MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

This summer, we'll celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Events leading up to the signing include the French and Indian War, the Enlightenment discussed last week, and today we'll look at some notable people and events surrounding a remarkable religious event described as the Great Awakening.

In reaction to increasing materialism, religious apathy, and the formality of established churches, a series of separate revivals swept through the American colonies starting in the 1720s. They affected a much larger number of people than the Enlightenment, which had influenced mostly well-to-do, educated leaders. The Great Awakening filled the need some had for a strong emotional motivation, and brought a heartfelt experience as opposed to religion of the mind. For others, it developed within a new framework of enlightenment thoughts described by John Locke as "the reasonableness of Christianity".

Theodorus Frelinghuysen arrived in New Jersey from Holland in 1719, and stressed piety over good works. Revivals then spread from the Dutch Reformed to Presbyterians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. William Tennent, a Scotch-Irish immigrant and his four sons held services that sought to bring sinners to an evangelical experience. In 1727, they established a religious school in a cabin, which became famous as the Log College. This institution to train clergymen was the beginning of today's Princeton University.

Religious enthusiasm spread quickly from the Middle Colonies to the Congregationalists (Puritans) and Baptists of New England. By the 1740s, clergymen of these denominations were conducting revivals using strategies similar to those that brought success to the Tennents.

Jonathan Edwards, a pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts, transformed a series of small-town revivals which began in 1732 into a larger movement that's credited with giving birth to American evangelicalism and laying groundwork for the American Revolution. Edwards bridged Puritan theology with Enlightenment thought, and though he didn't live to see the Revolution, he believed in challenging traditional authority. He argued that opposing tyranny was a duty, and his emphasis on spiritual liberty prepared people for political change. The American colonies, he said, were chosen by God and he projected that the "glorious work of God" would begin here.

George Whitefield, associated with John and Charles Wesley in England, made the first of seven trips to the new land, and arrived in Georgia in 1738. He found a receptive audience throughout the colonies, and reshaped individual revival meetings into a movement, holding outdoor services which attracted thousands everywhere he spoke. Benjamin Franklin went to hear Whitefield preach from the courthouse steps in Philadelphia, out of curiosity to see how a voice could carry so far as to reach a crowd of 30,000. Franklin admits that he was so moved by the sermon that he emptied his purse, including gold and silver for an orphanage. Another friend who had planned ahead of time to resist the appeal had already emptied his pockets - but ended up borrowing from friends so he too could contribute.

Whitefield's revivals created the first shared national identity, across distinct geographic and economic interests. "Groupies" as we would call them today traveled from Georgia and the Carolinas to New Jersey and there met people from Massachusetts. A network began to form, which united varied peoples before there was a nation, and allowed for a cohesive national resistance when British policies ceased to serve colonial interests.

Some revivalists turned people against what they called "old lights" - ministers and traditional churches that were uninspiring. Congregationalists, Quakers, and Anglicans all lost membership during these years, while Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians attracted new converts. Though some ministers were anti-intellectual, many were well-trained, and springing from the revivals came universities such as Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, and Rutgers.

The Great Awakening promoted equality and personal liberty, and led colonists to question British rule. Many historians termed it a "dress rehearsal" for the political push for independence. Up until then, all but three colonies had endorsed established churches and required monetary support of them. But the new movement undermined the deference previously shown to elites and to the British crown.

New preaching emphasized a personal relationship with God, which fostered an ideological shift. It shattered the existing social order and promoted a spirit of independence, even a divine duty to protect individual freedom. Essentially, the Great Awakening transfigured the colonial mindset, and made political revolution a possibility. Along with Enlightenment thinking, these “new lights” shared optimistic views of change and opportunity in the colonies. Those in the Great Awakening saw God using individuals to fulfill His calling to be a blessing. The two waves of thought and belief would unify the leadership and common people into a central faith in America, leading them to a revolutionary mindset that perceived England as obstructing improvements in the new land.

To summarize articles thus far in the series: the turning point for the American colonies came in the mid-1700s with the pivotal aftermath of the French and Indian War. In conjunction with that, effects of the Enlightenment were impacting thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Coupled with The Great Awakening, many in the colonies came to believe that a benevolent God had given them gifts to understand their world and make it better. Their optimistic perception of change began to view England standing in the way of freedom and opportunity.