The Great Awakening



The Great Awakening

I. Schism in the Presbyterian Church

Demystification of the Clergy

Parishoners were forced to choose sides between the “New Lights” and the “Old Lights.”

The Great Awakening Challenged traditional beliefs about the Locus of Power in British North America.

II. Return of Church Authority- by the 1730s, the Philadelphia synod required all ministers to hold degrees from European Universities or, Harvard and Yale.

III. The First British Invasion-

George Whitefield arrived from England in 1739. He received a sensational embrace by the people of the Middle Colonies. The New Lights drew a distinction between the Old Lights who rejected open spirituality and the Pharisees who rejected the teachings of Jesus.

The following comes from a description of what is was like when George Whitefield came to town:

Now it pleased God to send Mr. Whitefield into this land; and my hearing of his preaching at Philadelphia, like one of the Old apostles, and many thousands flocking to hear him preach the Gospel, and great numbers were converted to Christ; I felt the Spirit of God drawing me by conviction, longed to see and hear him, and wished he would come this way. And I soon heard he was come to New York and the Jerseys and great multitudes flocking after him under great concern for their Souls and many converted which brought on my concern more and more hoping soon to see him but next I heard he was at Long Island, then at Boston, and next at Northampton.

Then one morning all on a Sudden, about 8 or 9 o’clock there came a messenger and said Mr. Whitefield preached at Hartford and Weathersfield yesterday and is to preach at Middletown this morning [October 23, 1740] at ten of the Clock. I was in my field at Work. I dropt my tool that I had in my hand and ran home and run through my house and bade my wife get ready quick to go and hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown, and run to my pasture for my horse with all my might fearing that I should be too late to hear him. I brought my horse home and soon mounted and took my wife up and went forward as fast as I thought the horse could bear, and when my horse began to be out of breath, I would get down and put my wife on the Saddle and bid her ride as fast as she could and not Stop or Slack for me except I bad her, and so I would run until I was much out of breath, and then mount my horse again, and so I did several times to favour my horse, we improved every moment to get along as if we were fleeing for our lives, all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the Sermon, for we had twelve miles to ride double in little more than an hour and we went round by the upper housen parish.

❖ The Old Lights were almost exclusively Scotch Irish, foreign born, foreign educated, people who emigrated as adults in their 20s. The Old Lights were critical of the new interpretation of religion. For example, Charles Chauncy left the following criticism of the awakeners message:

The Dangers of Awakening Religion

Charles Chauncy

I am in the first place, to give you some account of Enthusiasm. And as this is a thing much talk’d of at present, more perhaps than any other time that has pass’d over us, it will not be tho’t unseasonable, if I take some pains to let you into a true understanding of it.

The word, from its etymology, carries in it a good meaning, as signifying inspiration from God: in which sense, the prophets under the old testament, and the apostles under the new law, might properly be called Enthusiasts. For they were under a divine influence, spake as though moved by the HOLY GHOST, and did such things as can be accounted for in no way, but by recurring to an immediate extraordinary power, present with them.

But the word is more commonly used in a bad sense, as intending an imaginary, no a real inspiration: according to which sense, the Enthusiast is one, who has a conceit of himself as a person favored with the extraordinary presence of the Deity.

Sometimes, it (Enthusiasm) strangely loosens their tongues, and gives them such an energy, as well as fluency and volubility in speaking, as they themselves, by their utmost efforts, can’t so much be as intimate, when they are not under the enthusiastic influence.

Sometimes, it affects their bodies, throws them into convulsions and distortions, into quaking and trembling. This was formerly common among the people called Quakers.

They are likewise positive and dogmatical, vainly fond of their own imaginations…this is the nature of Enthusiasm, and this its operation, in a less or greater degree, in all who are under the influence of it. Tis’ a king of religious Phrenzy, and evidently discovers itself to be so, whenever it rises to any great height.

❖ New Lights were typically born in the colonies, or they emigrated in their childhood. The New Lights were mainly concerned with converting sinners. They believed in the Doctrine of Individual choice. The New Lights were social levelers who broke down some the barriers of socioeconomic mobility.

IV. The Great Awakening as a function of Mass Media.

Whitefield carried cartons of sermons and pamphlets with him to the Americas. He advanced copies of his sermons to the next towns on his circuit. Whitefield disseminated information through proxy ministers. Whitefield also serialized his sermons to make them more accessible. For example, Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia enjoyed a lengthy relationship with George Whitefield as the main publisher of the sermons in British North America. While Whitefield preached against monetary excess, he was willing to use the tools of commerce to get his message across.

V. The Great Awakening had explicit political indications. This is another break from authority. There is a class element at work. There is a transfer of thought concerning authority and power.

If the colonists can break from traditional RELIGIOUS authority, what is to stop them from breaking from tradition POLITICAL authority?

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