Great Awakening

{{about|the period of religious revival|the Christian rock album|The Great Awakening (album)|the 1941 film|The Great Awakening (film)}}
{{Short description|Periods of Christian revival in American history}}
{{Great awakenings}}
{{Protestantism|expanded=Topics}}

The '''Great Awakening''' was a series of [[Christian revival|religious revivals]] in [[History of Christianity in the United States|American Christian history]]. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the late 20th century. Each of these "Great Awakenings" was characterized by widespread revivals led by [[evangelical]] [[Protestant]] [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]], a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and [[Redemption (religious)|redemption]] on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of [[new religious movement]]s and [[Christian denomination|denominations]].

[[George Whitefield]], [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]], and [[Gilbert Tennent]] were influential during the First Great Awakening. Some of the influential groups during the Great Awakening were the [[Old and New Light|New Lights and the Old Lights]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/exhibits/show/biographies/george-whitefield |title=George Whitefield |website=The Great Awakening: Spiritual Revival in Colonial America |access-date=November 16, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/exhibits/show/biographies/gilbert-tennent |title=Gilbert Tennent |website=The Great Awakening: Spiritual Revival in Colonial America |access-date=November 16, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.mb-soft.com/believe/txc/newlight.htm |title=New Light Schism |website=www.mb-soft.com |language=en-US |access-date=November 16, 2017}}</ref> 

Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made religion more personal by fostering a sense of spiritual conviction of personal sin and need for redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to personal morality. It incited rancor and division between traditionalists, who insisted on the continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and revivalists who encouraged emotional involvement and personal commitment. It had a major impact in reshaping the Congregational church, the Presbyterian church, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the German Reformed denomination, and strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist denominations. It had less impact on Anglicans and Quakers. Unlike the Second Great Awakening, which began about 1800 and reached out to the unchurched, the First Great Awakening focused on those who were already church members. It changed their rituals, their piety, and their self-awareness.{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972}}

== First Great Awakening ==
{{main|First Great Awakening}}
{{Historical Christian theology}}

The First Great Awakening began in the 1730s and lasted to about 1740, though pockets of revivalism had occurred in years prior, especially amongst the ministry of [[Solomon Stoddard]], [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]]' grandfather.{{sfn|Curtis|1991|p=135}} Edwards' congregation was involved in a revival later called the "Frontier Revivals" in the mid-1730s, though this was on the wane by 1737.{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972|p=283}} But as American religious historian [[Sydney E. Ahlstrom]] noted, the Great Awakening "was still to come, ushered in by the Grand Itinerant",{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972|p=283}} the British evangelist [[George Whitefield]]. Whitefield arrived in Georgia in 1738, and returned in 1739 for a second visit of the Colonies, making a "triumphant campaign north from Philadelphia to New York, and back to the South".{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972|p=283}} In 1740, he visited New England, and "at every place he visited, the consequences were large and tumultuous". Ministers from various evangelical Protestant denominations supported the Great Awakening.{{sfn|Kidd|2007}} In the middle colonies, he influenced not only the British churches, but the Dutch and German.

Additionally, pastoral styles began to change. In the late colonial period, most pastors read their sermons, which were theologically dense and advanced a particular theological argument or interpretation. [[Nathan O. Hatch]] argues that the evangelical movement of the 1740s played a key role in the development of democratic thought,{{sfn|Hatch|1989}}{{Disputed inline|date=October 2015}} as well as the belief of the free press and the belief that information should be shared and completely unbiased and uncontrolled.{{sfn|Copeland|2006|p=173}} Michał Choiński argues that the First Great Awakening marks the birth of the American "rhetoric of the revival" understood as "a particular mode of preaching in which the speaker employs and it has a really wide array of patterns and communicative strategies to initiate religious conversions and spiritual regeneration among the hearers".{{sfn|Choiński|2016|p=51}} All these theological, social, and rhetorical notions ushered in the period of the American Revolution. This contributed to create a demand for religious freedom.{{sfn|Corbett|Corbett-Hemeyer|Wilson|2014|pp=37–38}} The Great Awakening represented the first time African Americans embraced Christianity in large numbers.{{sfn|Chacon|Scoggins|2014|pp=36–37}}

