First Great Awakening - wikipedia First Great Awakening Great Awakening First ( c. 1730 -- 1755 ) Second ( c. 1790 -- 1840 ) Third ( c. 1855 -- 1900 ) Fourth ( c. 1960 -- 1980 ) Part of a series on Calvinism John Calvin Background Christianity St. Augustine The Reformation Five Solas Synod of Dort Theology Theology of John Calvin Covenant theology Lord 's Supper Regulative principle Predestination in Calvinism Documents Institutes of the Christian Religion Geneva Bible Three Forms of Unity Westminster Standards Canons of Dort Second Helvetic Confession Heidelberg catechism Belgic Confession La Rochelle Confession Savoy Declaration 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith First Helvetic Confession Scots Confession Influences Huldrych Zwingli Martin Bucer Peter Martyr Vermigli William Farel Heinrich Bullinger John Calvin John Knox Theodore Beza Francis Turretin Jonathan Edwards Charles Hodge Churches Continental Reformed Presbyterian Congregationalist Reformed Baptist Low church Anglican Peoples Afrikaners Huguenots Pilgrims Puritans Largest groups World Communion of Reformed Churches World Reformed Fellowship International Conference of Reformed Churches North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council Presbyterianism in South Korea List of Reformed denominations Calvinism portal The Great Awakening or First Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival that swept Protestant Europe and British America in the 1730s and 1740s. An evangelical and revitalization movement, it left a permanent impact on American Protestantism. It resulted from powerful preaching that gave listeners a sense of deep personal revelation of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ. The Great Awakening pulled away from ritual, ceremony, sacramentalism, and hierarchy, and made Christianity intensely personal to the average person by fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction and redemption, and by encouraging introspection and a commitment to a new standard of personal morality. The movement was an important social event in New England, which challenged established authority and incited rancor and division between traditionalist Protestants, who insisted on the continuing importance of ritual and doctrine, and the revivalists, who encouraged emotional involvement. It had an impact in reshaping the Congregational church, the Presbyterian church, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the German Reformed denominations, and strengthened the small Baptist and Methodist Anglican denominations. It had little impact on most Anglicans, Lutherans, Quakers, and non-Protestants. Throughout the colonies, especially in the south, the revivalist movement increased the number of African slaves and free blacks who were exposed to and subsequently converted to Christianity. The Second Great Awakening began about 1800 and reached out to the unchurched, whereas the First Great Awakening focused on people who were already church members. 18th - century American Christians added an emphasis on `` outpourings of the Holy Spirit '' to the evangelical imperatives of Reformation Protestantism. Revivals encapsulated those hallmarks and spread the newly created evangelicalism in the early republic. Evangelical preachers `` sought to include every person in conversion, regardless of gender, race, and status. '' Contents 1 International dimension 2 American colonies 3 Prominent leaders 3.1 Jonathan Edwards 3.2 George Whitefield 3.3 Samuel Davies 4 Impact on individuals 5 Schisms and conflict 5.1 Connecticut 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Further reading 8.1 Scholarly studies 8.2 Historiography 8.3 Primary sources 9 External links International dimension The evangelical revival was international in scope, affecting predominantly Protestant countries of Europe. The emotional response of churchgoers marked the start of the English awakening in Bristol and London in 1737, and of the Kingswood colliers ( coal miners ) with white gutters on their cheeks caused by tears in 1739 under the preaching of George Whitefield. Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom sees it as part of a `` great international Protestant upheaval '' that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival and Methodism in England. Revivalism was a critical component of the Great Awakening, and actually began in the 1620s in Scotland among Presbyterians, and featured itinerant preachers. American colonies The idea of a `` great awakening '' has been contested by Butler ( 1982 ) as vague and exaggerated, but it is clear that the period was a time of increased religious activity, particularly in New England. The First Great Awakening led to changes in Americans ' understanding of God, themselves, the world around them, and religion. In the Middle and Southern colonies, especially in the `` back country '' regions, the Awakening was influential among Presbyterians. In the southern Tidewater and Low Country, northern Baptist and Methodist preachers converted both white and black people. Some were enslaved