Enlightenment and Great Awakening In America, as the society aged, it was influenced by two cultural phenomena. One was based on intellectual while the other was religion. As the 1700s advanced, American treasure improved, the wealthy spend their money on books. They were exposed to new ideas coming from Europe. On the other hand, the Great Awakening appealed to the less wealthy because it was for people’s emotions. The religious movement came over from Europe. The Enlightenment focused on reasons, science, rationality, and progress. The Enlightenment believed God made all men equal and that governor is born by the people. The Great Awakening cut across social, economic, and educational lines. It encouraged people to question the moral and …show more content…
The Great Awakening caused the colonies to question the old religious hierarchy is not all that powerful. The Enlightenment was the uprising in reason and science. Great Awakening affected the colonies by changing people’s perspective of religion. It altered people’s idea that religion was important in their life. The Enlightenment affected the people is that they should be governed by reason and not tradition. John Locke saw no explanation reason why kings should rule rather than having people rule themselves. Great Awakening created splits among member of religious denominations. Some people’s belief changed while others stayed the same. Jonathon Edwards led one of the first religious revivals in MA. He proclaimed humans sinful and corrupt if they don’t repent then God was prepared to send them to hell. The Great Awakening put its faith in Scripture while the Enlightenment put theirs in science. Christians and philosophes both wanted religious freedom and they shared a scorn for political or religious leaders who appealed power over others by virtue of divine right. Both didn’t accept the basic principle of why the king of England supported by the Church of England or had any inherent right to rule over the American
In18th century, two movements were spread across America. They greatly influenced the way how people think about religion, and more importantly they challenged the authority. They were the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment. Philosophers such as Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine brought their theory and belief to the public and caused great impact. Although they might have different belief, but Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine were more similar than they appeared.
During this time, political attitudes changed and the american intellectuals absorbed these political ideas and then the leaders of the revolution used them to build a foundation of our country. In addition, human reasoning and thinking became to flourish, and people started to break away from traditional ways. The ideas of the Enlightenment encouraged Americans to break away from the traditional ideas of monarchy which then influenced them to demand the consent to be governed, and if they don’t agree with it to overthrow it. The ways of the Enlightenment helped give the Americans the ideas that they should become independent and use their own reasoning to make decisions to benefit them, not go with
The Great Awakening helped people determine that religious power can be reseeded and revivals promoted political society. The Great Awakening brought the renewal to revivalism which made the American Revolution
The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening impacted the colonial society in several ways. The American Enlightenment stemmed from the movement in Europe. It enabled the colonists to become free thinkers and allowed them to consider fee will. First, the affects of the Enlightenment caused both unity and discourse in religion. Most colonists either reject or accept the ideas.
The Central Ideas of the First Great Awakening The colonial American society witnessed innumerable revolutions and renewals during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The revolutions had different thematic focuses including protests against slavery and racial segregation among others. One of such revolutions was the Great Awakening, which involved the spiritual revival that swept the colonial American communities. In particular, the Great Awakening was intense in the New England colony during the first five decades of the 18th century.
The Great Awakening strived to erase the lines between religions by promoting religious pluralism and the concept that all faiths were equal. Primarily, the separation of Church and State was finally in place, which showed the opposition to allowing religion facilitate the decisions of their nation. The Awakening weakened the cultural authority of the upper class and produced a vision of a society drawn in more equal lines. Overall, the thought of finally being equal unified the colonies and created universities that were not controlled by the Church. The new universities promoted different types of curriculum which was not based on religion.
The Great Awakening was a religious revival that swept through all the American colonies in the late 1730’s-1740’s. It made people want to worship God. It started with the Glorious Revolution in 1688. An overthrow of king James II of England by English Parliaments. He had converted to catholicism, which was no longer wanted in England.
In George Whitefield’s article towards Southern Slaveholders, Whitefield expresses his terror towards the unhuman treatment of slaves by their Christian owners. Whitefield believes that as Christians, these slaveholders have the duty to care for their workers just as God calls upon them to do or else they will face the consequences for their sin. In this article, Whitefield’s purpose is to inform Christians of their sin in hope that they will change their treatment towards slaves. Whitefield article allows readers to view that his statements were meant to change the way slaves were treated by slave owners nonetheless he understands that buying slaves is sinful but legal. George goes on to compare the brutal treatment of slaves to the fair treatment of domestic animals by their owners.
The Great Awakening, which lasted from 1739 to 1745, left a permanent impact on American Protestantism. It was a revitalizing movement, and prompted many religious conversations that deeply impacted various communities. The two main ideas in America were Enlightenment Rationalism and Continental Pietism. Before the Great Awakening, the majority of people were Calvinist, however this quickly changed. When the Great Awakening began, new sects began to form - such as the Latter Day Saints.
The Second Great Awakening also consisted of the growth of many churches in the United States and increased the percentage of religious people by a lot. The second great awakening influenced several social reforms that took place later and helped change our country into what it is today. The Second Great Awakening definitely expanded the number of active church members and affected the United States in many ways later in its
The Great Awakening also changed the way government was formed and carried out. Changing the government allowed the power not to be in one person’s hands but in the people’s
Enlightenment had a big influence on America. The American Enlightenment started in the eighteenth century. It influenced the ideas that have shaped the Constitution of the United States (Dixon 257). The idea of liberty caused the Americans to rebel against the British. Every human being has a right to liberty so they should be able to decide whether they should
The American Enlightenment and the Great Awakening were two very important motivators that changed the colonial society in America through religious beliefs, educational values, and the right to live one’s life according to each individual’s preference. The Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment movements were two events in history that signaled a grand distinction to the teachings among religious believers. New beliefs of how a person should worship in order to be considered in “God’s good graces” soon became an enormous discussion among colonists across the land. “Men of the cloth,” such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were well respected and closely followed when preaching about the love of God and damnation.
The Enlightenment was a time period in which people began to embrace individuality and many Enlightenment thinkers arose. The Enlightenment was a movement that was highly based upon reason and logic. It occurred around the mid-1700’s and helped develop a new way of life. John Locke was an influential thinker during this time. John Locke is a french philosopher and writer who developed Natural Rights.
“God, who has given the world to men in common, has also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life and convenience” (Locke, 35). The Scientific Revolution concentrated on understanding the physical world through astronomical and mathematical calculations, or testable knowledge. The Enlightenment focused more on “Spreading of faith in reason and in universal rights and laws” (Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 535). While the Scientific Revolution preceded the Enlightenment, both time periods sought to limit and challenge the power of the Church, through the spread of science, reason and intellect, and political philosophies. The Scientific Revolution began with Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1542) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) wanting to understand the movement of the planets beyond what they authorities had told them.