In the later part of the 1700s the Revival came to the English colonies of [[Nova Scotia]], [[New Brunswick]], and [[Prince Edward Island]], primarily through the efforts of [[Henry Alline]] and his New Light movement.{{sfn|Stewart|1982}}

==Second Great Awakening==
{{Main|Second Great Awakening}}

The Second Great Awakening (sometimes known simply as "the Great Awakening") was a religious revival that occurred in the United States beginning in the late eighteenth century and lasting until the middle of the nineteenth century. While it occurred in all parts of the United States, it was especially strong in the Northeast and the Midwest.{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972|pp=415–454}} This awakening was unique in that it moved beyond the educated elite of New England to those who were less wealthy and less educated. The center of revivalism was the so-called [[Burned-over district]] in western New York. Named for its overabundance of hellfire-and-damnation preaching, the region produced dozens of new denominations, communal societies, and reform.{{sfn|Cross|1950}}

Among these dozens of new denominations were free black churches, run independently of existing congregations that were predominantly of white attendance. During the period between the American revolution and the 1850s, black involvement in largely white churches declined in great numbers, with participation becoming almost non-existent by the 1840s–1850s; some scholars argue that this was largely due to racial discrimination within the church.<ref name="Boles">{{Cite journal |title=Documents relating to African American experiences of white congregational churches in Massachusetts, 1773–1832 |first=Richard J. |last=Boles |journal=[[The New England Quarterly]] |volume=86 |issue=2 |year=2013 |pages=310–323 |jstor=43284993 |doi=10.1162/TNEQ_a_00280}}</ref> This discrimination came in the form of segregated seating and the forbiddance of African Americans from voting in church matters or holding leadership positions in many white churches.<ref name="Boles" /> Reverend Richard Allen, a central founder of the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]], was quoted describing one such incident of racial discrimination in a predominantly white church in Philadelphia, in which fellow preacher and a former slave from Delaware, [[Absalom Jones]], was grabbed by a white church trustee in the midst of prayer and forcefully told to leave.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcrbmrp.t1608/?sp=6| title=Image 6 of The Episcopal Church and the colored people: a statement of facts |website=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=December 17, 2018}}</ref>

Closely related to the Second Great Awakening were other reform movements such as [[American Temperance movement|temperance]], [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition]], and [[First-wave feminism|women's rights]]. The temperance movement encouraged people to abstain from consuming alcoholic drinks in order to preserve family order. The abolition movement fought to abolish slavery in the United States. The women's rights movement grew from female abolitionists who realized that they could fight for their own political rights, too. In addition to these causes, reforms touched nearly every aspect of daily life, such as restricting the use of tobacco and dietary and dress reforms. The abolition movement emerged in the North from the wider Second Great Awakening 1800–1840.{{sfn|McLoughlin|1978}}

== Third Great Awakening ==
{{main|Third Great Awakening}}

The [[Third Great Awakening]] in the 1850s–1900s was characterized by new denominations, active missionary work, [[Chautauqua#Religious expression|Chautauquas]], and the [[Social Gospel]] approach to social issues.{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972}} The [[YMCA]] (founded in 1844) played a major role in fostering revivals in the cities in the 1858 Awakening and after. The revival of 1858 produced the leadership, such as that of [[Dwight L. Moody]], out of which came religious work carried on in the armies during the civil war. The [[United States Christian Commission|Christian]] and [[United States Sanitary Commission|Sanitary]] Commissions and numerous [[Freedmen's Aid Society|Freedmen's Societies]] were also formed in the midst of the War.{{sfn|Long|1998}}

==Fourth Great Awakening==
{{main|Fourth Great Awakening}}

The Fourth Great Awakening is a debated concept that has not received the acceptance of the first three. Advocates such as economist [[Robert Fogel]] say it happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s.{{sfn|Fogel|2000|p=10}} The [[Jesus Movement]] is cited as evidence of this awakening, and it created a shift in church music styles.

