Great Awakening in America the Great Awakenings Essay

Great Awakening in America

The Great Awakenings refer to several waves of interest in religion in America. These waves have coincided with increases in economic prosperity and materialism that have caused people to view religion with less interest. It began in the 1930s as disunited attempts at religious revival and in the 1940s had matured into "the remarkable Revival of Religion" (Lambert, p. 6). During the 1740 sThe Great Awakenings aimed at inspiring people to perceive religion as a source of emotional energy and not as a set of rituals and practices. The social and economic problems faced by twenty-first century American society necessitate a similar movement that can create a sense of community in a religiously and ethnically diverse society.

During the early decades of the eighteenth century, the British colonies in America were evolving from their beginnings in the sixteenth century. Trade in slaves, sugar, tobacco and manufactured goods from Britain had created greater wealth among the colonialists, particularly in Pennsylvania and Chesapeake (American Promise, p. 127). With increasing prosperity and enterprise, people had become interested in buying goods and were spoilt for choice for the first time in history. People had become detached from religion and more involved in the seeking comfort in life. In large and important cities, hardly 10 to 15% of the adult population attended church regularly (American Promise, p. 130). The preachers of the Great Awakening sought to stem this growing worldliness by getting people to connect emotionally with religion.

Along with waning interest in religion, increasing prosperity of the merchants and slave traders was creating resentment on several levels.Ordinary free white people resented the wealthy for looking down upon them. At the same time, the America-born members of the growing Negro population were experiencing discrimination by the white class even after they were no longer slaves. Slavery was still a source of unrest and strained relations between the white and black population. This would lead to the 1739 rebellion at Stono, South Carolina where a group of black slaves burnt fields and killed more than twenty white people. The rebellion was brutally quashed and the heads of the rebels were put up on posts as a reminder of their inferiority (American Promise, p. 126). Discrimination on the basis of wealth and race was not conducive to building cohesion in society. The pursuit of wealth, land and resources had also brought upon the enmity of Indians and other European settlers. As a result, the society was divided into groups depending on a complex web of alliances with one another to ensure survival. The Great Awakenings helped to sensitize people to seeing one another as equals before God and seek redemption for their sins of love of wealth and discrimination against their fellow human beings.

The sense of community was also giving way to a rising sense of individualism. The British colonies were far more heterogeneous than the European societies. Being in the midst of diverse ethnicities and religions made people more conscious of their cultural identity. Along with greater opportunities for earning a livelihood and selecting a place to settle….....