First Great Awakening: The First Great Awakening was a reaction to the Enlightenment in the 1730's and 1740's that was basically a giant jump forward for American Protestantism in primarily the American colonies, Protestant Europe and British America. The reason The First Great Awakening occurred is, men in these regions began to question what their use was regarding society and religion. This means people began to move in their own direction when it came to personal salvation. New denominations began to rise and it brought the colonies closer together than ever before. Two men that played a huge role in the First Great Awakening were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. Both of these men were ministers during the time of The First Great …show more content…
The Age of Enlightenment was in the 18th century where people focused intensely on the philosophies of rationalism. Deism developed in Christian Europe during the Enlightenment. It was very prominent in Britain, France, Germany, and America. Deism is a belief in a logical God who created a rational universe. Deists believed that God was bound by the same laws as his creatures and it was possible to perfect humankind. Deism basically puts men at a more equal level with God. Many people looked at Deism as more of a philosophy than an actual religion. It was very popular during the mid-1700's through early national revolutionary periods and most of them were Protestant. Some popular Deists were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas …show more content…
A special court was made in Massachusetts in order to hear the accusations. Many accusations were made and in June the first woman was hanged for use of "witchcraft". Belief in the devils practices came about Europe as early as the 14th century and spread throughout the colonies. Specifically Salem, being a Puritan community, had great fear of the accusations because of a recent smallpox epidemic and fears of attacks from Native Americans who neighbored them. People in Salem were very vulnerable and in turn very easy to frighten. In the mere 1 year of the Salem Witch Trials (1692-1693), 200 people were accused and 20 were
According to the source “Salem Witch Trials. Documentary Archive and Transcription Project”, in May 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts, one of the largest New England trials began on charges of witchcraft. During the Salem witch-hunts, 19 people were sentenced to death by hanging and above people were imprisoned and accused of witchcraft. In 1963 the Governor of the Massachusetts pardoned the remaining defendants and stopped witchcraft court. In confessed to an erroneous decision and then the court decision was declared illegal.
Jonathan Edwards was a critical thinker in shaping the First Great Awakening and did this through his congregation in Northampton in New England. Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut to a minister and a daughter of Reverend Solomon Stoddard. Edwards prepared for his schooling by his father and elder siblings to later attend Yale College where two years after graduation he studied theology. While in college, Edwards took a liking to science, but unlike other students that went toward deism, he “saw the natural world as evidence of God’s masterful design,”(Marsden) Jonathan Edwards used his interest of science and the natural world in his sermons as evidence to God’s greatness on Earth. As he grew up and became a fill in pastor for different churches throughout the Northeast, he realized that he was not satisfied with his conversion.
The Devil Discovered: Salem Witchcraft, 1692 One of the most horrific events that occurred in American history was The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 that took place in Salem Village, Massachusetts, now known as Danvers, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials were the accusations of two hundred people that were believed to be practicing witchcraft or worshiping the Devil. The witch trials began in the early year of 1692 and ended in 1693. Enders A. Robinson believes that the witch hunt occurred because of conspiracies formed by the townspeople, and because of the relation of religion and social ideas.
What was the Great Awakening? The Great Awakening was a religious revival that began in the 1730s. Many church leaders were worried that as the increase in politics had grown and that participation in religion had begun to fall. These fears lead to the movement of revivals throughout the colonies. There were many preachers involved but the leaders were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield.
The Salem Witch Trials began during the spring of 1692 in February and ended a year later in May, and took place in Massachusetts. Over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 people were executed. There are a few theories about the cause of the Salem Witch Trials. The first theory claims the reason why it all began was because Tituba, a west Indian household servant in Salem, had been telling the young girls stories of demons, folklore, and spells. With it being such an isolated area, the young girls started to spread the stories throughout the neighborhood.
