StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Enlightenment or the Great Awakening - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The Great Awakening refers to the movement of religious revival which swept over the American Colonies, particularly New England, between 1730 and 1745. It was characterized by great religious fervor and prayer. It had a profound effect on the ideological development of the…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.8% of users find it useful
Enlightenment or the Great Awakening
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Enlightenment or the Great Awakening"

The Great Awakening Effect on the Colonies. The Great Awakening refers to the movement of religious revival which swept over the American Colonies, particularly New England, between 1730 and 1745. It was characterized by great religious fervor and prayer. It had a profound effect on the ideological development of the colonies and paved the way for the American Revolution. The Great Awakening: Effect on the Colonies. The Great Awakening had its roots in England. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 unequivocally established the religious preeminence of the Church of England.

This led to a complacency which reduced religious services to a matter of form. In reaction, a new spiritual renewal, “characterized by great fervor and emotion in prayer,” (Great-Awakening.com) was begun by the Wesley brothers and George Whitefield. This movement of religious revival, which crossed the Atlantic and swept over the American Colonies, particularly New England, between 1730 and 1745, is termed The Great Awakening. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were the most prominent preachers of this movement.

The Great Awakening greatly impacted the ideological development of the Colonies. Unlike the earlier doctrine of the Puritans, the new doctrine promised the grace of God to all who experienced a desire for it. It emphasized greater intimacy with God and encouraged overt emotional expression. More importantly, a personal approach to salvation took precedence over church dogma. This undermined the authority of the church leaders and transferred power to the congregation. A large number of new religious denominations were formed.

Ironically, this splintering of the hitherto dominant Puritan and Anglican groups led to a unification of the American Colonies and the birth of a “national consciousness” and an American identity. The Great Awakening was the ideological root of the American Revolution, as it effectively undermined the belief that the monarchy was sanctioned by God. The movement engendered the notion of a consensual government and the belief that State rule was a contract of the government with the people.

Individualism in religion formed the basis for the desire for political independence. The Great Awakening united the colonists in anti-Catholic sentiment. This later metamorphosed into a deep anti-British fervor. The colonists realized that just as religious power lay in their own hands, so also could they take on the reins of government. The ideology of self-governance was an off-shoot of the Great Awakening. References.The Great Awakening. Analysis and Information on the First Great Awakening.

Great-Awakening.com. n.d. 18 November 2011. Retrieved from http://www.great-awakening.com/

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Enlightenment or the Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words”, n.d.)
Enlightenment or the Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1584488-enlightenment-or-the-great-awakening
(Enlightenment or the Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words)
Enlightenment or the Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words. https://studentshare.org/history/1584488-enlightenment-or-the-great-awakening.
“Enlightenment or the Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1584488-enlightenment-or-the-great-awakening.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Enlightenment or the Great Awakening

What effect did the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening have on life in British North America

This essay aims to answer what effect the Enlightenment and the great awakening had on life in British North America.... (the great awakening And Enlightenment In Colonial America).... The impact of the great awakening in colonial America led to creation of many new colleges in order to educate “new light” ministers like – Princeton, Rutgers, Brown, etc.... However the transformation in the form of an awakening did not happen overnight....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Enlightenment and the Great Awakening

hellip; Enlightenment and the great awakening In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colonial America experienced a number of changes both in its political and economic setting.... Enlightenment and the great awakening Enlightenment and the great awakening In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colonial America experienced a number of changes both in its political and economic setting.... the great awakening on the other hand, had a number of spiritual and religious revivals that made them share the same spiritual views with the south....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Critical Response of Herzl and Pinsker

The French Revolution, while a great awakening for the Enlightenment movement and for the French people, also showed an example of the Jewish people awakening from not so much a great sleep but a great captivity where they were denied equal status under any governments.... In Herzl's writings, the idea of awakening from a sleep as pointed by Anderson in European nationalism is also present in Jewish nationalism.... The Jews of Europe underwent an awakening from a deep sleep in their own sense as they began to understand the reason for all their woes and as they began to envision a solution that would bring them out of Europe and into a new land....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Great Awakening - Spiritual Revival in Colonial America

the great awakening.... Date the great awakening.... the great awakening refers to the wave of religious revival which swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s.... the great awakening had its roots in seventeenth century England.... These were the seeds of the great awakening.... At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Charles and John Wesley, along with others like George Whitefield, “reacted against the coldness of religion and the deistic rationalism which prevailed” and revived the personal significance of the gospels (Great-awakening....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Religious Movements of 18th Century America

A previous movement, The awakening had been spearheaded by preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whifield.... While the Enlightenment would promote the scientific innovations that were necessary for life in the colonies, The awakening formed the basis of social, political, and economic change for the upcoming American Revolution. Religious Movements of 18th Century America By the 18th century, the people of Europe and the Americas had entered the Age of Reason that had been ushered in by the Scientific Revolution....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

The Term Enlightenment

Thus it can be said that spiritual enlightenment is the ultimate end of human life and need the deeper awakening of the spirit or the soul.... It is about a divine awakening in a person which changes his perception and view of the whole world and himself.... he author of the essay explains the way in which he had an opportunity to experience the sense of awakening with the help of different books and novel.... An essay " The Term enlightenment" outlines that it can be explained as a process in which a human being get out of a state ignorance to realize a more profound meaning of life and the uncertainties surrounding it enlightenment is something which carries a dual meaning....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Effect of the Great Awakening and Enlightenment on the Political and Scientific Foundation in the US

Various experienced theologians as well as historians recognize the Great… ing as three or four occasions of heightened enthusiasm in religious arena that took place during the time frame of early 18th century and continued till late 19th century1. the great awakening or the religious revival of the United States commenced first in 1730s.... The New Effect of the great awakening and Enlightenment on the Political, Educational, Scientific Foundation in America Table of Contents Table of Contents 2Introduction 3Effect of Great Awakening on Politics of United States 3Effects of Great Awakening on the Education of America 3Effect of Great Awakening on the Scientific Foundation of America 4References 5Introduction the great awakening is a phrase generally associated with the religious history of America....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Second Great Awakening and Women Activism

The writer of the essay "Second great awakening and Women Activism" aims to analyze Second great awakening and Women Activism which had occurred in the US, during the 19th century and effectively rejected rationalism, cold-hearted skepticism, and deism, which were portrayed by Enlightenment....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us