The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 3

VIII. The “Great Awakening” Moves the Masses

Religion was at low ebb in the opening decades of the eighteenth century. A survey of the various election sermons of the period indicates that nearly all were denunciatory of the deplorable religious conditions of the times. The original Puritan fervor had passed. The encroachments of Arminianism, deism, and rationalism were making a marked impress, drawing men away from the old positions. There was a growing secular ism, a fatal coldness and formalism in religious life. PFF3 164.3

The hour was ripe for a new kind of religious emphasis and leadership. Then began an extended revival movement, climaxing in the Great Awakening of 1740. Before the coming of George Whitefield ⁷² there were stirrings, here and there, among the Lutherans and Reformed. Around 1720 Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, began to proclaim the imperative necessity of conversion, and to denounce outward formalism. Gilbert Tennent, an eloquent Presbyterian divine, with his “Log College” evangelists, did a conspicuous work in Pennsylvania. Then came Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest figure of his generation, but preaching an extreme predestination, setting God forth as a being of wrath, and man as “utterly helpless in his moral strivings.” ⁷³ PFF3 164.4

The chief criticism was that the preaching of some of the revivalists terrified the people, resulting in “fainting, cries, and bodily agitations.” Yet Princeton’s first five presidents were all revivalists—including Aaron Burr and Jonathan Edwards. ⁷⁴ PFF3 165.1

Edwards has been called the “Father of the Revivalist Type of Protestantism in America.” His revival work, which began in 1734 by sermons on justification by faith, ⁷⁵ proceeded from the necessity of finding a new method of bringing religion to the great masses of the religiously indifferent. It was rooted in Pietism, not in Calvinism. And Congregationalism became revival istic when it began to center its interest in the redemption of the individual. ⁷⁶ PFF3 165.2

Prior to the visit of Whitefield, Edwards had always preached from notes. He saw thousands assembled to hear the impassioned preaching of Whitefield, whose marvelous voice and dramatic utterances were a welcome relief, as he substituted human features for prosaic logic. ⁷⁷ He caught the ear and gripped the heart of the masses. Taking advantage of the rising tide of religious concern, Edwards began extempore preaching on “awakening” themes. PFF3 165.3

Charles Chauncy of Boston was the principal critic of the revival. Cold and prosaic, he was utterly out of sympathy with all emotionalism. But for multiplied thousands religion was made vital. And humanitarianism was an inseparable part of Whitedeld’s message-such as orphan homes and conversion of the slaves and Indians. ⁷⁸ PFF3 165.4

Trumbull puts the number of members added at 30,000 to 40,000. ⁷⁹ Tracy states that some 150 new Congregational churches were formed between 1740 and 1760, besides in creases among Presbyterians, Separatists, and Baptists. ⁸⁰ While there were unfortunate excesses, ⁸¹ it was, nevertheless, the most extensive religious revival America had ever had. ⁸² PFF3 166.1

While primarily affecting Congregationalism in New Eng land, the Great Awakening affected the Southern colonies as well. And it touched the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists alike-emotional revivalism being most marked among those of little education. In fact, Sweet holds that the rise of Methodism in America was part of the Great Awakening. ⁸³ PFF3 166.2

Previous to the Great Awakening there had been but three colleges in America-Harvard (1636), William and Mary (1693), and Yale (1701). But under the impulse of the Great Awakening others came into being, such as Hampden-Sydney, and Washington and Lee. Then came the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania). Whitefield played a prominent part in the establishment of both the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Wheelock’s Indian School (later Dartmouth), in 1754. King’s College (Inter Columbia), in 1754, and Rhode Island College (afterward Brown), in 1764, were direct results of the revival. ⁸⁴ PFF3 166.3

A renewal of interest in Indian missions was another by product. David Brainerd, a convert of the revival expelled from Yale because of his insistent revivalism, transferred his member ship to the Presbyterians and devoted the remainder of his life to work among the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Indians. Furthermore, Samual Hopkins’ insistence that Christ died for all-Indians, Negroes, and the underprivileged-laid the foundation for the first antislavery impules, and Hopkins was a student of Jonathan Edwards. Such was the impact to the Great Awakening to the American outlook. ⁸⁵ PFF3 166.4