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[[Image:Whitefield.jpg|right|thumb|250px|George Whitefield]]
The '''First Great Awakening''', or simply '''Great Awakening''', was an eighteenth century transatlantic revival involving [[England]] and its [[North America]]n Colonies. The revival was spurred by a religious revitalization movement that swept the sense that [[Christianity|Christian]] worship had become too formulaic Atlantic region, and devoid of emotion. Among especially the most notable clergy who fueled the awakening was [[Theodore Frelinguysen]] who led a revival American colonies in the 1720s among members of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] in New Jersey. [[Jonathan Edwards]]1730s and 1740s, the minister of leaving a [[Congregationalism|Congregationalist Church]] in [[Northampton]], [[Massachusetts]] led revivals in the Connecticut River Valleypermanent impact on American religion. Edwards is perhaps best remembered for his classic “fire It emerged from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of personal guilt and brimstone” sermon, ''[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]''their need of salvation by Christ. HoweverPulling away from ritual and ceremony, his greatest contribution the Great Awakening made religion intensely personal to the awakening was probably his book, ''A Faithful Narrative average person by fostering a deep sense of the Surprising Work of God.'' For many younger untried clergymenspiritual guilt and redemption, Edward’s book was and by encouraging introspection and a “how commitment to manual” that instructed them as to the finer points of conducting a revival. It influenced even the most famous new standard of the Great Awakening ministers, [[George Whitefield]]personal morality. Whitefield It brought Christianity to African-American slaves and was an associate of apocalyptic event in [[John WesleyNew England]]that challenged established authority. He was ordained as an [[Anglican]] minister. However, he was not assigned a pulpit It incited rancor and began preaching in parks and fields division between old traditionalists who insisted on his own. In shortthe continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and the new revivalists, he preached to people who normally did not attend Churchencouraged emotional involvement and personal commitment. Like Edwards, he It had developed a style of preaching that elicited emotional responses from his audiences. Howevermajor impact in reshaping the Congregational church, Whitefield had charismathe Presbyterian church, and his voice (which according to many accounts, could be heard over vast distances), small staturethe Dutch Reformed Church, and cross-eyed appearance (which some people took as a mark of divine favor) all served to help make him the first American celebrity. Thanks to the use of print in colonial AmericaGerman Reformed denomination, perhaps more than half of all colonists, heard about, read about, or read something written by Whitefield. Whitefield used print extensively. He sent advance men to put up broadsides and to distribute handbills announcing his sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published (a common practice in strengthened the seventeenth small [[Baptist]] and eighteenth centuries)Methodist denominations. Most notablyIt had little impact on Anglicans, he entered into a profitable business partnership (and lifelong friendship) with Quakers. Unlike the [[Benjamin FranklinSecond Great Awakening]]. While Franklin noted , that Whitefield’s sermons tended began about 1800 and which reached out to improve morality among the colonistsunchurched, Whitefield was never able to get Franklin to embrace Christianity the First Great Awakening focused on a personal levelpeople who were already church members. It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self awareness.
==International dimension==The Great Awakenings effect on early American settles evangelical revival was largely significantinternational in scope, directly effecting two thirds of affecting the population[[Atlantic History|North Atlantic region]].<ref>Paul JohnsonThe dramatic response of churchgoers in Bristol and London in 1737, ''A History and of the American People'', 1997</ref> The binding effect between Kingswood colliers with white gutters on their cheeks caused by tears in 1739 under the early American classes as a result preaching of the Awakening also served as a proto-revolutionary event[[George Whitefield]], preceding is marked the political drive for Independence in start of the 1770's[[English awakening]]. Famous Historian Paul Johnson wrote But in his bookfact these events had been preceded by similar revivals in [[Wales]] some years earlier, '''The History predated again by a movement of the American People'God's Spirit in [[New Jersey]] in 1719 and 1726 and in Easter Ross, Scotland, in 1724. Historian [[Sydney E. Ahlstrom]] sees it as part of a "great international Protestant upheaval" thatalso created [[Pietism]] in Germany,the [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Revival]] and [[Methodism]] in England. <ref> Ahlstrom p. 263</ref>
The Awakening was thus an 18th century transatlantic revival involving [[England]] and its [[North America]]n Colonies. The revival was spurred by the sense that [[Christianity|Christian]] worship had become too formulaic and devoid of emotion. Among the most notable clergy who fueled the awakening was [[Theodore Frelinguysen]] who led a revival in the 1720s among members of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] in New Jersey.