at their time of conversion while others were free. Caucasians began to welcome dark - skinned individuals into their churches, taking their religious experiences seriously, while also admitting them into active roles in congregations as exhorters, deacons, and even preachers, although the last was a rarity. The message of spiritual equality appealed to many slaves, and, as African religious traditions continued to decline in North America, black people accepted Christianity in large numbers for the first time. Evangelist leaders in the southern colonies had to deal with the issue of slavery much more frequently than those in the North. Still, many leaders of the revivals proclaimed that slaveholders should educate their slaves so that they could become literate and be able to read and study the Bible. Many Africans were finally provided with some sort of education. Africans hoped that their newly acquired spiritual equality would translate into earthly equalities. As black people started to make up substantial proportions of congregations, they were given a chance to momentarily forget about their bondage and enjoy a slight sense of freedom. Before the American Revolution, the first black Baptist churches were founded in the South in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia ; two black Baptist churches were founded in Petersburg, Virginia. Prominent leaders Jonathan Edwards Monument in Enfield, Connecticut commemorating the location where Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was preached The revival began with Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards came from Puritan, Calvinist roots, but emphasized the importance and power of immediate, personal religious experience. Religious experience had to be immediate, he taught. He distrusted hierarchy and catechisms. His sermons were `` solemn, with a distinct and careful enunciation, and a slow cadence. '' His sermons were powerful and attracted a large following. Anglican preacher George Whitefield visited from England ; he continued the movement, traveling throughout the colonies and preaching in a more dramatic and emotional style, accepting everyone into his audiences. Both Edwards and Whitefield were slave owners and believed that blacks would acquire absolute equality with whites in the Millennial church. Winiarski ( 2005 ) examines Edwards 's preaching in 1741, especially his famous sermon `` Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. '' At this point, Edwards countenanced the `` noise '' of the Great Awakening, but his approach to revivalism became more moderate and critical in the years immediately following. George Whitefield Main article : George Whitefield The arrival of young Anglican preacher George Whitefield sparked the Great Awakening. Whitefield 's reputation preceded his visit as a great pulpit and open - air orator. He traveled through the colonies in 1739 and 1740. He attracted large and emotional crowds everywhere, eliciting countless conversions as well as considerable controversy. He declared the whole world his `` parish. '' God was merciful, Whitefield proclaimed. Men and women were not predestined to damnation, but could be saved by repenting of their sins. Whitefield mainly spoke about the concept of spiritual `` rebirth '', explaining that men and women could experience a spiritual revival in life that would grant them entrance to the Promised Land. He appealed to the passions of his listeners, powerfully sketching the boundless joy of salvation and the horrors of damnation. Critics condemned his `` enthusiasm '', his censoriousness, and his extemporaneous and itinerant preaching. His techniques were copied by numerous imitators, both lay and clerical. They became itinerant preachers themselves, spreading the Great Awakening from New England to Georgia, among rich and poor, educated and illiterate, and in the back country as well as in seaboard towns and cities. Whitefield 's sermons reiterated an egalitarian message, but only translated into a spiritual equality for Africans in the colonies who mostly remained enslaved. Whitefield was known to criticize slaveholders who treated their slaves cruelly and those who did not educate them, but he had no intention to abolish. He lobbied to have slavery reinstated in Georgia and proceeded to become a slave holder himself. Whitefield shared a common belief held among Evangels that, after conversion, slaves would be granted true equality in Heaven. Despite his stance on slavery, Whitefield became influential to many Africans. Benjamin Franklin became an enthusiastic supporter of him. Franklin was a Deist who rarely attended church, and he did not subscribe to Whitefield 's theology, but he admired him for exhorting people to worship God through good works. He printed Whitefield 's sermons on the front page of his Gazette, devoting 45 issues to Whitefield 's activities. Franklin used the power of his press to spread Whitefield 's fame by publishing all of his sermons and journals. Many of Franklin 's publications between 1739 -- 1741 contained information about