First Great Awakening

First Great Awakening
Jonathan Edwards · Public domain · source
Name	First Great Awakening
Caption	Revivalist meeting, 18th century
Date	c. 1730s–1760s
Locations	British America, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland
Type	Religious revival

First Great Awakening The First Great Awakening was an 18th-century Protestant religious revival that transformed congregational life across British America, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland. It involved itinerant preaching, revival meetings, and renewed emphasis on personal conversion, influencing figures in evangelical movements, colonial politics, and transatlantic networks such as the Sons of Liberty, American Revolution, Methodist Church (United States), and Baptist Church (United States). The revival altered relationships among denominations including the Church of England, Presbyterian Church (USA), Congregationalism, Quakers, and Moravian Church.

Background and Origins

Religious and social conditions in the early 18th century set the stage: declining church attendance in parishes like St Martin-in-the-Fields intersected with intellectual currents from Enlightenment figures such as John Locke, Isaac Newton, and David Hume and with controversies in institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University. Colonial demographics—immigration from Scotland, Ireland, and Germany—linked to revivals in centers including Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Charleston, South Carolina. Economic and legal contexts in provinces like Massachusetts Bay Colony and Province of Virginia influenced lay anxieties, while transatlantic print networks involving the London Magazine, Evangelical Magazine, and pamphleteers such as Cotton Mather spread revivalist narratives.

Key Figures and Preachers

Prominent ministers and evangelists catalyzed the movement: Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, Massachusetts and George Whitefield of Oxford University and the Methodist revival led public attention; others included John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Gilbert Tennent, Samuel Davies, Jonathan Dickinson, James Davenport, William Tennant, Samuel Hopkins, Johnathan Maxcy, Shubal Stearns, Isaac Backus, Elias Smith, Daniel Rowland, Howell Harris, and leaders from the Moravian Church like Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf. Influential lay supporters and critics included Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Sewall, John Winthrop (governor), Peter Bohler, and colonial printers such as Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Mayhew.

Theology and Beliefs

Revival theology emphasized experiential conversion, personal piety, and doctrines rooted in Reformed and evangelical traditions as debated among adherents from Calvinism and Arminianism schools represented by ministers tied to institutions like Yale College, Princeton Theological Seminary (precursor), and King's College (New York). Central tenets included repentance, justification by faith, assurance of salvation, and the role of the Holy Spirit as articulated in sermons and pamphlets resembling works by Jonathan Edwards such as his sermons on Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and writings in dialogue with thinkers from Cambridge University and the University of Edinburgh. The revival provoked theological disputes in synods and presbyteries including the Synod of Philadelphia and the Church of Scotland assemblies.

Methods and Events

Methods included itinerant preaching tours, field preaching in sites like the Enfield, Connecticut meetinghouse and open-air gatherings near Kensington (London), extended conversion meetings, and revival assemblies often held by networks connected to the London Missionary Society and Moravian missions. Key events encompassed notable revivals in 1734–1735 Northampton revival, 1740–1741 New England revivals, and Welsh and Welsh Methodist revivals led by Daniel Rowland and Howell Harris as well as Welsh connections to John Wesley. Print media—sermons, journals, and almanacs distributed via printers like Isaiah Thomas and Isaac Collins—amplified events. Opposition arose in pamphlet polemics involving Charles Chauncy, Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, and contested hearings in bodies like the Connecticut General Assembly.

Social and Cultural Impacts

The Awakening reshaped religious affiliation, fostering growth for denominations such as Methodism, Baptist Church (United States), and Presbyterian Church (USA) while provoking splits in Congregationalism. It influenced social reform movements and networks that later intersected with advocates in causes linked to figures such as John Witherspoon, Aaron Burr Sr., and abolitionist precursors like George Whitefield’s complex relation to slavery debates and critics including Granville Sharp. Revivalism affected education through expanded enrollment at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and Brown University and spurred missionary impulses toward societies like the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and Moravian missions in the Caribbean. Politically, revivalist rhetoric and organizational methods shaped associational culture that informed movements including the American Revolution and political actors such as Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee.

Regional Expressions and Chronology

Chronology and local character varied: early awakenings in New England (notably Massachusetts Bay Colony towns like Northampton, Massachusetts), mid-century surges in Middle Colonies (including Philadelphia and New York (city)), and southern expansions in Virginia and North Carolina where leaders like Samuel Davies ministered to diverse populations. Transatlantic revivals unfolded concurrently in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and England with linked itinerancy between Oxford University, London, and colonial ports such as Portsmouth (New Hampshire), Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. The movement’s temporal arc from the 1730s through the 1760s culminated in institutional realignments and the diffusion of evangelical practices that preceded later movements such as the Second Great Awakening and ongoing evangelical currents in the United States and United Kingdom.

Category:18th-century Christianity