Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was when religion was sweeping throughout New

England with more conversions and church membership. This spiritual

awakening took place from 1735 up until 1745. (Brief Outline Notes on the

Great Awakening, 1735-45 ) Most of this had taken place within the American

Colonies, especially New England.(McCormick, pars. 9) . The Great Awakening

had many causes, however the consequences benefitted many.

Many people were moving farther and farther away from religion, the

Great Awakening was a revitalization that had tried to change that. There was a

huge decline in church membership and the church wanted people to get back to

god. As well as the Enlightenment, this was a time period where many people

were using reason to receive their answers. Instead of relying on the church for

answers they used science and math (Brief Outline Notes on the Great

Awakening, 1735-45 ).In 1688, the Church of English became the primary

religion of the country. Many other religions were infact repressed. Basically,

people were becoming bored of the religion and it just became a past time for

them. They didn`t worship god from their heart. This led to the decline of

attendance in church, memberships were decreasing as the years passed by

(Great Awakening).

To create change in such phenomenons, many minsters such as Thomas

Foxcroft gave sermons outside. People were actually eager to see him, he was

infact received by the chuches of Galatia. He presented something that didn`t

drone on and bore the people. He noticed that people didn`t really know much

about Christ, so he decided to pass it on. Another minister named Jonathan

Edwards, gave such passionate sermons that it brought many peoples attention

(Great Awakening).George Whitefield, a histronic man with a very loud voice.

His sermons were heard by Benjamin Franklin, who was a worldy man, but his

opinion was changed from this preacher. Another principle leader in the south

of the Awakening was Samuel Davies from Virginia. He read to his neighbors

the sermons of Whitefield and Luther. He preached moderately, however it`s

effect was numerous. The passionate sermons of these people led to the revival

of religon. More people came to church for the worship of god from their heart.

These ministers and preachers helped cause the Great Awakening that led to

many benificial consequences.(Lecture 4).

The work of these ministers and preachers paid off because of the

satisfactory results. A major result was the unification of many Americans

through religion. As well as the understanding of Christian faith and life. Many

non- established groups grew and enjoyed much more respect,such as the

Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians(Lecture 4). The colonists also figured out

that they can do things on their own. They didn`t need others to interpret the

bible for them. This helped the colonists fight back against George III and his

tyrannical ways. They put in religious control over the destiny over their nation

and instead of asking the church about independence, they sought help from

god (Great Awakening).Colonists had infact also figured out that any man can go

to heaven. Even if they have money or not, religion apparently back then

stressed equality, this led to disturbances to the rich(McCormick, pars. 12).

The Baptists benifitted the most from the Great Awakening. The Baptist

churches increased enormously after the revival. In 1740 there were 96

churches,