The Great Awakening

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The Great Awakening
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1730-1750

• Focused on Salvation of the Natural or unsaved
• Greatly influenced the Middle and Southern
  Colonies
• Literature was focused on the mission of
  recruiting Christians

3
Literary Connection

• Sinners by J. Edwards
• The sermon was given in Enfield, CT on July 8,
  1741 to a relatively small congregation
• The fervor of the speech made Edwards a well
  known orator during the Great Awakening
• The sermons main purpose was to inform of the
  Hell that awaits the unsaved.

4
The Great Enlightenment (Age of Enlightenment)
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1750-1800

• Was a response to the religious fervor created by
  the Great Awakening and the American and French
  Revolutions
• Focus shifted from God to creation, reason, and
  science
• Inventors were plentiful in the time and
  scientific knowledge compounded

6
Literary Connection

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Franklin was the embodiment of the Enlightenment
  smart, worldly, and a lover of both art and
  science
• His autobiography was a reflection on his life
  looking for meaning, growth and faults
• His tone is humorous and secular something that
  would never have happened in Puritan writing