Great Awakening Was a Religious Revival That Essay

great awakening was a religious revival that swept across America in the 1730s to 1740s that saw the restructuring of the society in general within America. For the very first time, this religious revival managed to bring the Native Americans and the blacks into the organized churches as opposed to the prior diverse ways of their worship to their various gods. It also brought the new colonialists into the church to share worship place with the Native Americans and blacks. This was also the very initial time that the religious revival led people to develop interest in education and hence universities like Princeton university and Brown University were established.

In the 1700s, the puritan church had lost its grip on the congregation and the society at large and the membership in the churches was on the decline. The puritan church had a lot of restrictive laws and measure like using the membership to the puritan churches as a measure of qualification to vote. This was however repealed in the new Massachusetts charter of 1691, a charter that also united Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay and Maine into a singe royal colony of Massachusetts. This marked more freedom fro the congregation who had the space now to choose the church to belong to (John Winthrop, 2013).

The first group to bring forth this movement was the Presbyterian in Pennsylvania and also New Jersey lead by Rev. Tennet William who was an immigrant from Scotland, he emphasized on the evangelical conversions through heartfelt preaching.This religious zeal and enthusiasm was soon spread throughout the colonies even to the Puritans and the Baptist of New England.

Come 1740s, the clergymen concerned were already preaching the gospel through large revivals with the very same strategy that Rev. Tennets had previously used. The sermons were emotionally charged with vivid images of the sinful nature of man evoked during the sermons. From the revival meetings and the emotional sermons, many people turned to be missionaries especially to the American South. New York, New Jersey, New England, North Carolina and many other colonies were awash with converts to such religious affiliations and at the even of the American Revolution, there was a significant 10% evangelical converts accounted for the churchgoers in the South.

During this time, many citizens seemed to be doing well materially and hence few cared about what was going on around them or with the neighbors. People had the zeal to have more material wealth and achieve sensual pleasure. This pushed people like Edwards Jonathan, who was a clergyman to focus on personal purity and also commitment….....