Position:Home>History> What was the Great Awakening and how did it affect the British colonies?

The Great Awakenings refer to several periods of rapid and dramatic religious revival in Anglo-American religious history, generally recognized as beginning in the 1730s!. The First Great Awakening (referred to by some historians as the Great Awakening) was a period of heightened religious activity, primarily in Great Britain and its North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s!. In New England, the Great Awakening was influential among many Congregationalists; while in the Middle and Southern colonies (especially in the "Backcountry" regions of those colonies) the Awakening was influential among Presbyterians!. Although the idea of a "great awakening" is contested, it is clear that the period was, particularly in New England, a time of increased religious activity!. The revival began with Jonathan Edwards, a well-educated theologian and Congregationalist minister from Northampton, Massachusetts, who came from Puritan and Calvinist roots, but emphasized the importance and power of immediate, personal religious experience!. Edwards was said to be "solemn, with a distinct and careful enunciation, and a slow cadence!." [1] Nevertheless, his sermons were powerful and attracted a large following!. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is his most famous sermon and his essay, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, describes his local experience during the Awakening!. The Methodist preacher George Whitefield, visiting from England, continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone into his audiences!. The first new Congregational church in Massachusetts in the Great Awakening period of 1730–1740, was at the newly incorporated town of Uxbridge and was pastored by the Rev!. Nathan Webb, a native of Braintree!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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