GREAT AWAKENING

A movement in Protestantism in the thirteen North American colonies and precursor of the revivalism that was a major characteristic of much of the Protestantism of the U.S. The Great Awakening was an outgrowth of the pietism of Europe and of the Puritanism and evangelicalism of the British Isles (see puritans). It first appeared in the Dutch Reformed Churches in the Raritan Valley in New Jersey as a result of the preaching of Theodore Jacobus frelinghuysen, who had been educated under Pietist influences (see reformed churches, ii: north america). In 1720 Frelinghuysen came to America, where he found the religion of the churches formal and conventional. In Pietist fashion he insisted on a personal experience of conversion that would issue in moral transformation. Under him the Raritan revival reached its peak in 1729 and spread to other Dutch Reformed Churches. Another contribution came from Irish-born William Tennent, a Presbyterian pastor who came to America in 1716. He began training young men for the ministry and for that purpose erected, opposite his residence in Neshaminy, Pa., a log house, called derisively by its critics the Log College. In it were educated a number of men who became preachers of the revival. Outstanding among them was Tennent's son, Gilbert, who was long a pastor in New Brunswick, N.J., and who preached widely as an itinerant. He became a close friend of Frelinghuysen and cooperated with him. Another leader, Jonathan edwards, of Northampton, Mass., in 1734 preached an awakening that had wide repercussions not only in America but also in the British Isles. The preaching of George whitefield profoundly influenced the Great Awakening also. In his first months in America (1739–40) Whitefield traveled from Georgia to New England; later he made repeated tours of the colonies; he died in Newburyport, Mass., in 1770. He was an amazing orator, with a voice that could reach an audience of many thousands in the open air and with a wide range of pathos, humor, and compelling earnestness; he profoundly influenced both Great Britain and the thirteen colonies. By his preaching throughout the length of the entire Atlantic seaboard, he helped to give a degree of geographic and interdenominational unity to the movement. In addition to the leaders, scores of other preachers contributed to the Awakening.

The Great Awakening gave rise to controversy. The emotional scenes—faintings, cryings, and bodily agitations—that accompanied many of the meetings, and the condemnation by numbers of its preachers of "unconverted" ministers and the "unconverted" members of their flocks led to dissensions and divisions. For a time the presbyterians were split; in New England the "new lights," as the advocates of the Awakening were known, and the "old lights," who opposed it, denounced each other. Their differences led to the division of many local congregations. Numbers of the dissidents gathered into Baptist churches. The Great Awakening continued in many parts of the country until the political controversies that emerged in the Revolution diverted attention. In the 1790s and early 1800s, after the independence of the U.S. and peace with Great Britain, New England experienced what was called the Second Awakening, and revivals occurred in many other parts of the country.

The Great Awakening brought about a marked increase in church membership and various humanitarian undertakings; created a more democratic spirit; stimulated the founding of colleges, notable among them the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) and Dartmouth; and contributed to missions to the Native Americans, particularly the work of David Brainerd, Eleazer Whealock, and Samuel Kirkland.

Bibliography: j. tracy, The Great Awakening (Boston 1842). w. m. gewehr, The Great Awakening in Virginia (Durham, N.C. 1930). e. s. gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England (New York 1957). c. h. maxson, The Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies (Chicago 1920). r. j. cox, "Stephen Bordley, George Whitefield, and the Great Awakening in Maryland," Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 46 (1977) 297–307. f. lambert, "The Great Awakening as Artifact: George Whitefield and the Construction of Intercolonial Revival, 1739–1745," Church History 60 (1991) 223–246. b. f. le beau, "'The Acrimonious, Controversial Spirit' among Baptists and Presbyterians in the Middle Colonies during the Great Awakening," American Baptist Quarterly 9 (1990) 167–183. m. a. noll, "From the Great Awakening to the War for Independence: Christian Values in the American Revolution," Christian Scholar's Review 12, no. 2 (1983) 99–110.

[k. s. latourette]