The Roman Catholic Church: The Great Awakening

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The notion that Man is saved by grace and not by works challenged the core beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, it sparked a great religious movement throughout Britain and the thirteen colonies known as the Great Awakening. The Great Awakening, typically known now as the First Great Awakening began in the 1730s and continues through the 1740s. This movement consisted of church revivals that focused on the people’s relationship with Jesus and not how much power or money they possessed. George Whitefield, a great influencer in the movement, said, “Take care of your life and the Lord will take care of your death.” (1740) This quote embodies the revival movement. The messages preached were encouraging and hopeful to the masses; the preachers …show more content…

The great awakening was caused when the passion for religion had grown stagnant. During this time religion was becoming more rigid and impersonal. Salvation was becoming more dependent on following the rules that were given to them instead of following Jesus. Due to the rigidity of the rules the people were exhausted and tired of the impersonal feeling they were getting in the churches. This led to many Christians’ yearning to get back to their original ways of worship (Great Awakening 2023) Preachers began to alter their messages to focus more on Calvinism. Calvinism was introduced in the 16th century by John Calvin and focused on stressing the importance of faith, scripture, predestination and the grace of God. One of the most famous Preachers was …show more content…

As churches grew so did the influence that women had in the churches. Prior to this movement women didn’t have a voice in the church like the men did. (Kamrath 2018) This meant that the women could not participate in any of the meetings, activities and decision making. By the 1700s the church membership in all denominations was mostly made up of women. The men couldn’t get behind the idea that women had the majority so they continued to push their religious authority. The revivals preached inclusiveness and tolerance and due to increased participation of women and the less formal atmosphere, women were taking on more authority. Some churches started to support women’s activism which meant that the women got more direct church roles including the management of philanthropic groups and the ability to vote of congregational