The 1 st Great Awakening

1. The 1st Great Awakening Objective: Interpret contributions of various religious groups to civic principles

2. Puritan Life • A fundamental Puritan doctrine • God knows who is saved and who is damned, • God is omniscient and omnipotent (all-knowing and all-powerful) • Those who live virtuous lives • more successful on earth • more pious • more likely to be the Elect- those who will be saved • On the flip side, heathens, heretics, and criminals are considered more likely to be doomed What is the point of living a virtuous life? How would it change your outlook on life?

3. Puritan Life • Own what you need to make it • Puritans started to collect things they didn’t need • Became consumers and started to leave the Puritan way of life • Sound American? Which enlightened thinker proposed the event that the puritans were experiencing?

4. Great Awakening • In the early 1700s. • “Revival: public church gatherings with hundreds of people.” • Lots of Christian sermons and church meetings in the colonies • It changed life in the colonies • First “truly” American event during the colonial period How would a shared experience help or hurt the colonies?

5. Great Awakening • “Old Lights” were people who were following the traditions of the church • “New Lights” were people who were following the ideas of the Great Awakening (many were Baptists or Methodists) • Used emotional methods of sermon What would modern religion fall under?

6. Great Awakening • Belief that your good deeds will not get you into heaven • One farmer wrote that the sermon “…put me into a trembling fear.” • People were afraid of going to hell

7. Great Awakening • The Great Awakening divided the colonists • Men and women who converted during the First Great Awakening had to go against traditions (Some churches split)

8. Great Awakening • Many women and African-Americans were “saved” during the Great Awakening (spiritual equality) • However, most revivals were separated by race

9. Jonathan Edwards • Jonathan Edwards • Puritan priest from New England • instrumental in the movement • Series of revivals aimed at • restoring devotion • piety • colonies in the mid-1700s • Fire & Brimstone style of worship; • large, emotionally charged crowds • Like the Enlightenment movement stressed importance of the individual

10. Jonathan Edwards • Jonathan Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” • (“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider…over the fire, abhors (hates) you…”) You are not religiousenough! Jonathan Edwards

11. Jonathan Edwards • preached that God was outraged by human sin and that salvation could only be reached by penitence- all others would be damned

12. George Whitefield • Preached to thousands in barns, fields, and tents. • God was all – powerful • Only save those who professed their belief in the Savior • Common people could understand religion without religious official leadership

14. In Closing • In gods eyes all people are equal • Real person lies in personal behavior not class or money • Enlightenment – society based on hierarchy • Privileged class • People can follow religion on their own

15. In Closing • God = “benign creator” in the 18th century • Dramatic changes in American religion from the 1730-40 • Impact • Religion became emotionally based • Official clergy lost power • Created division within churches - those who supported it and those who did not • Increased diversity - led for increased calling for separation of church and state • Influence on politics • Increased unity because the colonists had now been through a common experience • Changed the popular view on authority (questioning of the clergy led to questioning of other authorities)