===Jonathan Edwards===
The revival began with [[Jonathan Edwards]], a well-educated theologian and Congregationalist minister from [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], who came from [[Puritan]], [[Calvinist]] roots, but emphasized the importance and power of immediate, personal religious experience. Edwards was said to be 'solemn, with a distinct and careful enunciation, and a slow cadence.'[http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/mwt/dictionary/mwt_themes_420_edwards.htm] Nevertheless, his sermons were powerful and attracted a large following. "[[Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God]]," is his most famous sermon.
Winiarski (2005) examines Edwards's preaching in the Suffield, Massachusetts, meetinghouse on 6 July 1741 and the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" that he preached at Enfield two days later. At Suffield and Enfield, Edwards countenanced the "noise" of the Great Awakening, but his approach to revivalism became more moderate and critical in the years immediately following. The discovery of an anonymous letter composed by one who attended the Suffield service provides evidence for a reassessment of that seminal moment in the Great Awakening.<ref> This letter, likely written by Samuel Phillips Savage, a strong supporter of evangelical Protestantism, is published in the appendix to Winiarski (2005). </ref>
Edwards' greatest contribution to the awakening was probably his book, ''A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God.'' For many younger untried clergymen, Edward’s book was a “how to manual” that instructed them as to the finer points of conducting a revival. It influenced even the most famous of the Great Awakening ministers, [[George Whitefield]].
===George Whitfield===
The Methodist preacher [[George Whitefield]], visiting from England, continued the movement started by Jonathan Edwards, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone into his audiences.
Whitefield started as an associate of [[John Wesley]] in England. He was ordained as an [[Anglican]] minister. However, he was not assigned a pulpit and began preaching in parks and fields in England on his own. In short, he preached to people who normally did not attend Church. Like Edwards, he had developed a style of preaching that elicited emotional responses from his audiences. However, Whitefield had charisma, and his voice (which according to many accounts, could be heard over vast distances), small stature, and cross-eyed appearance (which some people took as a mark of divine favor) all served to help make him the first American celebrity. Thanks to the use of print in colonial America, perhaps more than half of all colonists, heard about, read about, or read something written by Whitefield. Whitefield used print extensively. He sent advance men to put up broadsides and to distribute handbills announcing his sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published (a common practice in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries). Most notably, he entered into a profitable business partnership (and lifelong friendship) with [[Benjamin Franklin]]. While Franklin noted that Whitefield’s sermons tended to improve morality among the colonists, Whitefield was never able to get Franklin to embrace Christianity on a personal level.
==Impact on individuals==
Sermons were the centerpiece of the movement. They contained far less theology and stressed the impact of Christ’s message on the souls of the audience. Receptive listeners became much more passionately and emotionally involved in their own destiny. New converts made the Bible a center of their home life, with frequent reading in family groups. Home study decentralized religion and was a further step in the individualistic trends introduced in Europe by the [[Protestant Reformation]] of the 16th century.
==Impact on American Revolution?==
Historians in recent decades have disagreed sharply over the significance of the "Great Awakening.” In 1982, Jon Butler argued that it was largely the invention of later historians who misjudged the cohesiveness and the extent of the revivals. Joseph A. Conforti built on Butler's argument, suggesting that the first Great Awakening was actually invented by revival promoters during the second Great Awakening of the 1830s.
