Religious Revival In The 1700s
Enlightenment and Religious Revival
As colonies grew and developed in the Americas, so too did the needs and wants of the people who lived within them. With all the mounting turmoil that was stirring, people’s moral compasses spun about wildly, contrasting sharply, chalk full of uncertainty. Access to knowledge was available to a vast array of people from all walks of life.
This was the perfect recipe for a religious reformation, or The Great Awakening. Conflicting views and new knowledge from the Enlightened Era brought much of what people had known to be true into question. Sermons during the 1700s in America were of fire and brimstone that, instead of shepherding fearful masses into churches, sent people in search of a forgiving, kind, loving and merciful god. Different sects were born and with them, religious tolerance. To a point.
Now, the 1700s didn’t just start and a great revival of religion was born, in fact it wasn’t until the 1730s that the revival really kicked off. And there were plenty of events that acted as a precursor to the 1700s revival of religion.
Thoughts of religious tolerance and in a revisal of government were already in the works by 1689, “The Declaration of …show more content…
Rights (Feb. 13), Toleration Act (May 24), and English Bill of Rights (Dec. 16)” being adopted are excellent examples of this. Religion based colleges begin to appear in American colonies, encouraging higher learning and the spread of knowledge.
By 1702, there was already a written documentation of the church activity in New England (Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England by Cotton Mather). In 1706 the first presbytery was held, 1707 heralded the first session of the Baptist Association (a meeting involving five churches) and 1708 witnessed an influx of various Calvinists from the German Rhineland. In 1728 the first Jewish synagogue was erected. Benjamin Colman publishes, “Government Pillar of the Earth” in 1730, which mixed government, religion and science in a single sermon.
Colman, compared to some of the later Calvinists (Jonathan Edwards), was much calmer in his sermon. He stated that the pillars of Earth, natural and moral, were purely metaphorical. The leaders (i.e. mayors, kings, princes, etc.) were seen as such pillars due to the fact that, “the affairs of the world ly upon their shoulders, and turn upon their conduct and management.” Yet still, there was emphasis on instilling a fear of God in oneself:
“but a faithful Man who can find? Prov. xx. 6. He is a rare and beauteous spectacle, as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jehojada, Hezekiah and Nehemiah, in their times, and to the end of time. All that rule over men should be like to these, just men ruling in the fear of the Lord, and then they are to the world as the light and rain, without which the earth must perish” Much in the same as other Calvinists of his day, Colman claimed corruption in the church, frequently citing Europe as one such as example and warning to the colonists of New England. He believed that to lust for power and honor was to lead to a road of damnation. He encouraged people not to be envious of his fellow man should he be selected by the Lord in Heaven for the appointment as a pillar upon which the world should rest. Instead, they should revere and honor those whom God has chosen, and thus revere and honor the Lord themself in turn. To rulers that acted as the pillars of this Earth, he gave warning as well, advising them to “...consider what they owe to GOD, who has rear’d and set ’em up; and to the publick which GOD has set upon them…Let ’em fear GOD, and rule by his word, that they may be approved by GOD, and accepted always by men with all thankfulness.” They should accept the blessings and prayers of their subjects, but that should not cause them to neglect their role in laying down a strong foundation against the world to come, allowing them to be ushered into heaven above. This was the beginning of the religious revival, a calm start, with gentle words, stern warnings and soothing demeanor. It was the calm before the storm.
Soon however, this would change. In 1738, George Whitefield made his first tour of the New England colonies. Unlike traditional preaching, “...Whitefield memorized his sermons, spoke without notes, varied the timbre of his voice and gestured with abandon. He drew freely on his own emotions...” Whitefield was what the Revival needed to truly kick off. Through him, the american people learned to surpass their ministers and connect to God through their own emotions and spirituality. This granted people the tools needed to figure out what they had to do in order to reach salvation. In sharp contrast to Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in 1741. This sermon was written in response to the general public, who Edwards believed had become distracted from John Calvin’s teachings by worldly matters and wealth. It was also in response to those who were beginning to doubt Calvinistic teachings such as predestination, believing instead that they could reach salvation by simply doing good deeds. From his pulpit, Edwards informed his growing audience that their destinies were preordained by God, and that all should tremble in fear of God’s judgement, for it was naught but God who kept them from falling into Hell, the damnation that they rightly deserved.