The “Great Awakening” is an agnomen placed on the erroneous perspectives relating to theology during colonial American times. Colonial settlers arrived to unfamiliar providences seeking theological opportunities. Prior to the “Great Awakening” puritanical ethnicity was the divinity that engulfed colonial ethicists. The Great Awakening was peculiar in severity and signalized an extraordinary transformation pertaining to religious sentiment. This Awakening scarred the psychological and philosophical kinship amidst colonists.
The Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals that took the colonies by storm during the 1730's and 1740's. The Great Awakening was a religious revival movement which emerged in Europe spread though England and the American colonies as well during the middle decades of the 18th century. This was the rea of which the this era laid the base for science was greater than religion all over the colonies which is why all the pastors were trying to get ahead of the game and try and convince everyone otherwise. They stared to face struggles against the classic regimes and their old school way of thinking this was making everyone question their life’s and mainly authority. Concern stared to grow that church members were losing their devotion
The Great awakening pulled America away from the English way of politics and religion. It was through the revivalism of the first half of the Eighteenth Century that the colonists were finally able to step out from under the protectorate of the established Christian churches and assert religious control
The Great Awakening was a spiritual event that swept the American Colonies. It was important how it prepared America for its War of Independence. During the awakening, the Colonists realized that religious power was in their own hands, not the Church of England, or any other religious authority. There were many effects from the great awakening, such as: faith in the Protestant religion was revived, Christianity was brought to African slaves, and a great increase in the interest of religion.
The Salem witch trials occurred in Massachusetts in the year of 1962. 20 people were executed and over 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft (the Devil’s magic). It all started when Reverend Samuel Parris’ niece and daughter started throwing, what were described as, “fits”. The fits consisted of the girls throwing things, moving into strange positions, saying very odd things, and screaming. When the girls were examined and observed by the village doctor, the doctor blamed the supernatural.
Twenty people was executed because of this. But eventually the colony admitted that the trials was an mistake. Many practicing Christians and other religions had a strong belief that the Devil could give certain the witches powers to harm others in return for their loyalty. The witchcraft rippled through Europe from 1300s to 1600s, it was mostly women who was executed. This event took place during a difficult and confusing period for Salem Village.
The First Great Awakening took place in the American colonies between 1730s to the 1770s. Unlike traditional Protestantism, the First Great Awakening teaching provided salvation to all people (Heyrman). The new Protestant teaching taught that anyone could accept Jesus Christ as their savior and thus were rewarded salvation. This message was applicable to everyone—young and old, rich and poor, man or woman. After this revival, religion took the center stage of each converted person’s life.
Cause and Effect Essay Although the Second Great Awakening was immediately caused by heightened religious fervor, and although it left the country with many Christian denominations, the acts of leaders such as Charles Finney had more influential causes, and reform movements had more powerful effects on the United States. The first spark of the Second Great Awakening was lit when President Thomas Jefferson, in the early 1800s, acknowledged the “wall of separation between church and state,” the budding republican ideal that politics and religion should not interlock. By coining this phrase, Jefferson was ridding the country of state-controlled established churches that expected loyalty from all citizens, thus paving the way for religious freedom. Also, Jefferson identified as a deist, which was a recent and nontraditional religious orientation that rejected divine revelation and focused on nature to reveal God’s scheme for the universe.
The Accusation and Punishment of Witches in Salem In the late 1600s in Salem, dozens of people were accused of practicing witchcraft and working with the Devil to torment people. It all started when a child grew ill for seemingly no reason, causing the people of Salem to believe a witch was among them. Children started accusing men and women of witchcraft, and those men and women would pay for their alleged crimes. They were thrown in disgusting jails, chained to the walls, drowned, lit on fire, and hanged for crimes they did not commit.
A social system based on inequality and submission of the individual to feudal lords and the church cannot be associated with natural and human nature. However, people will immediately start to live in accordance with the natural law and will find harmony and happiness if somebody enlighten their minds, explaining to them the truth. For scholars, the mind can be "alpha and omega" of everything: world`s nature and the way of gaining the knowledge, the only criterion of truth, and a means of rehabilitation and improvement of human society. XVIII century is also called the century of Intelligence, the smartest of all ages.