Great Awakening Tenets

Central Tenets of the Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening was designed in such a way that it provided a deeper conviction among believers and non-believers. Primarily, the Second Awakening was designed to restore individuals who had previously believed in God, but had digressed from the course of faith for some reason. A plethora of revival meetings were held during this period to assist individuals to make up their mind and mend their ways to return to God. These groups organized prayers to assist the church to seek God fervently. Moreover, the Great Awakening rekindled the need to increase the number of missionary societies to participate in the spread of the Gospel.

The second central tenet of the Second Great Awakening was

Frances Trollope was highly critical of the Second Great Awakening and went ahead to term the female participants as poor maniacs. Primarily, Trollope was concerned with the manner in which women exhibited a range of, “Convulsive movements of their limbs… indescribable confusion of heads and legs [and throwing] their limbs with such incessant and violent motion … that [he] expected some serious accident to occur”. Contrariwise, Charles Grandison Finney would describe this behavior as revival or a strong and genuine conviction of sin. Particularly, the women in that time played a central role in the revival meeting by exhibiting a heightened level of emotional connection coupled with a deep sense of humility. The strong emotional connection among the women created a rich aura for the emergence of revolutionist. The glim opportunity given to some women to minister the word of God upon strong conviction of the Spirit of God paved way for the emergence of additional voices of liberation. Authors like Emery and Abbott played a critical role in the establishment of a political foundation. These two women assert that untiring sisters had worked with great sighs and groaning as they sought emancipation in Boston from what would be described as a deathlike struggle. These women utilized the same evangelical tactics employed by their ministers. For instance, the women used an emotional appeal to pass their

Predominantly, men were socially accepted as the strongest of the tow genders. The rise of these women in movement created an obscene aura that men were unwilling to accept. Basically, men were uncomfortable being lectured by a woman. When the women were trying to evangelize and talk to men about the Gospel, men were willing to listen because they perceived the message to be an inspiration from God. However, a change in tone and message of these women became a bitter pill that men and most women were unwilling to swallow. Men could not stand to be lectured by a woman. After all, the woman’s place at that time was below a man and thus, every word uttered should be carefully examined. Additionally, men were used to be bosses and the ones giving lectures and directives to women. Men were like lords while women were their slaves. Consequently, the participation of women in these movements was actually going against the social provisions and men were unwilling to bend to that direction, thereby creating a controversy. Furthermore, men were prospering from the growth of urban areas, alcohol consumption, gambling, prostitution, and violence. All these vices were being used by men to show their dominance over women since the latter was always at a disadvantage.