Religious Worship In The Great Awakening

Religious Renovations

A Revival of Worship in The Great Awakening

Throughout a great deal of history, humankind has often been guided by religious beliefs and religious convictions. At times, it has afforded a profound level of cultural progress, but it has also served as one of the most destructive forces possible, inciting long-lasting wars, instigating ethnic cleansing, and insurrecting culturally biased behaviors. Well into “middle age” for the current life span of an American male, my brother and I were not raised with a lick of religion in our household. That is not to say that my parents did not “believe” in a higher power; however, we were never told or t that any one particular religion or faith was better than another… we were

At the core of the Great Awakening, many colonists were likely drawn to the experience in general, based in part to the fact that Colonial America was a land of extreme flux during the early 18th century. As it has been noted by some historians, the people of this time were likely feeling lost and the rigmarole of traditional worship was affording them very little “spiritual reward”, so to speak. As it would appear to this writer, it would seem that though religious worship had remained an important part of colonial society, it had become stagnant for many and they were simply going through the motions. As to how this relates to religion and the messages being passed down to congregations, the message itself challenged people to look into themselves as a means of salvation and men like George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Reverend John Fish centered their revivals around this fact. What was more profound was the fact that their messages went far beyond reaching just white, Europeans colonists; their powerful words and new form of religious preaching touched Africans and Indians as well. This is just one of the reasons why the Great Awakening moved across much of Colonial

When one takes this single component under consideration, it is hard to see how the revivals performed by men like Whitefield, Edwards, and Fish were all that different from the typical religious sermons of localized ministers. That being said, the key to the success of the Great Awakening had two additional components present and the first of those was the delivery method used to convey their religious messages. A perfect way to see this might be to consider a comparison to something more modern like the television and while this comparison might seem strange, please bear with me. For a moment, imagine you have no idea what a television is and find yourself placed in a room with 3 rectangular objects sized small to large, from left to right. The first and smallest of these rectangular objects “springs to life” and your eyes take in images rendered in various shades of black, white, and gray. This would almost seem like one of the most wondrous things you’ve ever encountered and the “novelty” of it would certainly be appreciated and likely viewed in awe. A few minutes later, though, the middle rectangular shape suddenly comes to life; in much the same way, images appear but instead of gray scaled imagery, your eyes take in an array of colors, albeit not quite “lifelike”. One can