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/* International dimension */
==International dimension==
The evangelical revival was international in scope, affecting the [[Atlantic Historyhistory|North Atlantic region]]. The dramatic response of churchgoers in Bristol and London in 1737, and of the Kingswood colliers with white gutters on their cheeks caused by tears in 1739 under the preaching of [[George Whitefield]], is marked the start of the [[English awakening]]in England. But in fact these events had been preceded by similar revivals in [[Wales]] some years earlier, predated again by a movement of 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" that also 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 [[13 Colonies|North AmericaAmerican colonies]]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.
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.
==Presbyterians==
