Great Awakening

Great Awakening
J. Maze Burbank · Public domain · source
Name	Great Awakening
Period	18th–19th centuries
Regions	Thirteen Colonies, United States, British Empire, Scotland, Ireland
Notable figures	Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Charles Finney, Francis Asbury
Movements	Methodism, Baptists, Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, Camp meeting
Related events	American Revolution, Second Great Awakening, Evangelicalism

Great Awakening A series of Protestant religious revivals that transformed religious life across the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States, with parallel movements in Great Britain and parts of Europe. These revivals emphasized itinerant preaching, intense personal conversion experiences, and challenges to established clerical authority, influencing social institutions and political movements. Leaders and congregations associated with the revivals reshaped denominational alignments, inspired new organizations, and contributed to debates in public life.

Overview

The revivals arose amid changing social conditions in the 18th century, including transatlantic migration, urbanization in Philadelphia, rural settlement in New England, and contested authority within Anglicanism. Prominent figures such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and later Charles Finney practiced itinerant ministry and published sermons and pamphlets circulating in networks linking Boston, New York City, London, and Edinburgh. The movements fostered denominations like Methodism, Baptists, and revivalist Presbyterianism, while spawning institutions such as seminaries and missionary societies tied to cities like Salem and Cambridge (Massachusetts). Revival techniques—open-air preaching, emotional testimony, camp meetings, and printed tracts—spread through postal routes connected to Newport and Baltimore and through transatlantic shipping to Bristol and Liverpool.

First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s)

The mid-18th-century revival featured itinerant preachers crossing the Delaware River valley and New England frontier. Jonathan Edwards delivered influential sermons in Northampton (Massachusetts), notably addressing conversion and predestination, while George Whitefield toured the colonies and drew massive crowds in Philadelphia, New York City, and Charleston, employing theatrical oratory and evangelical publishing. The revival accelerated tensions between revivalist and established clergy in Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements, and Virginia, prompting schisms within Congregationalism and Anglicanism. Revival congregations spawned missionary endeavors toward Native nations such as the Iroquois Confederacy and inspired new educational ventures linked to Princeton University, Yale, and later Columbia University alumni networks. Debates around itinerancy, lay preaching, and the role of emotion in conversion also intersected with pamphlet wars involving printers in Boston, Philadelphia, and London.

Second Great Awakening (early 19th century)

The early 19th-century revival expanded revivalist practices onto the western frontier of the United States, with hallmark events in New York's "Burned-over District", Kentucky, and Tennessee. Revival leaders such as Charles Finney and Lyman Beecher emphasized moral agency, revival meetings in urban venues in New York City and itinerant preaching along the Erie Canal, and camp meetings associated with Francis Asbury and Peter Cartwright. This phase fostered denominational growth for Methodism and Baptists and catalyzed voluntary societies including the American Bible Society, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and anti-slavery and temperance organizations active in Boston and Philadelphia. The movement influenced political figures and reformers who operated in networks spanning Washington, D.C., Albany (New York), and Cincinnati.

Later Revivals and Global Influence

Revival impulses continued through the 19th and 20th centuries into transnational forms of Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Missionary societies based in London and Edinburgh exported revival models to Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean via ports such as Glasgow and Liverpool. Figures like Dwight L. Moody and organizations such as the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions bridged revivalist traditions with institutional mission work in China, India, and Africa. Revivalist methodologies influenced revival meetings in urban centers including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, and shaped religious publishing houses in New York City and Oxford.

Social and Political Impact

Revival movements affected social reform campaigns, political alignments, and community institutions. The revivals energized abolitionist leaders operating in Boston and Philadelphia and shaped temperance movements headquartered in Portland (Maine) and Cleveland. Revivalist networks intersected with reformers like William Lloyd Garrison and organizations such as the American Anti-Slavery Society, while influencing voting blocs and political discourse in states like New York and Massachusetts. Revivalism also prompted the formation of benevolent societies, Sunday schools, and voluntary associations linked to cities including Baltimore and Richmond, altering civic life and charitable infrastructures.

Theology and Religious Practices

The revivalist theological emphasis ranged from Calvinism in the sermons of Jonathan Edwards to the Arminianism articulated by John Wesley and the revivalist liturgies advanced by George Whitefield and Charles Finney. Practices included public conversion narratives, altar calls, itinerant preaching circuits, and camp meetings prominent in Kentucky and Ohio. Revival theology influenced denominational creeds within Presbyterianism, Methodism, and Baptist confessions, while prompting theological literature published in centers like Philadelphia and London. Theological debates addressed assurance of salvation, predestination, free will, and the legitimacy of lay exhortation, engaging ministers, seminary faculties, and lay leaders across networks that encompassed Princeton Seminary, Andover Theological Seminary, and parish circuits in New England.

Category:Christian revival movements