Whitefield 's work, and helped promote the evangelical movement in America. Franklin remained a friend and supporter of Whitefield until Whitefield 's death in 1770. Samuel Davies Samuel Davies was a Presbyterian minister who later became the fourth president of Princeton University. He was noted for preaching to African slaves who converted to Christianity in unusually large numbers, and is credited with the first sustained proselytization of slaves in Virginia. Davies wrote a letter in 1757 in which he refers to the religious zeal of an enslaved man whom he had encountered during his journey. `` I am a poor slave, brought into a strange country, where I never expect to enjoy my liberty. While I lived in my own country, I knew nothing of that Jesus I have heard you speak so much about. I lived quite careless what will become of me when I die ; but I now see such a life will never do, and I come to you, Sir, that you may tell me some good things, concerning Jesus Christ, and my Duty to GOD, for I am resolved not to live any more as I have done. '' Davies became accustomed to hearing such excitement from many blacks who were exposed to the revivals. He believed that blacks could attain knowledge equal to whites if given an adequate education, and he promoted the importance for slaveholders to permit their slaves to become literate so that they could become more familiar with the instructions of the Bible. Impact on individuals Part of a series on the History of Christian theology Background Theology Early Christianity Timeline History of Christianity Ecclesiastical polity Trinitarianism Nontrinitarianism Restorationism Christology Mariology Biblical canon Deuterocanonical books Ecumenical Creeds Apostles ' Nicene Chalcedonian Athanasian Patristics and Councils Church Fathers Augustine Nicaea Ephesus Chalcedon Post-Nicene development Heresy Monophysitism Monothelitism Iconoclasm Gregory I Alcuin Photios East -- West Schism Scholasticism Aquinas Anselm Palamas Reformation Reformation Luther Melanchthon Indulgences Justification Five solae 95 Theses Book of Concord Predestination Calvinism Arminianism English Reformation Counter-Reformation Trent Since the Reformation Pietism John Wesley Great Awakenings Holiness movement Restoration Movement Existentialism Liberalism Modernism in the Catholic Church Postmodernism Vatican II Radical Orthodoxy Hermeneutics Liberation theology Christian anarchism Christianity portal The new style sermons and the way in which people practiced their faith breathed new life into religion in America. Participants became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner. Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called `` new lights '', while the preachers who remained unemotional were referred to as `` old lights ''. People affected by the revival began to study the Bible at home. This effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious matters and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation. The Awakening played a major role in the lives of women, though they were rarely allowed to preach or take leadership roles. A deep sense of religious enthusiasm encouraged women, especially to analyze their feelings, share them with other women, and write about them. They became more independent in their decisions, as in the choice of a husband. This introspection led many women to keep diaries or write memoirs. The autobiography of Hannah Heaton ( 1721 -- 94 ), a farm wife of North Haven, Connecticut, tells of her experiences in the Great Awakening, her encounters with Satan, her intellectual and spiritual development, and daily life on the farm. Phillis Wheatley was the first published black female poet, and she was converted to Christianity as a child after she was brought to America. Her beliefs were overt in her works ; she describes the journey of being taken from a Pagan land to be exposed to Christianity in the colonies in a poem entitled `` On Being Brought from Africa to America. '' Wheatley became so influenced by the revivals and especially George Whitefield that she dedicated a poem to him after his death in which she referred to him as an `` Impartial Saviour. '' Sarah Osborn adds another layer to the role of women during the Awakening. She was a Rhode Island schoolteacher, and her writings offer a fascinating glimpse into the spiritual and cultural upheaval of the time period, including a 1743 memoir, various diaries and letters, and her anonymously published The Nature, Certainty and Evidence of True Christianity ( 1753 ). The emotionality of the revivals appealed to many Africans and African leaders started to emerge from the revivals soon after they converted in substantial numbers. These figures paved the way for the establishment of the first black congregations and churches in the American colonies. The newly incorporated town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts saw the first new Congregational church congregation and worship building in Massachusetts in the Great Awakening period of 1730 -- 60. It was headed by Pastor Rev. Nathan Webb, a native