How Did The Great Awakening Influence Religion

The Great Awakening was one of the most influential impacts on the United States’ religious history. The Great Awakening helped re-establish a basic moral foundation for colonists, it unified colonists with each other, & it revived many American’s passion for religion. Jonathon Edward’s preaching during 1741, vividly described the horrors of hell to colonists. Jonathon’s exact preaching was “You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.” This quite frankly, scared most of the colonists, & made them yet again aware of the wrath of hell. Eventually, Edwards would travel from colony to colony spreading his gospel, until 80% of the colonies were instilled with the fear of hell. Being instilled with fear, many Americans feared of doing wrong, & began doing the “right” thing, for the fear of going to hell. Basically, now that Americans knew what was right, & wrong, they had re-established their morals they had lost.
Gatherings of famous preachers such as George Whitefield, led family rivals, to unite together to hear this gospel.
Since, there was much talk about these preachers amongst the colonies, people from far away colonies would travel long distances & also unite together to listen to the gospel. Amongst these gatherings, friendships, & relationships were surely built. In 1739, Benjamin Franklin had once witnessed a gathering, he stated “The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number…” These colonists who had the same believes, spread the trend over more colonies, which would eventually lead to the unification of
colonists. While colonists were settling land in the America’s, most of them had other greedy purposes, such as, finding riches, gaining more land, & establishing agriculture. Eventually, many colonists separated from the Anglican Church, & religious groups such as the Puritans. Eventually, the colonists’ religion slowly died off. The Great Awakening proved to revive the dormant religiousness that was instilled in the colonists. Many colonists that had become active in preaching sermons, would eventually break away from the church & form their own churches, & religions. This break-away would eventually lead into the development of religious and schools that would practice their developed religions. Some of these schools are now known as the most famous, and prestigious universities, such as Princeton, & Brown University. Had it not been for The Great Awakening, our country wouldn’t have been the same as it is now. The effects & the struggles through revivalism definitely had a great outcome. Our successful nation.