Scholars especially have debated whether the Awakening had a political impact on the [[American Revolution]], which took place soon after. Heimert (1966) is the most controversial study; it argues that the evangelical Calvinism of the Awakening, not the religious liberalism of its opponents, laid the ideological foundation of the American Revolution.<ref> Heimert's work was attacked by Edmund S. Morgan and Sidney E. Mead, while Patricia U. Bonomi, Richard L. Bushman, Rhys Isaac, Gary B. Nash, and Harry S. Stout were more supportive. </ref> Heimert says that Calvinism and Jonathan Edwards provided pre-Revolutionary America with a radical and democratic social and political ideology and that evangelical religion embodied and inspired a thrust toward American nationalism. Colonial Calvinism was the basis for the American Great Awakening and that in turn lay at the basis of the American Revolution. Heimert thus sees a major impact as the Great Awakening provided the radical American nationalism that prompted the Revolution. Awakening preachers sought to review God's covenant with America and to repudiate the materialistic, acquisitive, corrupt world of an affluent colonial society. The source of this corruption lay in England, and a severance of the ties with the mother country would result in a rededication of America to the making of God's Kingdom.
Heimert's work drew retorts from Edmund S. Morgan and Sidney E. Mead, even as other historians, including Patricia U. Bonomi, Richard L. Bushman, Rhys Isaac, Gary B. Nash, and Harry S. Stout,
However, Heimert has been criticized for not recognizing the differences between educated and uneducated evangelists, and for not recognizing the significance of Separate-Baptists and Methodists.<ref>McLaughlin (1966), Goff (1998)</ref>
Some historians, in particular, Gary Nash in ''The Urban Crucible'' (1986), have seen the First Great Awakening as a means by which humbler colonial Americans were able to challenge their 'social betters'. Harry Stout (1986) has even suggested that the first Great Awakening radically democratized mass communication in the colonies, setting the stage for new popular politics later in the revolutionary decades that followed.
Christine Leigh Heyrman (1984) and Christopher Jedrey (1979) and others have been highly critical of this interpretation, arguing instead that The First Great Awakening was an essentially conservative movement a continuation of other, earlier religious traditions.
The Great Awakenings effect on early American settles was largely significant, directly effecting two thirds of the population.<ref>Paul Johnson, ''A History of the American People'', 1997</ref> The binding effect between the early American classes as a result of the Awakening also served as a proto-revolutionary event, preceding the political drive for Independence in the 1770's. Famous Historian Paul Johnson wrote in his book, '''The History of the American People'', that,
<blockquote>
"It was the marriage 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-itself soon identified as the coming eschatology event. Neither force could have succeeded without the other. The Revolution could not have taken place without this religious background. "
</blockquote>
==Old Lights and New Lights==
Preachers adopting the highly effective new style were called "new lights", while the old fashioned preachers were "old lights". Many colonial clergymen initially welcomed Whitefield and other revivalists, and opened their churches to them. However, many had second thoughts over time, regarding the revivalists — some of whom lacked theological training — as unorthodox. They saw the revivalists as challenging their own authority and regular church attendance. As a result, many denominations split into “Old Light” and “New Light” factions. As a rule, the “Old Lights” preferred the order of regular church services, while the “New Lights” favored the more emotional appeal of the revivalists. Newer denominations, particularly the Baptists and the Methodists, gained many converts.
The two factions battled in several denominations. Divisions between “Old Lights” and “New Lights” did not stop at the church door. As a rule, older more established, and wealthier colonists (particularly in the South) tended to prefer the “Old Light” while poorer colonists and new arrivals gravitated toward “New Light” services.
The clergymen of the Great Awakening valued education, and during this period the University of Pennsylvania (1740), Princeton (1746), Brown (1764), Rutgers (1766), and Dartmouth (1770) were founded, all with identifiable connection to the movement.
