The Great Awakening: The Spiritual Revolution

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Mekaila Hopkins
Dr. Robert Wooster
History 1301.247
19 September 2014
The Spiritual Revolution
The Great Awakening in the New England colonies was a time of chaotic religious uprisings and divisive turmoil. The two main characters in this period were the old and upright
Charles Chauncy and the radical new prophet James Davenport. Both were men of God. Both fought against the evil of misguided teachings and claimed that the other was an agent of the devil himself. In such a serious time these men competed for the souls of the entire colonies.
Religion in America in the early 1700s was very set in tradition. Christian churches consisted of very long, melancholy lectures to the crowd because the priest spoke to his
congregation
in a flat tone. All the teachings came straight from the bible and there was no veering off course. In this time, the preacher was always right. No one ever had any doubts or if they did then they were respectful enough not to say anything because it was weird and rude to do so. The preacher was always respected because they were a righteous, upstanding leader in the community.
Since the preachers were regarded as very important leaders that guided people to make moral decisions, religion also dictated many government policies. John Hollitz said in his essay from Contending Voices that to the colonists in this time thought of, “political and religious controls as inseparable” (44). The combination of church and state was regarded as so important that Charles Chauncy believed if it was not set up in this manner, then the people would be

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“brought into a state of the most abject tyranny,” (qtd. in Hollitz 44). This idea came from the assumption that all men are evil. If the colonists have a government it will be subject to evil influences such as corruption and the only way to protect the government and the people it rules over from the devil, is to intertwine it with the church. This meant many of the people who committed moral crimes against God, would end up in a court room facing charges here on earth.
The Great awakening started with a few young preachers that did not agree with the way the churches of the day were being run. They believed that no one could connect to a God if worship was so dull and boring. They also had different beliefs that they wanted to spread such as predestination. Members of this small group were David Farris, Anne Hutchinson, and James
Davenport but there were several other less memorable faces.
Reverend James Davenport was born in Southhold, New York but his family ties were in Connecticut.
Davenport graduated from New Haven’s Yale College at the age of sixteen then continued his theological studies and received a Congressional Minister License in 1735. He then spoke to many audiences before he temporarily settled at The First Church of Southhold (Hollitz
35-36).
After a few zealous preachers popped up, Davenport abandoned his current church to travel and to preach the new teachings that the Great Awakening was famous for. Davenport’s meetings were full of passion. He raised people’s emotions to levels were they would scream, faint, and riot. They sang songs through the streets that praised the lord. Davenport believed that with this more emotional worship people could get closer to their God and not see him as that guy my preacher keeps talking about. He spoke about how the individual was in charge of their relationship with God and not to rely so heavily on what the preacher at church said. This idea of

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not relying on the preacher was very new and caused the colonists to put less emphases on the importance of religious leaders. This lead to religious leaders and political leaders to
become more separate in a colonist’s mind.
He taught that only a select few were going to heaven. This concept now predestination is when God has determined before you were born whether or not you were going to go to heaven or to hell. What you did in your life was just proof as to what your destination was. He also did not really follow the bible. Instead, his teachings were his own creations and came from what he called Devine inspiration from God himself.
Davenport was well known for denouncing authority members and claiming, sometimes at the top of his lungs, that they were “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” (qtd in Hollitz 39), they were “under the influence of evil” (qtd in Hollitz 48), and “God had left him” (qtd in Hollitz
48) In every instance Davenport was confronted about wether or not his teachings were wrong, he denounced that person. At this time this was crazy. Few people spoke up about minor things they didn’t care for but to denounce such a ranking member of society was the biggest and most controversial thing Davenport could have possible done.
In the time of the great awakening, the people who were against Davenport were called
”Old Lights.” Chauncy was one of the most outspoken and memorable Old Light in this time and after. He was born in 1705 and grew up in a comfortable household. (Hollitz 37) He attended
Harvard where he did quite well and was eventually ordained as a minister in the First Church at
Boston (Hollitz 37). He was a very unexciting preacher that told the well know stories of the bible from 1727 to 1787. His life outside church was even more dull. He rarely gave in to temptation and was an upright citizen.

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When Chauncy heard about Davenport’s teachings he was very upset and immediately spoke out against him on a local level. When Davenport came to his town however, His church was the one Davenport wanted to preach these evil sermons. Chauncy was completely shocked.
Their was no way he was going o let a sermon that went against all his values into his church.
When Chauncy refused, Davenport immediately denounced him just like he did to every authority member that got in the way of God’s will, and parched on the doorsteps of The First
Church instead. Chauncy was livid so he began to write articles about the dangers of enthusiasm and distribute them across North America. It was Chauncy’s duty as a christian to warn the colonist against the dangers of overly enthusiastic sermons that upsetter the order in a community. The victor forever impacted colonists’ minds, thoughts and souls and therefore history.
James Davenport influenced the Colonists greatly making him the most memorable in PreAmerica even if it was because he was in their opinion, insane. One of his major contributions for our country was saying that it was acceptable to challenge authority. Even though
many colonists disagreed with his teachings, colonist were given a new idea about authority which rehashed and brought out mutual feelings about the hatred of the current systems of government.
Being able to challenge authority added to the already present idea that colonists ruled themselves since they were so far away from England. Colonist had already questioned the government of their far away mother country but now started Questioning the rights that the religious and political leaders had to rule. It gave revolutionists something new to think about and broke the tradition of staying silent about your disdain. If the Great Awakening didn’t happen they would still feel odd about telling the authorities what they actually thought. They wouldn’t

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have boycotted paper during the stamp acts, they would not have threatened rich governors when they enforced taxes, they would not have trown snowballs at soldiers, they would not have thrown tea onto a harbor in protest, and they would have never written a letter to a king that told him exactly why everyone hated him. It would have been unacceptably rude. Many of the disrespectful outbursts that lead up to the Revolution wouldn’t have happened. We might have solved things some other way and still be a part of the British Empire. “By promoting religious egalitarianism, New Lights like Davenport may have more to do with a revolt agents British authority than an ‘Old Light’ like Chauncy could ever have imagined” (Hollitz 44).
Through out the history of the world most of the major wars, fights, or conflicts were about religion. One of the scariest things American’s have to deal with in the twenty-first cinerary is the growing threat of terrorists who terrorize people of differing religion. These terrorists are like Davenport in that they challenge their authority figures and preach on how awful they are. The “Chauncys” over in today’s middle east want reason lead order and speak out against the “enthusiastic” muslim fanatics. Luckily for the colonist however, the terrorism of the time was screaming and fainting rather then bombs.
James davenport and Charles Chauncy will always be remembered as bitter enemies in a time of spiritual revolution. These men were passionate about the saving of every soul they could reach. Davenport wished to awaken the people to the passion that religion should be.
Chauncy demanded that the people awake to the dangers that Davenport caused. Perhaps the most important however, was the awakening of North American colonists to the idea that authority can and ought to be challenged.


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Works Cited
Hollitz, John Erwin. “Enthusiasm, Authority, and the Great Awakening: James Davenport and
Charles Chauncy” Contending Voices: Biographical Explorations of the American Past
3rd ed. Vol. I. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 34-50. Print.