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The Great AwakeningThe Great Awakening
Religious Interest• Wealthy colonists typically
belonged to Church of England
• Other colonists- Quaker, Lutheran Congregationalist, Mennonite, Dutch Reformed Church, Presbyterian
• Puritans in a minority
Religious Interest• Colonists taught they could only
reach God through church• Over time, lose reverence for
clergy• Cotton Mather- inoculating
Bostonians for Small Pox, bomb thrown through his window
Cotton Mather’s House
The Great Awakening• Churches believe its time to renew
enthusiasm and commitment
• Begin series of revivals
• Great Awakening 1720-1770, period of revived religious feelings
Great Awakening Leaders
• Jonathan Edwards • George Whitefield
Great Awakening Leaders• Jonathan Edwards
– “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
–One of the first
• George Whitefield–Preached to
very large crowds
–Taught people to feel God’s power for themselves
Great Awakening
• Itinerant Ministers, (traveling)
• Preached in other’s churches, or if not welcome, barns or fields
• Large crowds would come to listen
• Many ministers not well-educated
What did they preach?
• Anyone can have a personal relationship with God
• Not wealth or education, but faith and sincerity needed to study gospel
• Celebration of ordinary people
Results
• In frontier settlements, Baptist and Methodist faiths grew
• Democratic churches- new churches often allowed dissent (difference of Opinion)
Results
• Affected mostly middle and lower classes
• Removed authority from religion
• “priesthood of believers”
• Response to the idea that wealth and education make you better?
Discussion questions
• Some historians believe the Great Awakening was an awakening of more than just religion. Besides preaching:
– what might have gone on at a revival?
– what else might have been awakened?
Write this down in complete sentences!