Influence of the Great Awakening on the Religious Culture of Colonial America (Coursework Sample)

Influence of the Great Awakening on the Religious Culture of Colonial America
In the middle of the 18th century, a series of religious revolutions swept over America and its colonies. The great awakening had arrived unexpectedly among Americans who had started complaining that organized religion had lost its vitality. The ministers focused solely on scholastic matters and no longer touched the heart. This enthusiasm split congregations between proponents of the new emotional preaching and those who dismissed it, it shut the dreams of the old light and widened the rifts between the young faithful and the elder proponents of works. The results of this phenomenon were evident in doctrinal changes together with the social and political thought of colonial America (Valkenburg). Men who had been trained to be silent before traditional authorities were encouraged to speak up. They were taught on the complete personal dependence on the holy spirit and that salvation lay only when a sinner personally sought God through prayer and soul searching, not through the church as an intermediary. Compatibility between Christianity and native spirituality was sought to allow for the merging of the beliefs. The new lights also set up institutions of higher learning to train clergymen who would preach fervidly and help sinners convert to...