Chapter 4 review

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Arts Humanities

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Dec 6, 2023

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Hello fellow students and professor, How did the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening offer opposing outlooks to British Americans? According to the text “ the Great Awakening promoted a fervent, emotional religiosity”. This was mostly a religious movement. This movement promoted the experiencing of faith as more than reading the scriptures. This was the beginning of Evangelicalism. “New light” preachers would often preach in the streets or in fields as the “old light” preachers would not allow them to use the churches. The new light preachers spoke of individuals having the power to bring about their own salvation through belief. Those not on top of the social order found this very appealing as their own salvation was within their own power, a new and welcome idea for women at the time. Sometimes these New Light preachers would go a little too far. For instance, in 1743, James Davenport, a New Light minister, encouraged his follower to burn books. That is bad enough by today’s standards, but he went on to encourage them to burn their clothes to symbolize rejecting sinful worldly possessions. When he took off his own pants to throw them in the flames, he was informed that he had overextended his metaphor. According to the text “the Enlightenment encouraged the pursuit of reason in all things”. This was more of an intellectual and cultural movement. It sought to replace superstition and blind faith with reason and science. This was a time of new ideas and questioning of accepted knowledge. Ideas of religious tolerance were spreading as well as the idea that one should strive to think with reason and not prejudice. This movement is thought to be a “major turning point in the west” as the text puts it. What similarities were there between the two schools of thought? I see a couple similarities between The First Great Awakening and The Enlightenment. Firstly, both movements sought to end the old ways. The times of believing whatever the Catholic Church told people were left behind for good. Secondly, both movements promoted individualism to an extent. The Great Awakening promoted an individual religious experience. The Enlightenment encouraged people to use their own reason and logic. Whereas before, the Church was to do all the “thinking” while the people were to trust and obey. I think a blending of these two movements can be seen in the religion the text mentions that Benjamin Franklin followed. Deism was the “ belief in a God who created, but has no continuing involvement in, the world and the events within it”. While still believing in a higher power, deism put the responsibility for morality upon the individual. It does not attribute a mysterious power for miracles. It looks to use reason to find the scientific cause for everything. In conclusion, The Great Awakening and The Enlightenment were movements in the 18th century. They were very different in many ways, and yet, similar too. Both were essential to the creation of the modern world as we know it with regards to religion and science.

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