Great Awakening
Protestant fervor surge
The Great Awakening refers to periods of religious revival in American history, particularly the fervent Protestant movements of the 1730s–40s and early 1800s.
These revivals emphasized personal conversion, emotional preaching, and direct spiritual experience.
The term now appears in discussions of American religious and cultural history: Jonathan Edwards was a key figure in the First Great Awakening.
British North Atlantic settlements, pre-1776
- 1730sFourth decade, eighteenth century
- 1740sFourth decade, eighteenth century
- PuritansEnglish Protestant reformers
- Thirteen ColoniesBritish North American territories
George Whitefield · revivals · Methodism · religious movement · Charles Finney · tent revivals · disestablishment · democratization
Return after decline
- conversionAct of changing states
- salvationDeliverance from harm
- repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
- preachingDelivering moral discourse
sermon · faith · piety · holiness · sinners · redemption · grace · worship
Revitalizing one's sacred connection
- societal changeShifts in collective behavior
- religious fervorIntense spiritual devotion
- moral reformEffort to improve conduct
- church membershipOfficial affiliation with parish
colonial America
British North Atlantic settlements, pre-1776
- 1730sFourth decade, eighteenth century
- 1740sFourth decade, eighteenth century
- PuritansEnglish Protestant reformers
George Whitefield · Thirteen Colonies · revivals · Methodism · religious movement · Charles Finney · tent revivals · disestablishment · democratization · denominationalism
revival
Return after decline
- conversionAct of changing states
- salvationDeliverance from harm
- repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
preaching · sermon · faith · piety · holiness · sinners · redemption · grace · worship · prayer
spiritual renewal
Revitalizing one's sacred connection
- societal changeShifts in collective behavior
- religious fervorIntense spiritual devotion
- moral reformEffort to improve conduct
- Colonial AmericaGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Franklin, Declaration of Independence
- American ChristianityBaptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians
- church historychurch history, apostles, Protestant Reformation, Christian history, baptism
- ProtestantismLutheran, Protestantism, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian
- religious historyChristian history, Jewish history, early Christianity, early church, church councils
- 18th Century MovementsEnlightenment, Rococo, Neoclassicism, deism, rationalism
Great AwakeningAge of Reason
Eighteenth-century intellectual awakening
Scientific Revolution · rationalism · empiricism · deism · secular humanism