Analysis Of The Second Great Awakening

Alexis de Toequerville wrote Democracy in America and one of the chapters that he wrote was called Why some Americans Manifest A sort of Fanatical Spiritualism, which is about the Second Great Awakening. Toequerville said in his observation that he thought it was strange that Americans would travel such great distances to hear a sermon that would last for days at a time. People would do this because they wanted to gain eternal life. One preacher who was important to The Second Great Awakening was Charles Finny. He was a preacher who was raised in New York, and he became a success in Oneida County NY. He went around warning of hell and of greed, his revival meetings were usually a month long. There are many things that are interesting
First, and probably most important, The first Great Awakening did not reach every country in America, but The Second Great Awakening did reach every country in America, so the Second Great Awakening had a bigger explosion of the gospel. Second, even though the first great awakening was still based on people trying to gain everlasting life, The Second Great Awakening was far more individualistic than the first. For example, Alaxis, in his book, talked about how some people were fanatical with wild spiritualism and were determined to obtain his or her own redemption, and in the book Give Me Liberty by Eric Foner he talks about how the Second Great Awakening was more aimed toward self-improvement, self-reliance, and self- determination. Last, Because of technology advances, preachers could travel longer distances to preach the word of god, and, with technology advances, it was easier for people who wanted to hear the sermon to travel to the revival meeting. During the First Great Awakening, the technology advances were not as prevalent as they were in the Second Great Awakening. People had a hunger to be spiritually fed. Toequerville talked about how, in my translation, when people go for a long time without spiritual nourishment, they feel almost weakened and dull because all that they do is seek after material objects. I believe that the First Great Awakening and The Second Great Awakening