The First Great Awakening

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key figures, causes, sermons, social dynamics, and historical impacts of the First Great Awakening in colonial America.

First Great Awakening

A widespread religious revival that swept through the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s, challenging established churches, emphasizing personal faith over institutional control, and fostering colonial unity.

Enlightenment Rationalism

An intellectual movement emphasizing reason over faith that, along with declining church membership and rigid Puritan practices, provoked the First Great Awakening as a reaction against perceived moral decline and intellectual elitism.

Jonathan Edwards

A New England preacher and theologian who emphasized human sinfulness and the need for divine grace, igniting emotional conversions and revivalist fervor across the colonies.

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

A famous sermon delivered by Jonathan Edwards that emphasized human sinfulness and the necessity of divine grace to spark emotional conversions.

George Whitefield

A charismatic English minister who toured the colonies and preached to massive crowds in open-air sermons, using a theatrical style that united colonists across regions and denominations.

Spiritual Equality (First Great Awakening)

A sense of religious voice and inclusion granted to marginalized groups, such as women and enslaved Africans, by encouraging them to participate in worship and express personal religious experiences.

The Tennents

A family of Presbyterian revivalists based in the Middle Colonies, led by William Tennent and his son Gilbert Tennent, who linked revivalist piety to social responsibility and charity.

“The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry”

A sermon preached by Gilbert Tennent that attacked complacent clergy and advocated for spiritually reborn ministers.

“New Light” Movement

A revivalist movement strengthened by the work of the Tennents that emphasized heartfelt religion, personal conversion, and Christian duty toward the poor and marginalized.

Ideological Legacy of the Great Awakening

The challenging of established hierarchies and promotion of individual conscience and religious tolerance, which laid the groundwork for revolutionary concepts of liberty and self-governance.