He claimed that, “...God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.” The only hope of salvation for his congregation was to convert and worship Christ, the Lord and Saviour. Only once they had devoted themselves to Christ would God look down upon them with mercy and be willing to save them from such a fate as those unconverted
suffered. This method of preaching is popularly known as ‘Evangelism,’ or (in the words of the Merriam-Webster dictionary), “the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ,” a term that first was employed somewhere around the year 1626. Jonathan Edwards also used bandwagonism: “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now a happy state...” Many other preachers of this time period, if not all, used similar tactics. Salvation lies in faith, faith lies in the preachers and ministers that dictate the religion, faith that they will lead their congregation down the path of righteousness, and faith in the son of the, and in the, terrible raging god of which the religion is rooted in. Another commonality these preachers leading the Great Awakening shared was their belief in conversion, even within the church. Preachers who disagreed with the Great Awakening and its teachings were often framed as being unconverted and therefore unsuited to lead in a house of worship. All this combined to create quite a divide in the british colonies of the time. The division was made up of two groups, the New Light, or the Awakening, and the Old Light, preachers who refused to accept this new type of worship. New Light ministers, often forced from their original congregations, set up their own churches and schools. As the Great Awakening drew to a close, the fire and brimstone speeches began to fizzle out, and those who had been a part of it seemed to take time and reflect on the events of the past year and their impact on the world they had created. The Awakening took on a softer tone. Jonathan Edwards, famous for his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon published “Religious Affections,” an article emphasizing the importance of religion based in love. He considered love to be what all other religious affections (i.e. the fruits born forth from the spirit or, Christian virtues) stemmed from. He reinforced his previous belief that man could not be saved through good deeds, but through his belief in Christ as the one true lord and saviour. But instead of the blazing imagery of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which painted man as being the source of God’s hatred and wrath, this article took on an entirely different demeanor. His “Treatise on Religious Affections” has a gentle feel to it, the author urging the reader onward. Edwards presses forward, hurrying, it seems, to provide the audience with as much information on the subject as possible. The article is eager, and one cannot help but feel the excitement and joy behind the subject, the genuine care. The Great Awakening broke down the hierarchy of the Church of England. It encouraged people to question the authority they were under, be it of Great Britain or the priest leading church, New and Old Lights alike. It created more of an equal footing, everyone was blasphemous, everyone had to work within to reach the salvation they desperately wanted.
New, or previously suppressed sects of the church began to appear. Puritans and Calvinists began to fade into the background while Methodists, Presbyterians, Protestants, etc. began to pop up with more and more frequency. Better religious tolerance formed as a result of this, though there was plenty of animosity present amongst religion (Gilbert Tennent’s Danger of an Unconverted Ministry is a good example).
People led by, inadvertently in some cases, those of the Great Awakening sought out a loving god, a god they could connect to themselves, not an unkind god who was just as willing to drop one into the depths of hell as they were to usher one into eternal salvation.
Works Cited
“Biography of Gilbert Tennent.” Great Awakening Documentary. http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/exhibits/show/biographies/gilbert-tenne nt/biography. 2009
Ellis Sandoz. Political Sermons of the American Founding Era (1730-1788). 2nd edition. vol 1. Liberty Fund, Inc. 1998
"Evangelism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d.
George M. Ella. Joseph Bellamy and True Religion Delineated. http://evangelica.de/articles/joseph-bellamy-and-true-religion-delineated/ Jonathan Edwards [1739], Sermons and Discourses, 1739-1742 (WJE Online Vol. 22) , Ed.
Harry S. Stout [jec-wjeo22]
Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections in Three Parts, jonathan-edwards.org, http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/ReligiousAffections.pdf
“People and Ideas: George Whitefield.” God in America http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/george-whitefield.html. Public
Broadcasting Station
“The Great Awakening.” U.S. History Online Textbook. http://www.ushistory.org/us/7b.asp.
