Second Great Awakening Influence

977 Words4 Pages
Kingdom of Mathias Paper The American Revolution was a very important piece in American history. The revolution immediately and directly influenced a great deal of Americans and non-Americans. After 50 years the American Revolution still played a major part in the lives of many people. More importantly though it played a role in the formation and continuation of a small cult in and around New York City. During the time that this cult was formed there were many other things going on, one of these being the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening was similar to the First Great Awakening in that it concerned religion, at this time as few as 10% of Americans attended church regularly. During this time the Market Revolution was also…show more content…
Finney was against the old Calvinist ways and became a leader and advocate of the Second Great Awakening. Charles was also a very important part of the group known as the Finneyites. The Finneyites believed that “Having abandoned the gloomy Calvinist determination of their parents’ generation, they understood that every human being was a moral free agent, and that individuals could overcome inherited human selfishness and be saved through repentance and prayer.”(Johnson & Wilentz 7) The Finneyites did not like the prophet Mathias, mainly because he still believed in the old Calvinist ways which they were against. Robert Matthews even made attempts to convert people back to the old ways, which was in his mind the right way and the only way. This religious toleration is one of the main reasons that Mathias began his cult. Religious toleration may have also been one of the only reasons that they let Matthews go for so long before cutting him off. Along with not wanting to stray from the old ways of religion, Mathias was also a firm believer in…show more content…
These changes were defiantly seen in Mathias as he refused to change along with most of the other Americans. All of these above reasons led to Roberts Matthews downfall from a man into a vicious cult leader. The prophet Mathias’s spiral out of control began when he lost his small shop because a risk he took during the Market Revolution. Along with the market revolution came the second great awakening, this was also hard for Robert Matthews to take in. This is because he was a firm believer in the old Calvinist ways. A final point that Mathias’s cult had something to do with the American Revolution is his despise that he felt for women having more rights and freedom. Mathias was simply a man stuck in an old world while the country and society is quickly changing around
Open Document