with saving souls and even questioned whether some Old Light ministers were even converted. They also supported itinerant ministers who disregarded parish boundaries. Congregationalists in New England experienced 98 schisms, which in Connecticut also affected which group would be considered "official" for tax purposes. It is estimated in New England that in the churches there were about one-third each of New Lights, Old Lights, and those who saw both sides as valid.

Around Separatist congregations were organized throughout the region by Strict Congregationalists. Objecting to the Halfway Covenant , Strict Congregationalists required evidence of conversion for church membership and also objected to the semi—presbyterian Saybrook Platform , which they felt infringed on congregational autonomy. Because they threatened Congregationalist uniformity, the Separatists were persecuted and in Connecticut they were denied the same legal toleration enjoyed by Baptists, Quakers and Anglicans.

The Baptists benefited the most from the Great Awakening. Numerically small before the outbreak of revival, Baptist churches experienced growth during the last half of the 18th century.

By , there were over Baptist churches in New England. This growth was primarily due to an influx of former New Light Congregationalists who became convinced of Baptist doctrines, such as believer's baptism. In some cases, entire Separatist congregations accepted Baptist beliefs as a body. Evangelicals considered the new birth to be "a bond of fellowship that transcended disagreements on fine points of doctrine and polity", allowing Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and others to cooperate across denominational lines. While divisions between Old and New Lights remained, New Lights became less radical over time and evangelicalism became more mainstream.

In part, this was due to the growth of the New Side and the numerical decline of the Old Side. In , the pro-revival party had around 22 ministers, but this number had increased to 73 by The Great Awakening inspired the creation of evangelical educational institutions. The Great Awakening was not the first time that Protestant churches had experienced revival; however, it was the first time a common evangelical identity had emerged based on a fairly uniform understanding of salvation , preaching the gospel and conversion.

The major figures of the Great Awakening, such as George Whitefield , Jonathan Edwards , Gilbert Tennent , Jonathan Dickinson and Samuel Davies , were moderate evangelicals who preached a pietistic form of Calvinism heavily influenced by the Puritan tradition, which held that religion was not only an intellectual exercise but also had to be felt and experienced in the heart. The first stage was conviction of sin , which was spiritual preparation for faith by God's law and the means of grace.

The second stage was conversion, in which a person experienced spiritual illumination, repentance and faith. The third stage was consolation , which was searching and receiving assurance of salvation. This process generally took place over an extended time. Conviction of sin was the stage that prepared someone to receive salvation, and this stage often lasted weeks or months.

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As Calvinists, revivalists also preached the doctrines of original sin and unconditional election. Due to the fall of man , humans are naturally inclined to rebel against God and unable to initiate or merit salvation, according to the doctrine of original sin. Unconditional election relates to the doctrine of predestination —that before the creation of the world God determined who would be saved the elect on the basis of his own choosing. The preaching of these doctrines resulted in the convicted feeling both guilty and totally helpless, since God was in complete control over whether they would be saved or not.

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Revivalists counseled those under conviction to apply the means of grace to their lives. These were spiritual disciplines such as prayer , Bible study, church attendance and personal moral improvement. While no human action could produce saving faith, revivalists taught that the means of grace might make conversion more likely. An issue that had to be addressed were the intense physical and emotional reactions to conviction experienced during the Awakening. Samuel Blair described such responses to his preaching in , "Several would be overcome and fainting ; others deeply sobbing, hardly able to contain, others crying in a most dolorous manner, many others more silently weeping.

And sometimes the soul exercises of some, thought comparatively but very few, would so far affect their bodies, as to occasion some strange, unusual bodily motions.

The conviction stage lasted so long because potential converts were waiting to find evidence of regeneration within their lives. The revivalists believed regeneration or the new birth was not simply an outward profession of faith or conformity to Christianity. They believed it was an instantaneous, supernatural work of the Holy Spirit providing someone with "a new awareness of the beauty of Christ, new desires to love God, and a firm commitment to follow God's holy law.

Regeneration was always accompanied by saving faith, repentance and love for God—all aspects of the conversion experience, which typically lasted several days or weeks under the guidance of a trained pastor. Following this illumination, converts placed their faith in Christ, depending on him alone for salvation. At the same time, a hatred of sin and a commitment to eliminate it from the heart would take hold, setting the foundation for a life of repentance or turning away from sin. Revivalists distinguished true conversion which was motivated by love of God and hatred of sin from false conversion which was motivated by fear of hell.

True conversion meant that a person was among the elect, but even a person with saving faith might doubt his election and salvation. Revivalists taught that assurance of salvation was the product of Christian maturity and sanctification. The treatise Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards was written to help converts examine themselves for the presence of genuine "religious affections" or spiritual desires, such as selfless love of God, certitude in the divine inspiration of the gospel, and other Christian virtues. It was not enough, however, to simply reflect on past experiences.

Revivalists taught that assurance could only be gained through actively seeking to grow in grace and holiness through moritification of sin and utilizing the means of grace.

First Great Awakening

In Religious Affections , the last sign addressed by Edwards was "Christian practice", and it was this sign to which he gave the most space in his treatise. The search for assurance required conscious effort on the part of a convert and took months or even years to achieve. The new style sermons and the way in which people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. Participants became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called "new lights", while the preachers who remained unemotional were referred to as "old lights".

People affected by the revival began to study the Bible at home. This effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious matters and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. The Awakening played a major role in the lives of women, though they were rarely allowed to preach or take leadership roles. They became more independent in their decisions, as in the choice of a husband. The autobiography of Hannah Heaton —94 , a farm wife of North Haven, Connecticut , tells of her experiences in the Great Awakening, her encounters with Satan , her intellectual and spiritual development, and daily life on the farm.

Phillis Wheatley was the first published black female poet, and she was converted to Christianity as a child after she was brought to America. Her beliefs were overt in her works; she describes the journey of being taken from a Pagan land to be exposed to Christianity in the colonies in a poem entitled "On Being Brought from Africa to America.