The Great Awakening & an Angry God
The Great Awakening
Starting in the 1730s, America would go through what is known as The First Great Awakening. The second would happen decades later. As Christine Heyrman puts it, “What historians call “the great awakening” can be best described as a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies…”2 All thirteen colonies had been “swept up” by this movement to revive Christianity in the colonies. Religion needed to be revived because it wasn’t personal anymore. In history.com, “...religion was becoming more formal and less personal during this time, which led to lower church attendance.” 3 Because of this, religion and church services seemed to change.
Then the movement to revive religion came. Preachers and Reverends would travel to many towns across the colonies to preach. One of these preachers was George Whitefield. He spread the message that all sinners, both men and women, were dependent for the salvation that only God could give them. As Thomas Kidd writes, “It was not enough to be baptized or go to church. Each individual must be converted by the Holy Spirit of God through a personal, wrenching examination of his or her own corruption and sinfulness.” 4 Some of the preachings were presented in a way to grab attention. “Gesturing dramatically," Christine Heyrman writes, "sometimes weeping openly or thundering out threats of hellfire-and-brimstone, they turned the sermon into a gripping theatrical performance.”5 Not everyone approved of these preachings since there could be too much emotion thrown into the message.
For the revolutionary war, The Great Awakening prepared the colonies in a way. The religious movement would appeal to ideals of liberty among the people. “The evangelical teaching that each individual believer was equal before God,” Thomas Kidd says, “made it easier for people to accept the radical implications of democracy and to question authority.” 6 As God created man in his own image, everyone, no matter the gender, was equal to one another. While the tensions between the British and American colonies increased, this movement set a stage in the form of preachers and religious lectures.
2 Heyrman, Christine Leigh. “The First Great Awakening.” Divining America, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center.
3 “Great Awakening ‑ First, Second & Definition.” History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-awakening.
4 Kidd, Thomas. “Great Awakening, Religious Revival, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Colonial America, Protestantism, Evangelical Movement, 18th Century Religious Movements.” Bill of Rights Institute. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-great-awakening.
5 Heyrman, Christine Leigh. “The First Great Awakening.” Divining America, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center.
6 Kidd, Thomas. “Great Awakening, Religious Revival, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Colonial America, Protestantism, Evangelical Movement, 18th Century Religious Movements.” Bill of Rights Institute. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-great-awakening.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
A few years before the religion revival that was The Great Awakening, another preacher stepped onto the scene. His name was Jonathan Edwards. He wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The book has a sense of urgentness for others to turn to the truth as the colonies populations began to grow. In one of the passages, Edwards writes, “the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals” 7 With the U.S still under British rule during this time, how much territory is considered a need or want for themselves?
7 Edwards, Jonathan. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards.” Blue Letter Bible, May 1, 2014. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/edwards_jonathan/Sermons/Sinners.cfm.