What Are The Causes Of The Second Great Awakening

Jack Molino
As America was changing in the early 19th century with politics, westward expansion, economic advancements etc., citizens needed order in their life. The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival in the early 19th century, which did exactly what the citizens needed: put order in their life spiritually. This second great awakening helped people personally connect with god and come to realizations about society with new movements being created. However, questions that is debated is what caused this awakening in the first place. The Second Great Awakening was caused by the separation of church and state, industrialism, and western expansion, which are all outside factors, ultimately showing that the Second Great Awakening’s purpose
was to change personal life in order to fit rapidly changing America. As the new republic was being formed in its early stages, the Bill of Rights was introduced and the First Amendment ended the opportunity of a national religion.
Now, citizens could choose what they personally wanted to worship, which caused changes in religion. People were influenced by the democratic ideals of the early republic, and now that church and state were separated, religion could adapt to what the people wanted. This is seen when Methodists and Baptists rapidly grew when people tried to step away from the predestination idea and Calvinism. Methodists and Baptists prospered in this era because it was aimed at the “personal god” and anyone could be saved. Number of church members in these denominations rapidly grew—Methodist grew from 64,000 to 1.2 million from 1800 to 1844. Moreover, the separation of church and state also affected all religions also. This is because people of all denominations had to organize Bible societies, Sunday schools, and other church entities by themselves. As said before, the separation of church and state allowed people to worship personally, and Methodist and Baptists fit that idea the best as they reformed and revived worship in this era. Also, people had to worship god without a national church, causing revival in people’s own church and religious
societies. There were many social changes going on in the early 19th century, and industrialism was a very important change because it changed work life and force in America. Work is something that everyone did for a majority of their day, so it was one of the most important aspects of the social life changes in America at the time. Industrialism created a permanent working class and rearranged family and working relationships. These changes called for order, and people went to religion for help as leaders of the Second Great Awakening, such as Charles Finney, led revivals that attracted certain classes of workers. While industrialism was causing disruption in personal life as people worked away from home in factories and such, these revivals brought people personally closer to god. As America grew in its early stages in economic and social aspects, it also geographically grew, as Western Expansion was a huge part in this changing time of the country. Western expansion made it difficult to attend church, so traveling ministers preached to groups. These groups shared their personal faith and Baptists even had farmer-preachers out west. These farmer-preachers did not need formal education—so, people migrating west were able to listen to sermons and expand their faith. These meetings, such as the Cane Ridge, displayed enthusiasm in religion, and it also civilized communities out west, which was desperately needed. Also, with expanding west also comes missionary work. People wanted to spread their religion and beliefs, and new preaching and frontier culture attracted converts. In the end, expanding west helped augment religious revival because people had to find ways to worship personally, and to find different and new religious practices because there was little to none settlement out west. Finally, America was changing greatly in the early 19th century, and these “outer” changes causes changes religion because people looked for order in their life, and faith and spirituality was the answer. It is still disputed today what caused people to revive religion in their personal life, but it is widely accepted that this Second Great Awakening caused even more changes in the United States; some of the big movements being abolition or temperance. As said before, the Awakening helped people find order in their life with these social, economic, and political changes; however, ironically, this Second Great Awakening causes even more changes outside the home because people changed their perspective because of their new spirituality. In the end, the Second Great Awakening helped people adapt to America’s changes, but it also helped people change America.
Works Cited
Johnson, Curtis D. "Second Great Awakening: Structural and Ideological Changes in the Second Great Awakening." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
Kaplan, Rich. "Background Essay." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
McCook, Matt. "Second Great Awakening: Supply, Demand, and Denominational Variance in the Second Great Awakening." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
"Second Great Awakening: Dilemma: Opening." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 29

Oct. 2014.