of Braintree, who remained in the ministry in Uxbridge for the next 41 years. His student Samuel Spring served as a chaplain in the American Revolutionary War, and started the Andover Seminary and the Massachusetts Missionary Society. Schisms and conflict The Calvinist denominations were especially affected. For example, Congregational churches in New England experienced 98 schisms, which in Connecticut also had impact on which group would be considered `` official '' for tax purposes. These splits were between the New Lights ( those who were influenced by the Great Awakening ) and the Old Lights ( those who were more traditional ). It is estimated in New England that in the churches there were about 1 / 3 each of New Lights, Old Lights, and those who saw both sides as valid. Connecticut In Connecticut, the Saybrook Platform of 1708 marked a conservative counter-revolution against a non-conformist tide which had begun with the Halfway Covenant and culminated in the Great Awakening in the 1740s. The Great Awakening bitterly divided Congregationalists between the `` New Lights '' or `` Arminians '' who welcomed the revivals, and the `` Old Lights '' or `` Calvinists '' who used governmental authority to suppress revivals. The Arminians believed that every person could be saved by experiencing a religious conversion and one of the revivals, while the Calvinists held that everyone 's fate was a matter of predestination, and revivals were a false religion. The legislature was controlled by the Old Lights who passed an `` Act for regulating abuses and correcting disorder in ecclesiastical affairs '' in 1742 that sharply restricted ministers from leading revivals. Another law was passed to prevent the opening of a New Light seminary. Numerous New Light evangelicals were imprisoned or fined. The New Lights responded by their own political organization, fighting it out town by town. The religious issues declined somewhat after 1748, although the New Light versus Old Light factionalism spilled into other issues, such as disputes over currency and Imperial issues. However, the divisions involved did not play a role in the coming of the American Revolution, which both sides supported. See also American philosophy Second Great Awakening Christian revival Notes Jump up ^ Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening : The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America ( 2009 ) Jump up ^ Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People ( 1972 ) pp 280 -- 330. Jump up ^ `` Slavery and African American Religion. '' American Eras. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. ( April 10, 2014 ). Jump up ^ Harry Stout, The Divine Dramatist : George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism ( 1991 ) Jump up ^ Alan Taylor, American Colonies ( 2001 ), p. 354. Jump up ^ Gillies, John. `` Memoirs of George Whitefield ''. Hunt & Co., 1841, pp. 38 -- 39. Jump up ^ Ahlstrom p. 263. Jump up ^ Kee, Howard C ( 1998 ), Christianity : A Social and Cultural History, et al ( 2nd ed. ), Upper Saddle River, NJ : Prentice Hall, p. 412. Jump up ^ Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening : A Brief History with Documents ( 2008 ), p. 19. Jump up ^ Lambert, Frank. `` I Saw the Book Talk '' : Slave Readings of the First Great Awakening. '' The Journal of African American History, Vol. 87, The Past before US ( Winter, 2002 ) pp. 12 -- 25. Jump up ^ Butler, Jon. Awash in a Sea of Faith : Christianizing the American People. ( Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1990 ). Jump up ^ Brooks, Walter Henderson. The Silver Bluff Church : A History of Negro Baptist Churches in America. Electronic Edition. Documenting the American South. PRESS OF RL PENDLETON : WASHINGTON DC, 1910. Jump up ^ See Holly Reed, `` Jonathan Edwards ( 1703 -- 1758 ) '' ( 2004 ) online Jump up ^ Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening, ( New Haven & London : Yale University Press, 2007 ). Jump up ^ Winiarski, Douglas L. ( 2005 ). `` Jonathan Edwards, enthusiast ? Radical revivalism and the Great Awakening in the Connecticut Valley ''. Church History. 74 ( 4 ) : 683 -- 739. doi : 10.1017 / s0009640700100861. Jump up ^ Whitefield, George. To the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina ( Philadelphia : 1740 ) ; quoted in Thomas S. Kidd. The Great Awakening : A Brief History with Documents. ( Boston : Bedford / St. Martin 's, 2008 ) 112 -- 115. Jump up ^ Thomas S. Kidd, The Great Awakening, ( New Haven & London : Yale University Press, 2007 ) p. 217. Jump up ^ Walter Isaacson, Benjamim Franklin, An American Life ( 2003 ) p. 110 Jump up ^ Isaacson pp. 107 -- 13 Jump up ^ Presidents of Princeton from princeton.edu. Retrieved April 8, 2012. Jump up ^ `` Samuel Davies and the Transatlantic Campaign for Slave Literacy in Virginia, '' an abridged version of Jeffrey H. Richards ' article. from historicpolegreen.org. Retrieved April 8, 2012. Jump up ^ Letters from the Reverend Samuel Davies ( London, 1757 ), p. 19. Jump up ^ Lambert, Frank. `` ' I Saw the Book Talk ' : Slave Readings of the First Great Awakening. '' The Journal of African American History, Vol. 87, The Past before US ( Winter, 2002 ) p. 14. Jump up ^ Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers & Pilgrims : Female Preaching in America, 1740 -- 1845 ( 1998 ) Jump up ^ Glenna Matthews ( 2010 ). The Rise of Public Woman : Woman 's Power and Woman 's Place in the United States, 1630 - 1970. Oxford UP. p. 38. Jump up ^ Barbara E. Lacey, `` The World of Hannah Heaton : The Autobiography of an Eighteenth - Century Connecticut Farm Woman, '' William and Mary Quarterly ( 1988 ) 45 # 2 pp 280 -- 304 in JSTOR Jump up ^ Wheatley, Phillis. `` On Being Brought From Africa to America. '' ( London : 1773 ). Poems By Phillis Wheatley. