Great Awakening

Great Awakening, general revival of evangelical religion in the American colonies, which reached its peak in the early 1740s. Local revivals had occurred previously, inspired by the teaching of such clergymen as the congregational theologian Jonathan Edwards. In 1739 and 1740 the English evangelist George Whitefield made extended tours along the Atlantic seaboard, attracting large crowds as he preached the necessity for sinners to be converted. Others followed his example of itinerant preaching, and many small local revivals merged into a general “great awakening.”

Whitefield, the Presbyterian clergyman Gilbert Tennent, and other traveling revivalists were generally welcomed at first. They stimulated religious zeal, produced conversions, and increased church membership. Before long, however, the methods of the itinerants and the fervent emotionalism of the revival drew criticism, being seen by a large proportion of the settled clergy as a threat to the established order. Revivalists often accused settled ministers of being unconverted and of leading their congregations to spiritual destruction. As a consequence, many churches split into factions. In New England, separate congregational churches were organized, and in the Middle Colonies, Presbyterians divided into rival bodies, called the New Side and the Old Side, which remained apart until 1758.

The Great Awakening had varied and to some degree contradictory effects on American religion. In New England, Calvinism was reinvigorated, and Jonathan Edwards emerged as the leading orthodox theologian. Opponents of the revival, however, began preaching against the orthodox doctrines of predestination, election, and original sin. The congregational clergyman Charles Chauncy of Boston, for instance, attacked revivalist excesses and began to advocate a theological liberalism that eventually developed into Unitarianism. In the Middle Colonies, on the other hand, many Scottish and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians reacted by reaffirming orthodox doctrine, which, they argued, was weakened by the revivalists' emphasis on religious experience.

In community after community, the Great Awakening produced tension, discord, and factional rivalry, so that whatever religious harmony and uniformity had existed was disrupted. Nevertheless, evangelical fervor drew supporters of the revival together, producing a sense of unity transcending denominational and political boundaries. The Great Awakening was thus a significant intercolonial movement, which contributed to a sense of American nationality before the American Revolution.

See also Revivals, Religious.