The Second Great Awakening, which occurred in the late 1700s and early 1800s in colonial America, brought to the fore religious and social tensions that arose during the tail end of the Enlightenment. Religious fervor had been declining, and people sought a more invigorated and enthusiastic experience with religion that emphasized emotion and a personal connection with God. The religions that began to take root in the U.S. at this time, including Methodism and Baptism, favored this type of enthusiasm and challenged the religions that had developed during the Enlightenment, including Deism (a religion that sought to reconcile Christianity with a belief in rationality). These new forms of religion were often spread through "camp meetings" at which impassioned preachers spoke. This time period marked the end of the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason and rationality, in favor of Romanticism and its emphasis on emotion and sensation.
The Second Great Awakening also spread religions that appealed to people on the margins of society and who had less political and economic power, including slaves and women. Newer and more enthusiastic forms of religion appealed to them, in part as a way for them to gain a more central role in the church. These new forms of religion were a challenge to the older forms, and they also ushered in a period of reform in which abolitionists, women's rights campaigners, and other movement leaders tried to right the wrongs they saw in the world. Therefore, the Second Great Awakening was a religious and political upheaval.
Many historians argue that the Great Awakening was a reaction to the Enlightenment. In Europe, the Age of Enlightenment emphasized personal agency in matters of faith. It also promoted rational explanations for the origins of humanity. Science was the order of the day in enlightened Europe, and Deism replaced what many saw as a rigid Christian orthodoxy. People who espoused Enlightenment beliefs emphasized empiricism.
Empiricism is the belief that knowledge can only be acquired through sensory experience. Scientists such as Newton, Copernicus, and Galileo argued that man was born good and that it was only his environment that corrupted him. They resolutely rejected the doctrine of original sin and the depravity of the human soul. Many Enlightenment scientists were also Deists; they believed that God created the world and then largely withdrew from humanity. These scientists believed that it was up to mankind to use rational means to navigate life on earth.
The concepts of the Enlightenment were in direct conflict with those of the Great Awakening, which occurred on the other side of the ocean in the American colonies. In the Middle Colonies, the Presbyterians were especially uneasy about the effects of the Enlightenment across the ocean. As a religious people, they greatly valued a personal religious experience and the biblical precepts they lived by. Their religious fervency soon spread to the Puritan Congregationalists in New England.
There, preachers such as Jonathan Edwards preached about eternal damnation and the forgiveness of sins in sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." However, Edwards himself was a supporter of the European Enlightenment. Thus, the Great Awakening saw a schism within Puritan Christianity itself. Jonathan Edwards was a proponent of the less formal and more emotional "New Light" experience, while "Old Light" supporters rejected the emotional radicalism of the Great Awakening.
The European Enlightenment certainly caused great anxiety among the faithful in the American colonies. For its own part, the Great Awakening, while a strong response to the movement, came with its own set of conflicts. During this period of revival, great differences of opinion existed between "New Light" proponents and "Old Light" traditionalists. "Old Light" supporters were essentially non-revivalists: they greatly disapproved of what they believed were the excesses of the Great Awakening. This group accepted the depravity of the human soul as religious dogma, and they also rejected undue emotionalism in religious matters.
In due time, the "New Light" modernists further splintered. We can see that both social movements came with their own set of anxieties and conflicts. For more, please refer to the links below.
https://www.colonialwarsct.org/1740_s.htm
https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-enlightenment-and-vs-great-awakening/
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