Mainline Protestant denominations weakened sharply in both membership and influence while the most conservative religious denominations (such as the [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptists]]) grew rapidly in numbers, spread across the United States, had grave internal theological battles and schisms, and became politically powerful.{{sfn|Marty|1996|pp=434–455}}

== Terminology ==
The idea of an "awakening" implies a slumber or passivity during secular or less religious times. Awakening is a term which originates from, and is embraced often and primarily by, evangelical Christians.{{sfn|Lambert|1999}} In recent times, the idea of "awakenings" in United States history has been put forth by conservative American evangelicals.<ref>{{cite news |last=Baker |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Baker (author) |date=September 13, 2006 |title=Bush Tells Group He Sees a 'Third Awakening' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR2006091201594.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=November 13, 2017}}</ref>

In the late 2010s and 2020s the term ''Great Awakening'' has been used by promoters of the [[QAnon]] [[conspiracy theory]] to denote awareness of their theory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Berghel |first=Hal |date=July 2022 |title=Prosperity Theology Goes Online: Will This Be a Fifth Great Awakening? |journal=Computer |volume=55 |issue=7 |pages=104–110 |doi=10.1109/MC.2022.3170217 |issn=1558-0814|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McLaughlin |first=Melissa |date=2021-08-01 |title=Great Awakening 2020: The Neoliberal Wellness Journey Down the Rabbit Hole |url=https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/1277 |journal=Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chandler |first=Kylar J. |date=2020 |title=Where We Go 1 We Go All: A Public Discourse Analysis of QAnon |url=https://commons.emich.edu/mcnair/vol13/iss1/4/ |journal=McNair Scholars Research Journal |language=en |volume=13 |issue=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Robertson |first1=David G. |last2=Amarasingam |first2=Amarnath |date=2022-07-03 |title=How conspiracy theorists argue: epistemic capital in the QAnon social media sphere |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2050238 |journal=Popular Communication |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=193–207 |doi=10.1080/15405702.2022.2050238 |issn=1540-5702|doi-access=free }}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Great Disappointment]]
* {{Portal-inline|Reformed Christianity}}
* {{Portal-inline|Evangelical Christianity}}
* {{Portal-inline|Religion}}

