Everything about The Great Awakening totally explained
The
Great Awakenings refer to several periods of dramatic
religious revival in Anglo-American religious history, generally recognized as beginning in the 1730s. They have also been described as periodic revolutions in
U.S. religious thought. The term is also used in some respects to refer to American religious
revivalism that the
Protestant Reformation inspired during and after the 1500s, as well as to identify general religious trends within distinctly U.S. religious culture.
There are four generally accepted Great Awakenings in U.S. history:
Patterns defining a Great Awakening
Great Awakenings have been marked by the rise of interest in religion,with converts joining a multitude of new
denominations,
sects, or even founding entirely new branches of
religion. In addition, completely new belief systems and existing belief systems gained new popularity. Since, by its nature, religion is traditional and hard to change, many new beliefs attempt to circumvent tradition by appealing to even more ancient (and often fabricated, or at least distorted) tradition, dismissing current beliefs as either innovations or having lost some elements over time.
American Great Awakenings
Although Great Awakenings influence and are influenced by religious thought from throughout the world, the cycle of Great Awakenings appears unique to the
USA. This could be because the USA is home to many different denominations and sects, while remaining largely
Protestant, which is known for its relative freedom in terms of expression of belief as opposed to
Catholicism. The lack of a single dominant faith or state-sanctioned religion means new ideas can be spread without having to slowly reform existing institutions from within, or allowing pressures to build up until the existing institutions are violently overthrown. On the other hand, the established sects have enough prestige and inertia that the pressure for new ideas builds into a regular cycle of bloodless revolution.
Influence on political life
Since religion has often been used to support political platforms, the Great Awakenings have exerted significant influence on the politics of America.
Joseph Tracy, the minister and historian who gave this religious phenomenon its name in his influential (and still, to many, definitive) 1842 book
The Great Awakening, saw the
First Great Awakening as a precursor to the
War of Independence. For another example, the
abolition movement, part of the wider
Second Great Awakening, eventually contributed to the crisis over slavery, which led to the
American Civil War. The
Third Great Awakening would go on to be a major influence in guiding the
USA through the
Great Depression and
World War II. In fact the
New Deal was originated from that same era. The idea of an "awakening" implies a slumber or passivity during secular or less religious times. Thus, awakening is a term which originates and is embraced often and primarily by evangelical Christians . In recent times, the idea of "awakenings" in US history has been put forth by conservative US evangelicals such as President George W. Bush.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Great Awakening'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://great_awakening.totallyexplained.com">Great Awakening Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