2017
As colonies grew and developed in the Americas, so too did the needs and wants of the people who lived within them. With all the mounting turmoil that was stirring, people’s moral compasses spun about wildly, contrasting sharply, chalk full of uncertainty. Access to knowledge was available to a vast array of people from all walks of life.
This was the perfect recipe for a religious reformation, or The Great Awakening. Conflicting views and new knowledge from the Enlightened Era brought much of what people had known to be true into question. Sermons during the 1700s in America were of fire and brimstone that, instead of shepherding fearful masses into churches, sent people in search of a forgiving, kind, loving and merciful god. Different sects were born and with them, religious tolerance. To a point.
Now, the 1700s didn’t just start and a great revival of religion was born, in fact it wasn’t until the 1730s that the revival really kicked off. And there were plenty of events that acted as a precursor to the 1700s revival of religion.
Thoughts of religious tolerance and in a revisal of government were already in the works by 1689, “The Declaration of …show more content…
Rights (Feb. 13), Toleration Act (May 24), and English Bill of Rights (Dec. 16)” being adopted are excellent examples of this. Religion based colleges begin to appear in American colonies, encouraging higher learning and the spread of knowledge.
By 1702, there was already a written documentation of the church activity in New England (Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical History of New England by Cotton Mather). In 1706 the first presbytery was held, 1707 heralded the first session of the Baptist Association (a meeting involving five churches) and 1708 witnessed an influx of various Calvinists from the German Rhineland. In 1728 the first Jewish synagogue was erected. Benjamin Colman publishes, “Government Pillar of the Earth” in 1730, which mixed government, religion and science in a single sermon.
Colman, compared to some of the later Calvinists (Jonathan Edwards), was much calmer in his sermon. He stated that the pillars of Earth, natural and moral, were purely metaphorical. The leaders (i.e. mayors, kings, princes, etc.) were seen as such pillars due to the fact that, “the affairs of the world ly upon their shoulders, and turn upon their conduct and management.” Yet still, there was emphasis on instilling a fear of God in oneself:
“but a faithful Man who can find? Prov. xx. 6. He is a rare and beauteous spectacle, as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jehojada, Hezekiah and Nehemiah, in their times, and to the end of time. All that rule over men should be like to these, just men ruling in the fear of the Lord, and then they are to the world as the light and rain, without which the earth must perish” Much in the same as other Calvinists of his day, Colman claimed corruption in the church, frequently citing Europe as one such as example and warning to the colonists of New England. He believed that to lust for power and honor was to lead to a road of damnation. He encouraged people not to be envious of his fellow man should he be selected by the Lord in Heaven for the appointment as a pillar upon which the world should rest. Instead, they should revere and honor those whom God has chosen, and thus revere and honor the Lord themself in turn. To rulers that acted as the pillars of this Earth, he gave warning as well, advising them to “...consider what they owe to GOD, who has rear’d and set ’em up; and to the publick which GOD has set upon them…Let ’em fear GOD, and rule by his word, that they may be approved by GOD, and accepted always by men with all thankfulness.” They should accept the blessings and prayers of their subjects, but that should not cause them to neglect their role in laying down a strong foundation against the world to come, allowing them to be ushered into heaven above. This was the beginning of the religious revival, a calm start, with gentle words, stern warnings and soothing demeanor. It was the calm before the storm.
Soon however, this would change. In 1738, George Whitefield made his first tour of the New England colonies. Unlike traditional preaching, “...Whitefield memorized his sermons, spoke without notes, varied the timbre of his voice and gestured with abandon. He drew freely on his own emotions...” Whitefield was what the Revival needed to truly kick off. Through him, the american people learned to surpass their ministers and connect to God through their own emotions and spirituality. This granted people the tools needed to figure out what they had to do in order to reach salvation. In sharp contrast to Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in 1741. This sermon was written in response to the general public, who Edwards believed had become distracted from John Calvin’s teachings by worldly matters and wealth. It was also in response to those who were beginning to doubt Calvinistic teachings such as predestination, believing instead that they could reach salvation by simply doing good deeds. From his pulpit, Edwards informed his growing audience that their destinies were preordained by God, and that all should tremble in fear of God’s judgement, for it was naught but God who kept them from falling into Hell, the damnation that they rightly deserved.
