US His Chapter 4 First Great Awakening – Comprehensive Study Notes

Page 1 – Context & Definition

• Continuation of Chapter 4 (previous section covered the Enlightenment).
• First Great Awakening (FGA) = series of Protestant revivals across British North America.
  • Think of it as a “pep-rally for Jesus.”
• Parallels to the Enlightenment:
  • Both are intellectual–cultural movements that sweep all colonies.
  • Both ultimately challenge traditional authority.
• Key contrast with the Enlightenment:
  • Enlightenment = intellectual, humanistic, elite-oriented.
  • FGA = emotional, popular, grass-roots response to waning piety; appeals to ordinary people rather than elites.
• Chronology (broad): begins $\text{early 1720s}$; moves north → south; peaks $1730s–1740s$.

Page 2 – Preconditions & Decline in Zeal

• Early $1700s$: significant drop in church membership/attendance throughout colonies.
• Middle colonies notice earliest decline.
  • Even in Massachusetts—where laws make Sunday worship compulsory—attendance plummets.
• Reasons:
  • 4th-generation Puritans treat religion as one facet of life, not the center.
  • Rising distractions: $\text{commerce, travel, leisure}$.
  • Memory of Salem witch trials (1692) seen by some as divine displeasure.

Page 3 – The Tennents & “Hellfire + Brimstone” Prototype

• $1720\text{s}$: Tennent family (Presbyterian preachers, New Jersey) launch lively, emotional sermons.
  • Themes: wages of sin, glories of heaven, urgency of repentance.
  • Method: vivid, dramatic “hellfire & brimstone” rhetoric.
  • Impact: gains notoriety but fades within a few years; nonetheless sets stylistic precedent.

Page 4 – Jonathan Edwards & “Sinners in the Hands …”

• Puritans now renamed Congregationalists; theology still Calvinist.
• Jonathan Edwards – pastor, Northampton (western MA).
  • Worried flock is headed for damnation; church attendance obligatory yet sliding.
• 1735 sermon: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
  • Iconic quotations:
  • “God holds you over the pit of hell much as one holds a spider … over the fire.”
  • “You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about you ….”
  • Purposes:
  1. Frighten listeners into spiritual awakening.
  2. Undercut strict predestination by implying personal choice in repentance.
• Immediate results:
  • Church packed next weeks; people listen at windows.
  • Sermon copied, mailed, preached hundreds of times.
  • Metrics rise: church attendance, public confessions, personal conversions.
• Criticism by “old guard” Puritans: too emotional, lacks doctrinal substance.

Page 5 – Shift South & Creation of the Bible Belt

• South lacked strong institutional religion:
  • Anglican establishment weak; few clergy/church buildings.
  • Carolinas & Georgia largely indifferent to organized religion.
• Awakening moves south ≈ $1740s$.
  • Long-term outcome: births the “Bible Belt.”
• Theological pivot:
  • From angry God → merciful God.
  • From institutional mediation → direct, individual relationship with Jesus.

Page 6 – George Whitefield: Itinerant Superstar

• Early life: drinking, gambling, womanizing → sudden conversion experience.
• Educated at Anglican seminary; calls peers “spiritually dead.”
• Becomes traveling evangelist (no fixed parish); tours American colonies $1739–1741$ and later.
• Core teachings:
  • Faith of the heart > head knowledge & ritual.
  • Salvation is free – simply ask Jesus; let the “new light” in; be “born again.”
  • Priesthood of all believers – anyone genuinely moved may preach; no advanced education required.
  • Dramatic oratory: outdoor revivals, audiences in the thousands (contemporary diaries liken him to an actor commanding an open-air stage).
• Social consequences:
  • Old congregations (Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran) lose members.
  • New Lights vs Old Lights schism across denominations.

Page 7 – Denominational Fallout & Evangelicalism

• Two fastest-growing groups: Methodists & Baptists (offspring of Anglicanism).
  • Appeal strongly to middle/lower classes.
  • Openly welcome enslaved Africans, sowing roots of Black Protestantism.
• Emergence of Evangelical Protestantism with four hallmarks:
  1. Biblical inerrancy – Scripture contains zero error.
  2. Sola Scriptura – Bible = sole authority; if doctrine isn’t in Scripture, discard it.
  3. Individual salvation – personal choice; no institutional gatekeepers.
  4. Active proselytizing – believers obliged to spread the “good news.”
  • Together these features democratize religion—authority pushed “downward” to ordinary folk.

Page 8 – Convergence with Enlightenment: Challenging Authority

Both movements → pluralism, disestablishment, egalitarianism.