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Wheatley/phil.htm. Jump up ^ Wheatley, Phillis. `` An Elegiac Poem On the Death of that celebrated Divine, and eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned Mr. George Whitefield. ( London : 1773 ). Massachusetts Historical Society. Jump up ^ Brekus, Catherine A. Sarah Osborn 's World : The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America. ( New Haven : Yale University Press, 2013 ). Jump up ^ Balmer, Randall, Jon Butler, and Grant Wacker. Religion in American Life : A Short History. ( New York : Oxford University Press, 2003 ) pp. 112 -- 113. Jump up ^ Clarke, Joseph S, DD ( 1858 ). A Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches in Massachusetts, from 1620 to 1858. Boston ( Digitixczed by Google books ) : Congregational Board of Publication. p. 148. Jump up ^ Howard C. Kee, et al., 415 Jump up ^ Howard C. Kee, et al., 416 Jump up ^ Patricia U. Bonomi ( 1986 ). Under the Cope of Heaven : Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America. Oxford University Press. pp. 162 -- 68. ISBN 9780199729111. Further reading Scholarly studies Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People ( 1972 ) ( ISBN 0 - 385 - 11164 - 9 ) Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven : Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America Oxford University Press, 1988 Bumsted, J.M. `` What Must I Do to Be Saved ? '' : The Great Awakening in Colonial America 1976, Thomson Publishing, ISBN 0 - 03 - 086651 - 0. Butler, Jon. Awash in a Sea of Faith : Christianizing the American People. 1990. Choiński, Michał. The Rhetoric of the Revival : The Language of the Great Awakening Preachers. 2016, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ISBN 978 - 3 - 525 - 56023 - 5. Conforti, Joseph A. Jonathan Edwards, Religious Tradition and American Culture University of North Carolina Press. 1995. Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening : Religion and the Shaping of Native Cultures in Early America Oxford University Press, 2012. Gaustad, Edwin S. The Great Awakening in New England ( 1957 ) Gaustad, Edwin S. `` The Theological Effects of the Great Awakening in New England, '' The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 4. ( Mar., 1954 ), pp. 681 -- 706. in JSTOR Goen, C.C. Revivalism and Separatism in New England, 1740 -- 1800 : Strict Congregationalists and Separate Baptists in the Great Awakening 1987, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0 - 8195 - 6133 - 9. Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity 1989. Heimert, Alan. Religion and the American Mind : From the Great Awakening to the Revolution ( 1966 ) Isaac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740 -- 1790 1982, emphasis on Baptists Kidd, Thomas S. The Great Awakening : The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America ( 2009 ) ISBN 0 - 300 - 15846 - 7. Kidd, Thomas S. God of Liberty : A Religious History of the American Revolution ( 2010 ). Lambert, Frank. Pedlar in Divinity : George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals ; ( 1994 ) Lambert, Frank. `` The First Great Awakening : Whose interpretive fiction ? '' The New England Quarterly, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 650, 1995 Lambert, Frank. Inventing the `` Great Awakening '' ( 1998 ). McLoughlin, William G. Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform : An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607 -- 1977 ( 1978 ). Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Holy Fairs : Scotland and the Making of American Revivalism ( 2001 ) Schmotter, James W. `` The Irony of Clerical Professionalism : New England 's Congregational Ministers and the Great Awakening '', American Quarterly, 31 ( 1979 ), a statistical study in JSTOR Smith, John Howard. The First Great Awakening : Redefining Religion in British America, 1725 - 1775 ( 2015 ) 345 pp. Smith, Lisa. The First Great Awakening in Colonial American Newspapers : A Shifting Story ( 2012 ) Stout, Harry. The Divine Dramatist : George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism ( 1991 ) Winiarski, Douglas L. Darkness Falls on the Land of Light : Experiencing Religious Awakenings in Eighteenth - Century New England ( U of North Carolina Press, 2017 ). xxiv, 607 pp. Historiography Butler, Jon. `` Enthusiasm Described and Decried : The