Great Awakening Essay

Answer

The Great Awakening was a Christian evangelical revival that spread across colonial America back in the mid-1700s (McLoughlin, 2013). The movement had diverse important effects upon the American culture, life, and society. For instance, the revival facilitated emphasis of the Puritans on education, propelled humanitarianism and missions, spread the Christian gospel to huge populations, and enhanced women’s increased church participation. This essay seeks to examine the importance of the Great Awakening and its impact on the church.

During and even after the Great Awakening revival, churches and other denominations rapidly grew. As a result, the colonialists became more engaged in church and religious based affairs. Compared to the previous trends, women limitedly embraced church life compared to men. They neither held church offices nor conducted any formal meetings. These restrictions reflected the secular life system where women were neither allowed to vote nor have any property rights upon marriage (Yount, 2016). However, after the revival, women comprised the majority of active church members across all denominations. The Great Awakening influenced women’s recognition in the church. While men kept on exercising religious authority, the increased women-oriented activities clicked during this period, altered men predominance in church and enhanced greater participation of women across American churches (McLoughlin, 2013). Particular churches supported the idea of greater women’s activism by assigning them direct church roles, management of philanthropic groups, as well as voting on congregational matters.  

Even though the Great Awakening did not settle the problem of slavery, it made great changes to the church by bringing Christian Gospel much directly to all groups and classes of people. The population, including African-Americans and Native Americans, most whom were subjected to slavery, became more enlightened about the word of God. The revival put much emphasis on personal religious encounters which also resonated with many blacks and further resembled African religions. Many black dominated churches gradually appeared (Yount, 2016). They addressed several aspects of life and brought much happiness and hope to African-Americans.

The Great Awakening revitalized several American churches. George Whitefield was the most famous leader who preached on revivals. His primary message insisted on the need of people to get saved through the grace of God. He traveled and spread the gospel to thousands of people. Most of these people became saved through God’s grace. The time period was quite divisive as many people were influenced by the impact of the revivals, even though some stuck to the traditional form of religion (McLoughlin, 2013). According to historians, while the movement led several churches to splits and upheavals, they were divided into two distinct groups: new Lights and Old Lights. This was with respect to the priority of society, individual, state or church. Each group perceived itself as a section of the dissenting tradition. The traditionalists, commonly regarded as the Old Lights, sought to promote and protect the concept of unified Christian society established by the Puritan. It focused on church-state establishment (Yount, 2016).

The Puritan church-state put less focus on individual spiritual conversion and instead emphasized on a covenanted society. Old Lights upheld the idea that just as the early colonies, the state or national churches were required to promote religion, faith and morality within the society. Their intention was to make churches open across the larger society and influence culture in Godly ways. The considered unregulated religion as divisive by undermining societal order and stability.

New Lights group, or the evangelical revivalists, focused on individual spiritual conversions purposely to purify the church of unbiblical doctrine. According to this group, government regulations on religion did not influence more converts. Radicals advocated for the separation of state and church, and were against governmental support to churches. They sought to exit the church and form more independent, new church institutions (McLoughlin, 2013). They believed that the church was governed by God and not the state. They outlined that the state did not contain any jurisdiction over religious issues but should instead focus on enforcing civil laws at society level to maintain peace and order among people. While particular moderates did not in any way support church-state separations, they were ready to relinquish church authority in society to purposely purify the state churches (McLoughlin, 2013).

Eventually, the Great Awakening, in the notes presented by Paul Johnson in his works on “The History of the American People,” provides all churches and the American religion of the 1700s a more renewed spiritual life. With the extensively growing number of churches and religious groups within America, a good number of American religious societies became free market place of ideas and more pluralistic (McLoughlin, 2013). They were entitled to voluntary religious choices as churches became more evangelical, egalitarian, tolerant, pragmatic, individualistic and pietistic.

In conclusion, the Great Awakening had a number of effects on the church. The Christian church experienced an exceptional growth regime during this period because many new independent and state churches expanded even without governmental support. As the colonies became more converted, people began appreciating the role of women in society.