Question

What effect did the Great Awakening have on the American colonies?

Answer 1

Here are a few ways the Awakening helped change people's attitudes in ways that (re)shaped American society:

1) The Awakening spread across the colonies, with much co-operation amongst them. This helped establish foundations for the colonies' working together, so important to the growth of a united colonial movement in the 1760s and to a unified nation later.

2) The Awakening also crossed denominational boundaries, while causing some tensions WITHIN several denominations. This contributed to less power in the individual denominations and to more tolerance of those of like-mind in OTHER churches -- a key step in the national move toward NOT adopting a "state church" (religious freedom).

3) One characteristic of the Awakening was a greater emphasis on "experientialism" -- on the individual's religious experience. This was a factor in shaping later revivals and 19th century "evangelicalism" in ways both positive (individual responsibility and calling) and less positive (emotional excesses).

4) The religious revival was combined with a moral-SOCIAL awakening. Out of this revival (and its sister "Methodist" revivals in Britain) sprang greater social concerns and 'campaigns', including the anti-slavery movement (beginning with opposing the slave trade), temperance movement... and others. (Trends toward more inclusive 'democracy' also owed something to this... related to the attitudes mentioned in #1-2.)

Answer 2

ORRRRR



The Great Awakening was a religious revival in the 1730s and 1740s. It was particularly influential in the New England colonies, and sparked renewed religious activity in America. Many preachers were involved, including George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards, who preached the famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Many of the branches of Christianity that were most affected by the Great Awakening (including Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians) were among those that most supported the American Revolution. Furthermore, the enthusiasm and dedication to religious ideals and the social and political ideology that often came with these contributed to the push for American nationalism and the activism that enabled it to occur. So, it not only changed the religious make-up of America and inspired people to turn to Jesus, but also it was one of the factors that influenced the American Revolution that occurred just decades later.