GREAT REVIVAL

Great Awakening, general revival of evangelical religion in the American colonies, which reached its peak in the early 1740s. Local revivals had occurred previously, inspired by the teaching of such clergymen as the congregational theologian Jonathan Edwards. In 1739 and 1740 the English evangelist George Whitefield made extended tours along the Atlantic seaboard, attracting large crowds as he preached the necessity for sinners to be converted. Others followed his example of itinerant preaching, and many small local revivals merged into a general “great awakening.”

Whitefield, the Presbyterian clergyman Gilbert Tennent, and other traveling revivalists were generally welcomed at first. They stimulated religious zeal, produced conversions, and increased church membership. Before long, however, the methods of the itinerants and the fervent emotionalism of the revival drew criticism, being seen by a large proportion of the settled clergy as a threat to the established order. Revivalists often accused settled ministers of being unconverted and of leading their congregations to spiritual destruction. As a consequence, many churches split into factions. In New England, separate congregational churches were organized, and in the Middle Colonies, Presbyterians divided into rival bodies, called the New Side and the Old Side, which remained apart until 1758.

The Great Awakening had varied and to some degree contradictory effects on American religion. In New England, Calvinism was reinvigorated, and Jonathan Edwards emerged as the leading orthodox theologian. Opponents of the revival, however, began preaching against the orthodox doctrines of predestination, election, and original sin. The congregational clergyman Charles Chauncy of Boston, for instance, attacked revivalist excesses and began to advocate a theological liberalism that eventually developed into Unitarianism. In the Middle Colonies, on the other hand, many Scottish and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians reacted by reaffirming orthodox doctrine, which, they argued, was weakened by the revivalists' emphasis on religious experience.

In community after community, the Great Awakening produced tension, discord, and factional rivalry, so that whatever religious harmony and uniformity had existed was disrupted. Nevertheless, evangelical fervor drew supporters of the revival together, producing a sense of unity transcending denominational and political boundaries. The Great Awakening was thus a significant intercolonial movement, which contributed to a sense of American nationality before the American Revolution.

Religious Revivals, term widely used among Protestants since the early 18th century to denote periods of marked religious interest. Evangelistic preaching and prayer meetings, frequently accompanied by intense emotionalism, are characteristic of such periods, which are intended to renew the faith of church members and to bring others to profess their faith openly for the first time. By an extension of its meaning, the term is sometimes applied to various important religious movements of the past. Instances are recorded in the Scriptures as occurring both in the history of the Jews and in the early history of the Christian church. In the Middle Ages revivals took place in connection with the Crusades and under the auspices of the monastic orders, sometimes with strange adjuncts, as in the case of the Flagellants and the dancing mania. The Reformation of the 16th century was also accompanied by revivals of religion.

It is more accurate, however, to limit the application of the term revival to the history of modern Protestantism, especially in Britain and the United States where such movements have flourished with unusual vigor. The Methodist churches originated from a widespread evangelical movement in the first half of the 18th century. This was later referred to as the Wesleyan movement or Wesleyan revival. The Great Awakening was the common designation for the revival of 1740-42 that took place in New England and other parts of North America under the Congregational clergyman Joseph Bellamy, and three Presbyterian clergymen, Gilbert Tennent, William Tennent, and their father, the educator William Tennent. Both Princeton University and Dartmouth College had their origin in this movement. Toward the end of the 18th century a fresh series of revivals began in America, lasting intermittently from 1797 to 1859. In New England the beginning of this long period was called the evangelical reawakening.

Churches soon came to depend upon revivals for their growth and even for their existence, and, as time went on, the work was also taken up by itinerant preachers also called circuit riders. The early years of the 19th century were marked by great missionary zeal, extending even to foreign lands. In Tennessee and Kentucky, camp meetings, great open-air assemblies, began about 1800 to play an important part in the evangelical work of the Methodist Church, now the United Methodist Church. One of the most notable products of the camp meeting idea was the late 19th-century Chautauqua Assembly, a highly successful educational endeavor. An outstanding religious revival of the 19th century was the Oxford movement (1833-45) in the Church of England, which resulted in the modern English High Church movement. Distinctly a revival, it was of a type different from those of the two preceding centuries. The great American revival of 1859-61 began in New England, particularly in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and extended to New York and other states. It is believed that in a single year half a million converts were received into the churches. Another remarkable revival, in 1874-75, originated in the labors of the American evangelists Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey. Organized evangelistic campaigns have sometimes had great success under the leadership of professional evangelists, among them Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, and Billy Graham. The Salvation Army carries on its work largely by revivalistic methods.