1. Pluralism (Religious Toleration)

   • Legitimatizes dissent; Methodists aren’t killing Baptists over baptism modes.
   • Nearly ends European-style sectarian violence in North America.
   • Accepts science & rationalism for secular life while keeping robust faith in private sphere.

2. Disestablishment & Separation of Church & State

   • Colonies once had established churches (tax-supported, sole legal option).
   • Impossible to privilege one church amid rising diversity → gradual disestablishment.
   • Fiscal practicality + Enlightenment politics produce early notions of $\text{“wall of separation.”}$

3. Egalitarianism & Breakdown of Deference

   • Social hierarchy compressed; rising belief we share one broad class.
   • If we’re equal before God, why not equal before government?
   • Sets precedent for political activism & eventual revolutionary ideology: ordinary people demand voice in public affairs.

Page 9 – Ethical & Philosophical Implications

• Moral Agency: Individuals now held spiritually responsible; empowers conscience.
• Inclusivity vs Exclusion: Opens worship to women, poor, enslaved; yet simultaneously entrenches belief in biblical literalism (future conflicts over slavery, gender, science).
• Education: Decline in classical clergy training but birth of colleges (e.g., Princeton, Dartmouth) to train “New-Light” ministers—ironically re-professionalizing ministry.
• Media & Communication: Sermons, pamphlets, and itinerant preaching pioneer a trans-colonial information network, foreshadowing revolutionary propaganda circuits.

Page 10 – Key Names, Dates & Terms (Quick Reference)

• Dates to remember:
  • $1720\text{s}$ – Tennents begin in NJ; general decline in zeal.
  • $1735$ – Jonathan Edwards delivers “Sinners ….”
  • $1739–1741$ – Whitefield’s first American tour.
  • $1740\text{s}$ – Peak of FGA; shift to South.
• People:
  • Jonathan Edwards – Congregationalist theologian.
  • George Whitefield – itinerant Anglican evangelist.
  • Tennent family – early Presbyterian revivalists.
• Vocabulary:
  • Hellfire & Brimstone – vivid preaching on damnation.
  • New Lights / Old Lights – supporters vs critics of Awakening.
  • Born Again – personal conversion experience.
  • Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone.
  • Priesthood of believers – all Christians may preach.
  • Evangelicalism – movement emphasizing conversion, scriptural authority, activism.
  • Disestablishment – removal of church tax support.

Page 11 – Cause-Effect Chains & Connections

• Declining piety + demographic growth → search for new religious meaning → FGA.
• FGA + Enlightenment → intellectual & spiritual climate that normalizes dissent.
• Normalized dissent → fuels antiauthoritarian politics → sets stage for American Revolution.
• Emotional religion + printing networks → mass‐participation culture → future temperance, abolitionist, women’s rights movements (2nd Great Awakening builds on same template).

Page 12 – Study Prompts & “Why It Matters”

• How did Edwards’ sermon both rely on and depart from strict Puritan predestination?
• Compare Enlightenment rationalism vs evangelical emotionalism—why do both undermine established authority?
• Trace one specific colonial law that changed because of disestablishment.
• Evaluate long-term effect: How does today’s American evangelicalism trace lineage to FGA hallmarks (biblical inerrancy, personal salvation, activism)?
• Ethical lens: Does democratizing religion truly level power, or merely shift it to new charismatic leaders (e.g., Whitefield)?

Page 13 – Numerical & Statistical Nuggets

• Attendance swings: Edwards’ church reportedly doubled in size within weeks; anecdotal but widely cited.
• Whitefield outdoor revivals: contemporary estimates range 8,000 – 20,000 attendees (remarkable given population density; colonial Boston ≈ $17,000$ residents in $1740$).
• Denominational growth: Methodist & Baptist ranks grow ten-fold in certain southern counties between $1740–1770$ (exact local records vary).

Page 14 – Visual / Metaphoric Aids

• Spider over fire metaphor → captures precarious human state.
• “Slender thread” → conveys fragility of life & dependence on divine mercy.
• “New Light” image → beacon breaking through darkness; translates to theological illumination.
• Bible Belt → geographic “belt” wrapping the South tightly in evangelical fervor.

Page 15 – Take-Away Sentences (TL;DR)

1. The First Great Awakening was the first truly pan-colonial event, forging shared experience among disparate colonies.
2. Its emotional, inclusive, and anti-hierarchical message democratized American religion and, by extension, colonial politics.
3. By validating dissent and personal authority, the FGA partnered with the Enlightenment to erode old elites’ power, sowing seeds for revolution and enduring evangelical culture.