==Bibliography=====Primary sources===* Edwards, Jonathan. (C. Goen, editor) ''The Great-Awakening: A Faithful Narrative'' Collected contemporary comments and letters; 1972, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-01437-6.* Heimert, Alan, and Perry Miller ed.; ''The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences'' (1967)* McClymond, Michael, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America.'' (Greenwood, 2007. Vol. 1, A–Z: xxxii, 515 pp. Vol. 2, Primary Documents: xx, 663 pp. isbn 0-313-32828-5/set.) ===Secondary sources===* Ahlstrom, Sydney E. ''A Religious History of the American People'' (1972) the standard history* Brekus, Catherine A. ''Strangers & Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740-1845'' U of North Carolina Press, 1998 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94846682 online edition]* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' Oxford University Press, 1988 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90445659 online edition]* Bumsted, J. M. ''"What Must I Do to Be Saved?": The Great Awakening in Colonial America'' 1976* Butler, Jon. "Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction." ''Journal of American History'' 69 (1982): 305-25. * Butler, Jon. ''Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People.'' (1990). [http://www.amazon.com/Awash-Sea-Faith-Christianizing-American/dp/0674056019/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195464788&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]* Conforti, Joseph A. '' Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition and American Culture'' University of North Carolina Press. 1995. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=35958357 online edition]* Gaustad, Edwin S. ''The Great Awakening in New England'' (1957)* Gaustad, Edwin S. "The Theological Effects of the Great Awakening in New England," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 40, No. 4. (Mar., 1954), pp. 681-706. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28195403%2940%3A4%3C681%3ATTEOTG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R in JSTOR]* Goff, Philip. "Revivals and Revolution: Historiographic Turns since Alan Heimert's Religion and the American Mind." ''Church History'' 1998 67(4): 695-721. Issn: 0009-6407 Fulltext: [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-6407(199812)67%3A4%3C695%3ARARHTS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y in Jstor]* Goen, C. C. ''Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740-1800: Strict Congregationalists and Separate Baptists in the Great Awakening'' (1962) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6391222 online edition]* Hatch, Nathan O. ''The Democratization of American Christianity'' (1989). [http://www.amazon.com/Democratization-American-Christianity-Nathan-Hatch/dp/0300050607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195464761&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]* Heimert, Alan. ''Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution'' Harvard University Press, (1966) online in ACL e-books* Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Commerce and Culture : The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750. 1st ed. New York: Norton, 1984.* Isaac, Rhys. ''The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790'' (1982), emphasis on Baptists [http://www.amazon.com/Transformation-1740-1790-Published-Omohundro-Williamsburg/dp/080784814X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195464721&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]* Jedrey, Christopher M. The World of John Cleaveland : Family and Community in Eighteenth-Century New England. 1st ed. New York: Norton, 1979.* Keller, Rosemary Skinner, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America'' (3 vol 2006) [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0253346851/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search]* Kidd, Thomas S. ''The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America'' (2007) , 412pp * Lambert, Frank. ''Pedlar in Divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals''; (1994)* Lambert, Frank. Inventing the "Great Awakening." (1999), 308pp* McClymond, Michael, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America.'' (Greenwood, 2007. Vol. 1, A–Z: xxxii, 515 pp. Vol. 2, Primary Documents: xx, 663 pp. isbn 0-313-32828-5/set.)* McLoughlin, William G. ''Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977'' (1978). [http://www.amazon.com/Revivals-Awakenings-Chicago-American-Religion/dp/0226560929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195464898&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]* McLaughlin, William G. "Essay Review: the American Revolution as a Religious Revival: 'The Millennium in One Country.'" ''New England Quarterly'' 1967 40(1): 99-110. Issn: 0028-4866 * Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible : The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution. Abridged ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. * Pope, Robert, ed. ''Religion and National Identity: Wales and Scotland C. 1700-2000.'' (2001) [http://www.questia.com/read/107361140 online edition]* Schmidt, Leigh Eric. ''Holy Fairs: Scotland and the Making of American Revivalism '' (2001)* Schmotter, James W. "The Irony of Clerical Professionalism: New England's Congregational Ministers and the Great Awakening," ''American Quarterly'', 31 (1979), a statistical study; [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0678(197922)31%3A2%3C148%3ATIOCPN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F in JSTOR]* Stout, Harry. ''The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism'' William B. Eerdmans, 1991.* Stout, Harry S. The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.* Tracy, Joseph. ''The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield'', 1842; [http://books.google.com/books?vid=0-aXFdW8Cgo8z4XB0gjKcr5&id=-SkMAAAAIAAJ&dq=Tracy,+Joseph.+The+Great+Awakening: online edition]* Winiarski, Douglas L. "Jonathan Edwards, Enthusiast? Radical Revivalism and the Great Awakening in the Connecticut Valley." ''Church History'' 2005 74(4): 683-739. Issn: 0009-6407 Fulltext: Ebsco ====Notes====
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