American Revolution: The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalism is a book written by Barry Hankins in 2014. The main idea that the book reflects is that the Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalism reinforced Americans beliefs in the individual’s importance and support even as it helped to bring a sense of community to a highly nomadic masses. The Second Great Awakening movement transformed the American religion and society in a number of ways. While there was a large growth of the deism in New England. Church’s revolutionary fervor tended to alienate it from its constituency.

During the 1800’s, those who saw social prejudice or corruption started many reform movements to correct the difficulties in America. The Second Great Awakening really helped shape the United States into a religious nation and paved the way through the reform movements, while stressing individual choice that caused an uprising in denominations leading to followers by the masses. Antislavery abolitionism became a movement mostly because of influence from the religious revival that was taking place, and demonstrating to all of those religious that slavery is a sin. Reformists of the antislavery movement transformed their thoughts forward of equality to all people, no matter their race.

Led by William Seymour, the revivals emphasize living a holy life as demonstrated by Spirit baptism and evidenced by speaking in tongues. Beginnings of Pentecostalism. -Scofield Bible published -Communism spreads anti-religious ideology throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America: Christianity eradicated from education -Scopes “Monkey” Trial (State of Tennessee v. John Scopes) on the teaching of evolution -Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City -Rise of Nazism, leading to World War II and the death of 6 million Jews and millions of Christians.

One of the first of these circumstances was religious revival.

Richard Kaplan also said, “the theological belief in the potential mutability, indeed perfectibility, of people also encouraged a reforming attitude toward social institutions. Humanity and earthly society were not inherently sinful and, thus, could and should be reformed.” With the new quantity of religious people, the belief that there should no longer be sinful or unjust things grew tremendously. With this belief, people began to believe that things that needed to be reformed, should be reformed. The Second Great Awakening sparked a nationwide wave of reform movements that had a huge impact on American society throughout the 19th century.

The shift in thinking from the enlightenment sparked a change in thinking about religion in colonial America. The Great Awakening was a revitalization movement that ran across parts of Europe and the colonies in America. Because of the enlightenment people weren’t as religious as they used to be but during and after the Great Awakening people became more and more religious because of the different methods used by the preachers. Preachers used more emotion to deliver their sermons which made it more appealing to the people, George Whitefield being one of the most famous for this. The Great Awakening in a way unified the colonies, because it affected almost everyone in the country it brought together a sense of unity even though different types of christianity were formed due to the great Awakening.

There were also steps to achieve religious conversion. This included a need to reach prostitutes, alcoholics, and atheists because of the growing need for religious conversion (Document B). This document, as well as most of the documents, reflects the impact of the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening refers to a period of religious revivals at occurred in the United States in the 1830s.

The Second Great Awakening, beginning in about 1790, influenced a reform movement that encouraged mandatory, free, public education. In 1805, the New York Public School Society was created by wealthy businessmen and was intended to provide education for poor children. In 1817, a town meeting in Boston, Massachusetts called for establishment of free public primary schools. Many wage earners opposed this proposal. Josiah Quincy, mayor of Boston, supported the idea that education should be a priority by saying, “(By) 1820, an English classical school is established, having for its object to enable the mercantile and mechanical classes to obtain an education adapted for those children whom their parents wished to qualify for active life, and thus

A revolution is the bringing of a new start. Like many other revolutions throughout the years, the American Revolution is the perfect example of this. The effects of a revolution not only on the people but on society as well, can be detrimental. Many of these effects included closing the Boston harbor, passing the Intolerable Act, British government refused to address American complaints, and the colonists felt the British government was increasingly corrupt and autocratic empire in which their traditional liberties were threatened. During the American Revolution boycotts were a key example of the effects a revolution can have on its government.

Despite the intricate positions on abolition, the Second Great Awakening influenced many leaders and developed new principles that radiated throughout the country. Christianity was the one unifying factor that most Americans could identify with at the time. The Enlightenment Era challenged old ideas of divine authority and stimulated a more progressive church aiming for equality. With leaders in the church declaring that slavery was a sin, and promoting the idea of a forgiving God, many northerners began to reach out and spread the word of God and secure their eternal salvation. These values were preached to most Americans from a very young age through song and childrens books.

The American Enlightenment and the Great Awakening were two very important motivators that changed the colonial society in America through religious beliefs, educational values, and the right to live one’s life according to each individual’s preference. The Great Awakening and the American Enlightenment movements were two events in history that signaled a grand distinction to the teachings among religious believers. New beliefs of how a person should worship in order to be considered in “God’s good graces” soon became an enormous discussion among colonists across the land. “Men of the cloth,” such as George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards were well respected and closely followed when preaching about the love of God and damnation.

However one of the most popular activities was going to church. America had become

Generally speaking, sociologists classify religious organizations as churches (more commonly known), sects, or cults. In this case, we are discussing The Sect Church Cycle and how it can help us understand social change. Currently, the Sect Church Cycle is playing out for Evangelicals which are the conservative protestant congregations that blossomed in the south and have been growing at a steady rate over the last two centuries. Evangelicals fracture on political issues (647). Reverend Billy Graham has retired and the movement is struggling to define its identity.

In conclusion, the Enlightenment was vital to the American Revolution and the creation of American Government. The Enlightenment beliefs that influenced the American Revolution were natural rights, the social contract, and the right to overthrow the government if the social contract was violated. The Enlightenment beliefs that aided to the creation of the American government were separation of powers, checks and balances, and limited government. As stated before, without the Enlightenment there would not have been a revolution, resulting in no American Government. The Enlightenment’s influence on the creation of America is irrefutable.

From 1990 to 2010, religious affiliation in America has dropped significantly, raising the question as to why American citizens are becoming less religious. Researcher Allen Dowey from the Olin College of Engineering has analyzed the data, and claims that there are several factors that contribute to this occurrence. However, the contributing factor is the rise of the internet and social networking. Deriving his data from the General Social Survey, Dowey discovers that religious upbringing is highly influential to religious affiliation later on in life.