He claimed that, “...God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless with many that are now in this congregation, that it may be are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.” The only hope of salvation for his congregation was to convert and worship Christ, the Lord and Saviour. Only once they had devoted themselves to Christ would God look down upon them with mercy and be willing to save them from such a fate as those unconverted
suffered. This method of preaching is popularly known as ‘Evangelism,’ or (in the words of the Merriam-Webster dictionary), “the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ,” a term that first was employed somewhere around the year 1626. Jonathan Edwards also used bandwagonism: “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy wide open, and stands in the door calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God; many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are in now a happy state...” Many other preachers of this time period, if not all, used similar tactics. Salvation lies in faith, faith lies in the preachers and ministers that dictate the religion, faith that they will lead their congregation down the path of righteousness, and faith in the son of the, and in the, terrible raging god of which the religion is rooted in. Another commonality these preachers leading the Great Awakening shared was their belief in conversion, even within the church. Preachers who disagreed with the Great Awakening and its teachings were often framed as being unconverted and therefore unsuited to lead in a house of worship. All this combined to create quite a divide in the british colonies of the time. The division was made up of two groups, the New Light, or the Awakening, and the Old Light, preachers who refused to accept this new type of worship. New Light ministers, often forced from their original congregations, set up their own churches and schools. As the Great Awakening drew to a close, the fire and brimstone speeches began to fizzle out, and those who had been a part of it seemed to take time and reflect on the events of the past year and their impact on the world they had created. The Awakening took on a softer tone. Jonathan Edwards, famous for his “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon published “Religious Affections,” an article emphasizing the importance of religion based in love. He considered love to be what all other religious affections (i.e. the fruits born forth from the spirit or, Christian virtues) stemmed from. He reinforced his previous belief that man could not be saved through good deeds, but through his belief in Christ as the one true lord and saviour. But instead of the blazing imagery of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” which painted man as being the source of God’s hatred and wrath, this article took on an entirely different demeanor. His “Treatise on Religious Affections” has a gentle feel to it, the author urging the reader onward. Edwards presses forward, hurrying, it seems, to provide the audience with as much information on the subject as possible. The article is eager, and one cannot help but feel the excitement and joy behind the subject, the genuine care. The Great Awakening broke down the hierarchy of the Church of England. It encouraged people to question the authority they were under, be it of Great Britain or the priest leading church, New and Old Lights alike. It created more of an equal footing, everyone was blasphemous, everyone had to work within to reach the salvation they desperately wanted.
New, or previously suppressed sects of the church began to appear. Puritans and Calvinists began to fade into the background while Methodists, Presbyterians, Protestants, etc. began to pop up with more and more frequency. Better religious tolerance formed as a result of this, though there was plenty of animosity present amongst religion (Gilbert Tennent’s Danger of an Unconverted Ministry is a good example).
People led by, inadvertently in some cases, those of the Great Awakening sought out a loving god, a god they could connect to themselves, not an unkind god who was just as willing to drop one into the depths of hell as they were to usher one into eternal salvation.
Works Cited
“Biography of Gilbert Tennent.” Great Awakening Documentary. http://greatawakeningdocumentary.com/exhibits/show/biographies/gilbert-tenne nt/biography. 2009
Ellis Sandoz. Political Sermons of the American Founding Era (1730-1788). 2nd edition. vol 1. Liberty Fund, Inc. 1998
"Evangelism." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d.
George M. Ella. Joseph Bellamy and True Religion Delineated. http://evangelica.de/articles/joseph-bellamy-and-true-religion-delineated/ Jonathan Edwards [1739], Sermons and Discourses, 1739-1742 (WJE Online Vol. 22) , Ed.
Harry S. Stout [jec-wjeo22]
Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections in Three Parts, jonathan-edwards.org, http://www.jonathan-edwards.org/ReligiousAffections.pdf
“People and Ideas: George Whitefield.” God in America http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/george-whitefield.html. Public
Broadcasting Station
“The Great Awakening.” U.S. History Online Textbook. http://www.ushistory.org/us/7b.asp.
2017