Analyze The Effects Of The Great Awakening

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The Great Awakening was a revival movement that spread throughout North America in the mid-seventeenth century (Brands, 101). This movement caused every man and woman to reevaluate everything that they thought they knew about the church, the state, and society (Brands, 101). The people in the colonies of America were seeking the vitality that they had lost in organized religion (Brands, 101). Instead of listening to “dull scholastic matters,” they wanted their hearts to be touched. Another issue was that there were not enough ordained ministers to properly preside over all of the people. The people in the southern colonies, were being spiritually neglected. The Great Awakening helped to spread the fire of revival all throughout the American colonies. The Great Awakening…show more content…
The first effect of the revival was “a rebellion against Authoritarian religious rule.” A major effect was that it drove the people to create a “national conscious.” Another effect was that the colonists viewed themselves as capable of interpreting God’s will, and that they no longer needed it to be interpreted by a monarch or a bishop. This new belief switched up the order of authority. From “God to ruler to people” to “God to people to ruler.” It also brought about a split in the churches that, “prevented uniformity.” This meant that no religion was able to become the main American religion (“Great Awakening”). The Enlightenment was a, “philosophical and intellectual movement that began in Europe in the eighteenth century (Brands, 96). It emphasized the application of reason to solve “social and scientific problems (Brands 96).” The people who accepted the Enlightenment exchanged the concept of original sin with a “more optimistic view of human nature (Brands, 97).” They believed in a “benevolent God” that gave human beings reason in order to comprehend His creation (Brands, 97). They also believed that they could achieve perfection (Brands,

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