Great Awakening as Interpretative Fiction. '' Journal of American History 69 ( 1982 ) : 305 -- 25. in JSTOR Goff, Philip. `` Revivals and Revolution : Historiographic Turns since Alan Heimert 's Religion and the American Mind. '' Church History 1998 67 ( 4 ) : 695 -- 721. ISSN 0009 - 6407 full text online McLoughlin, William G. `` Essay Review : the American Revolution as a Religious Revival : ' The Millennium in One Country. ' '' New England Quarterly 1967 40 ( 1 ) : 99 -- 110. Jstor Primary sources Jonathan Edwards, ( C. Goen, editor ) The Great - Awakening : A Faithful Narrative Collected contemporary comments and letters ; 1972, Yale University Press, ISBN 0 - 300 - 01437 - 6. Alan Heimert and Perry Miller ed. ; The Great Awakening : Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences 1967 Davies, Samuel. Sermons on Important Subjects. Edited by Albert Barnes. 3 vols. 1845. reprint 1967 Gillies, John. Memoirs of Rev. George Whitefield. New Haven, CN : Whitmore and Buckingham, and H. Mansfield, 1834. Jarratt, Devereux. The Life of the Reverend Devereux Jarratt. Religion in America, ed. Edwin S. Gaustad. New York, Arno, 1969. Whitefield, George. George Whitefield 's Journals. Edited by Iain Murray. London : Banner of Truth Trust, 1960. Whitefield, George. Letters of George Whitefield. Edited by S.M. Houghton. Edinburgh, UK : Banner of Truth Trust, 1976. External links Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Great Awakening. Lesson plan on First Great Awakening The Great Awakening Comes to Weathersfield, Connecticut : Nathan Cole 's Spiritual Travels `` I Believe It Is Because I Am a Poor Indian '' : Samsom Occom 's Life as an Indian Minister `` The Joseph Bellamy House : The Great Awakening in Puritan New England '', a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places ( TwHP ) lesson plan Edwards, `` Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God '' text History of Christianity Centuries : 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st Ministry of Jesus and Apostolic Age Jesus Ministry Crucifixion Resurrection Holy Spirit Leadership Apostles Seventy disciples Paul the Apostle Council of Jerusalem Great Commission New Testament Background Gospels Acts Pauline epistles General epistles Revelation Ante - Nicene Period Judaism split Justin Martyr Ignatius Persecution Fathers Irenaeus Marcionism Canon Tertullian Montanism Origen Late ancient Constantine Monasticism Councils : Nicaea I Creed Athanasius Arianism Jerome Augustine Constantinople I Ephesus I Chalcedon Eastern Christianity Eastern Orthodoxy Church of the East Oriental Orthodoxy Chrysostom Nestorianism Iconoclasm Great Schism Fall of Constantinople Armenia Georgia Greece Egypt Syria Ethiopia Bulgaria Ottoman Empire Russia America Middle Ages Pelagianism Gregory I Celtic Germanic Scandinavian Kievan Rus ' Investiture Anselm Abelard Bernard of Clairvaux Bogomils Cathars Crusades Waldensians Inquisition Scholasticism Dominic Francis Bonaventure Aquinas Wycliffe Avignon Papal Schism Bohemian Reformation Hus Conciliarism Catholicism Primacy development Papacy Timeline Lateran IV Trent Counter-Reformation Thomas More Leo X Guadalupe Jesuits Jansenists Xavier Monastery dissolution Wars Teresa Vatican I and II Modernism Reformation Protestantism Erasmus Five solae Eucharist Calvinist -- Arminian debate Arminianism Dort Wars Lutheranism Martin Luther 95 Theses Diet of Worms Melanchthon Orthodoxy Eucharist Book of Concord Calvinism Zwingli Calvin Presbyterianism Scotland Knox TULIP Dort Three Forms of Unity Westminster Anglicanism Timeline Henry VIII Cranmer Settlement 39 Articles Common Prayer Puritans Civil War Anabaptism Radical Reformation Grebel Swiss Brethren Müntzer Martyrs ' Synod Menno Simons Smyth 1640 -- 1789 Revivalism English denominations Baptists Congregationalism First Great Awakening Methodism Millerism Pietism Neo - and Old Lutherans 1789 -- present Camp meeting Holiness movement Independent Catholic denominations Second Great Awakening Restoration Movement Jehovah 's Witnesses Mormonism Seventh - day Adventist Adventism Third Great Awakening Azusa Revival Fundamentalism Ecumenism Evangelicalism Jesus movement Mainline Protestant Pentecostalism Charismatics Liberation theology Christian right Christian left Genocide by ISIL Timeline Missions Timeline Martyrs Theology Eastern Orthodoxy Oriental Orthodoxy Protestantism Catholicism Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_Great_Awakening&oldid=816051377 '' Categories : History of the Thirteen Colonies History of Christianity in the United States Christian revivals Christian terminology 18th - century Protestantism Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July 2016 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Español Italiano Latina Nederlands 日本 語 Português Русский Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 18 December 2017, at 23 : 01. 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Question: what was a key belief of the great awakening
Answer: a sense of deep personal revelation of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