The 2nd Great Awakening

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CHURCH HISTORY IILesson 26
The 2nd Great Awakening
Circa 1790s 1840s
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Ancient Church History
Medieval Church History
Modern Church History
Reformation Counter Reformation
Apostolic Church
The First Medieval Pope
The Rise of the Holy Rom Emp
Apostolic Fathers
Rationalism, Revivalism, Denominationalism
The Crusades
Church Councils
Revivalism, Missions, Modernism
Golden Age of Church Fathers
The Papacy in Decline
The Pre-Reformers
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Four Periods of Awakening Activity
I. The Great Awakening (1730s-1750s)
II. The 2nd Great Awakening (1790s-1830s)
III. Prayer Meetings through New Pentecostalism
(1857-1910s)
IV. 1940s 1950s Billy Graham
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The 1st Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was a glorious work of God
whereby He causeda period of intense spiritual
revival and conversions that enlarged thechurch
with true members and quickened them to Christian
duty.
1720s - The Middle Colonies
1730s The New England Colonies
1740 1750s The Southern Colonies

• EVANGELICAL
• Authority of scripture
• Necessity of new birth
• Intent to spread the gospel
• True conversion worked out in the believers life

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Results of the Great Awakening
POSITIVE
1. Conversions
2. Increase in churches and church membership
3. Increase awareness of the necessity of the
new birth
4. No tolerance for an unconverted minister

• Building of new evangelical schools
• Princeton
• Dartmouth
• Rutgers
• Brown

6. Calvinism strengthened and preserved in
American churches for another hundred years
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Jonathan Edwards Charles Chauncy
Americas two-party religious system
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Why did religious fervor fade after the 1st Great
Awakening?
The Disruption of the American Revolution
The Rise of Deism French Skepticism
The Scottish revivalist Thomas Chalmers had put
it this way "moonlight preaching ripens no
harvest." Religion had become so tepid in the
hands of rationalists like Chauncy and Deists
like Jefferson, that it had almost no power to
change the individual. Just enough of the old
faith remained to inoculate people from catching
the real thing.
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Why did religious fervor fade after the 1st Great
Awakening?
The Disruption of the American Revolution
The Rise of English Deism French Skepticism
Religious Freedom vs. Uniformity Establishment
Western Migration
Mass Migration to the Continent
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The 2nd Great Awakening
Western Frontier
East Coast
New England
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The East Coast
Colleges
Hampton- Sidney College 1787, students pry for
revival
Yale 1802, Timothy Dwight
Princeton 1813 Daniel Baker, Pry Mtg 1813
1815 40 converted
Harvard, Bowdin, Brown, Dartmouth, Middlebury,
Williams, and Andover
Methodism
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The Frontier
Camp Meeting
Logan, Ky - 1797
Cane Ridge, Ky - 1801
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The Frontier
Camp Meeting
Logan, Ky - 1797
Cane Ridge - 1801
Presbyterian Split
The Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchThe Christian
Church The Church of Disciples
Methodist Circuit Riders
The Circuit Riders went after the frontier people.
Francis Ashbury/Peter Cartwright -
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Peter Cartwright
Preached, not theological discourses or
speculations,but sermons on hell.
His preaching was for thefrontier person who was
not attracted to intellectualreligion, but
emotionalfaith.
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The Frontier
Camp Meeting
Logan, Ky - 1797
Cane Ridge - 1801
Presbyterian Split
The Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchThe Christian
Church The Church of Disciples
Methodist Circuit Riders
The Circuit Riders went after the frontier people.
Francis Ashbury/Peter Cartwright -
Baptist
Farmer/Sunday Preacher
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New England
Asahel Nettleton
Calvinistic Preacher
Charles Finney (1792-1875)
Lawyer turned evangelist
Important shift to revivalism as a technique and
organized program. You can plan and announce
revivals. New Measures
Surprising work of God vs. a planned event
Shift to Arminianism away from Calvinism
Social reform must become immediately apart of
Christian life
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The Results of the 2nd Great Awakening
The American Revolution established a new context
for the churches, in whichvoluntary patterns for
survival and growth had to be established.
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The Circuit Rider came into its own as an
institution of the American frontier. These men
rarely lived to reach middle age. Francis Asbury
was the exception. Most died very young and were
encouraged not to marry. While the personal price
was high, this strategy of intinerating ministers
allowed Methodists to direct resources to where
settlements were occurring. This afforded a rapid
response to population changes, permitting the
Methodists to gather persons into a church, and
move on. When the circuit rider would
revisit--which he did with regularity--he would
preach, as well as conduct weddings. A parallel
development among Baptists was the ease with
which a group of people could gather and call an
articulate brother to serve as pastor. This
person would farm during the week, and preach on
weekends. What these men lacked in education,
they made up in sincerity and earnestness, and
closeness to his flock.
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The Results of the 2nd Great Awakening
The American Revolution established a new context
for the churches, in whichvoluntary patterns for
survival and growth had to be established.
The Rise of revivalism the idea that revivals
could be planned.
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Where the First Great Awakening had been a
spontaneous outpouring, the Second Great
Awakening quickly became one that was promoted
and organized. Techniques that worked were
quickly copied such as the Camp Meeting or
calling sinners in the congregation by their name.
Music and hymns came to be way congregations
learned theology. In an environment where there
were no opportunities for education, few books,
and most did not know how to read, songs could be
easily memorized. This was done through "lining"
in which someone who could read would line out
the song for the other congregants, who would
then repeat it. Hymnody gave people a sense of
theology in which Divine Providence looks after
and cares for human kind. They also reflected the
rising anthropology of the frontier. Where people
once sang "Devote your sacred head for such a
worm as I," the lyrics evolved to "Devote your
sacred head for a wretch such as I," to "Devote
your sacred head for one such as I." With each
change, man's status gets better.
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The Results of the 2nd Great Awakening
The American Revolution established a new context
for the churches, in whichvoluntary patterns for
survival and growth had to be established.
The Rise of revivalism the idea that revivals
could be planned.
The Democratization of Christianity Christian
organizations based upon theindividual. Away
from creeds, confessions. We will see divisions
and the riseof denominations and para-church
organizations.
The Decline of Calvinism it will be replaced by
Arminian Evangelization
The 2nd Great Awakening will delay the dissent
into paganism
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