Why was there a,"Great Awakening" in America
...eria in New Hampshire. When society is confronted by problems like this traditionally throughout history religion has become its support and colonial America was no different. The revivalist ministers found eager ears for their preaching. A people who had an, “anxiety about sin and a longing for salvation.” The direction in which colonial society was moving physically across the continent is also useful when understanding why revivalism was able to occur. As colonies began moving deeper into the American frontier small villages would find themselves separated from mainstream religious life. The parish system so successful in England was unemployable on the frontier. Denominative disagreements, the struggle to survive and the difficulties with communication with the large colonies pushed religious life on the frontier communities into the background. The revivals were deemed as having been able to have, “brought religion to many who had lost touch with it”. This is another simple reason as to why the, “Great Awakening” occurred. By the revivalists identifying and absorbing these small groups on the outskirts of colonial life they built up an emotional supporter base. As these groups joined their numbers began to snowball and the, “Great Awakening” movement began to take shape. The economic changes affecting the colonies was a causal factor too in the, “Great Awakening”. The development to consumerism and a commercial lifestyle was something many revivalists homed in on as a, “sinful” way of living. This was marked as revivalists as a decline in moral society and something that required action. Sermons often would be on the subject of the emptiness of material comfort. Benjamin Franklin one of the first entrepreneurs in the colonies and a potential critic of the revivalist ministers and their movement exemplified why they were able to be so successful. Before attending one of their public preaching’s he had already formed the opinion that they were going to be nonsensical. However by the end, illustrating the power they had in their sermons when the collection tray was a passed around he, “emptied my pocket wholly into the collectors dish, gold and all.” The, “Great Awakening” depended on the strength of these ministers and their ability to silence their critics. The, ”Great Awakening” was aided by the fact that revivalism blurred differences between denominations. By emphasising the common experience and coexistence of denominations it didn’t alienate groups of society. The three major revivalists all came from different denominations George Whitefield was a Methodist, Gilbert Tennant a Presbyterian. It too transcended barriers of class, gender and even race to an extent. Though there was still discrimination there is evidence of black and Native Americans being allowed to preach in churches under revivalist ministers. Added to this that women were being allowed to involve themselves in the running of the church we can now see why the, “Great Awakening” was able to nurture such support and become so widespread. By including everyone it became a, “popular inter-colonial movement”. Not only did it unify Americans but it solidified the aspects of American culture that were making it unique from Europe. Religious society at the time was lacking conviction in the eyes of the public many spoke of a general deadness in religious teachings, “too much doctrine…not enough heart and soul”. Revivalists believed, “The forms of religion were kept up but they’re appeared but little power of it.” within the colonies. These obvious shortcomings were contributed greatly to the arrival of the, “Great Awakening”. The powerful contrast someone like Jonathan Edwards must have made, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked.” would have had a huge effect on the people of the time. Impassioned ministers of Edwards ilk were the torchbearers of revivalism and vital in its spread. George Whitefield was immensely important. He was a hugely charismatic speaker, “who impersonated the agonies of the damned and the joys of the regenerate, he swept audiences with his unparalleled eloquence.” This is why people so eagerly participated in the,” Great Awakening” because of ministers enthusiasm. The ideology of America at the time was that it was part of the new world and was thus favoured by God. America was intended to be beyond the problems of the old world. Many however took the view that, “it was degenerating like England and the old world into materialism and self-satisfaction “. Others talked of the, “degeneracy of the times.” There was some abnormal behaviour occurring in the colonies that would undeniably be detrimental to Americas image. The case of Thomas Granger a sixteen-year-old boy found...