== References ==
{{reflist|22em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book
|last=Ahlstrom
|first=Sydney E.
|author-link=Sydney E. Ahlstrom
|year=1972
|title=A Religious History of the American People
|url=https://archive.org/details/religioushistory1972ahls
|url-access=registration
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Chacon
|first1=Richard J.
|last2=Scoggins
|first2=Michael Charles
|year=2014
|title=The Great Awakening and Southern Backcountry Revolutionaries
|journal=Remembering the Body: Ethical Issues in Body Mapping Research
|series=SpringerBriefs in Anthropology
|volume=4
|location=Cham, Switzerland
|publisher=Springer
|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-04597-9
|isbn=978-3-319-04597-9
|issn=2195-0830
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Choiński
|first=Michał
|year=2016
|title=The Rhetoric of the Revival: The Language of the Great Awakening Preachers
|location=Göttingen, Germany
|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
|isbn=978-3-525-56023-5
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Copeland
|first=David A.
|year=2006
|title=The Idea of a Free Press: The Enlightenment and Its Unruly Legacy
|location=Evanston, Illinois
|publisher=[[Northwestern University Press]]
|isbn=978-0-8101-2329-8
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Corbett
|first1=Michael
|last2=Corbett-Hemeyer
|first2=Julia
|last3=Wilson
|first3=J. Matthew
|year=2014
|title=Politics and Religion in the United States
|edition=2nd
|location=New York
|publisher=[[Routledge]]
|isbn=978-0-415-64462-4
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Cross
|first=Whitney R.
|author-link=Whitney Cross
|year=1950
|title=The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800–1850
|url=https://archive.org/details/burnedoverdistri0000cros
|url-access=registration
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Curtis
|first=A. Kenneth
|year=1991
|title=The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History
|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan
|publisher=Fleming H. Revell
|isbn=978-0-8007-5644-4
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Fogel
|first=Robert William
|author-link=Robert Fogel
|year=2000
|title=The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism
|url=https://archive.org/details/fourthgreatawake00foge
|url-access=registration
|location=Chicago
|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]
|publication-date=2002
|isbn=978-0-226-25663-4
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Hatch
|first=Nathan O.
|author-link=Nathan O. Hatch
|year=1989
|title=The Democratization of American Christianity
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kidd
|first=Thomas S.
|author-link=Thomas S. Kidd
|year=2007
|title=The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America
|url=https://archive.org/details/greatawakeningro00kidd
|url-access=registration
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Lambert
|first=Frank
|author-link=Franklin T. Lambert
|year=1999
|title=Inventing the "Great Awakening"
|location=Princeton, New Jersey
|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Long
|first=Kathryn Teresa
|year=1998
|title=The Revival of 1857–58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening
|location=New York
|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Marty
|first=Martin E.
|author-link=Martin E. Marty
|year=1996
|title=Modern American Religion |volume=3: Under God, Indivisible, 1941–1960
|location=Chicago
|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last=McLoughlin
|first=William G.
|author-link=William G. McLoughlin
|year=1978
|title=Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607–1977
|location=Chicago
|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|year=1982
|editor-last=Stewart
|editor-first=Gordon T.
|title=Documents Relating to the Great Awakening in Nova Scotia, 1760–1791
|series=The Publications of the Champlain Society
|volume=52
|location=Toronto
|publisher=[[Champlain Society]]
|publication-date=2013
|doi=10.3138/9781442618671
|isbn=978-1-4426-1867-1
}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Butler
|first=Jon
|s2cid=59494141
|author-link=Jon Butler
|year=1982
|title=Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction
|journal=[[Journal of American History]]
|volume=69
|issue=2
|location=Oxford
|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|pages=305–325
|doi=10.2307/1893821
|issn=0021-8723
|jstor=1893821
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Butler
|first=Jon
|author-link=Jon Butler
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1990
|title=Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]
|publication-date=1992
|isbn=978-0-674-05601-5
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780674056008
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Heimert
|first=Alan
|year=1966
|title=Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution
|url=https://archive.org/details/religionamerican00heim
|url-access=registration
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|editor1-last=Heimert
|editor1-first=Alan
|editor2-last=Miller
|editor2-first=Perry
|editor2-link=Perry Miller
|year=1960
|title=The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences
|location=New York
|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kelleter
|first=Frank
|year=2002
|title=Amerikanische Aufklärung: Sprachen der Rationalität im Zeitalter der Revolution
|trans-title=American Enlightenment: Languages of Rationality in the Age of Revolution
|language=de
|location=Paderborn, Germany
|publisher=Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh
|isbn=978-3-506-74416-6
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Lambert
|first=Frank
|author-link=Franklin T. Lambert
|year=1994
|title=Pedlar in Divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737–1770
|location=Princeton, New Jersey
|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]
|isbn=978-0-691-03296-2
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Najar
|first=Monica
|year=2008
|title=Evangelizing the South: A Social History of Church and State in Early America
|url=https://archive.org/details/evangelizingsout0000naja
|url-access=registration
|location=New York
|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|isbn=978-0-19-530900-3
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Smith
|first=John Howard
|author-link=John Howard Smith
|year=2015
|title=The First Great Awakening: Redefining Religion in British America, 1725-1775
|location=Madison, N.M.
|publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]]
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Tracy
|first=Joseph
|author-link=Joseph Tracy
|year=1842
|title=The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield
|url=https://archive.org/details/greatawakeninga03tracgoog
|location=Boston
|publisher=Tappan and Dennet
|access-date=November 13, 2017
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Stout
|first=Harry S.
|year=1991
|title=The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism
|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan
|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
|isbn=978-0-8028-0154-8
}}
{{refend}}

{{Christian History|collapsed}}
{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}


[[Category:Christian revivals]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in the United States]]
[[Category:History of Protestantism]]
[[Category:History of religion in the United States]]