The First Great Awakening

In this episode, we discuss America's First Great Awakening--the moral and religious revival that plunged America into a new era of passionate moral reform that ended in a revolutionary against what Americans believed to be an unjust tyrant king.

The Great Awakening was the first of many eras of American moral reform. It began when a young English preached named George Whitefield came to tour the American colonies bringing a new passionate and emotion brand of religion. Whitefield would preach outdoors as he would shake and cry as his booming voice carried over crowds that reached the tens of thousands. He would preach a new sort of religion that emphasized a social-leveling message that everyone could have a personal relationship with God outside the clergy, and that everyone no matter your station had the chance to be redeemed. It was a subversive message in an era of aristocracy and established churches drawing authority from a hereditary king.

Whitefield's tour made him an American celebrity, and created deep friendships with American luminaries like Benjamin Franklin.

In Whitefield's wake followed an army of similar preachers carrying a similar message. Americans would now refill the churches and throw themselves into campaigns for good works. Most important, they would challenge the authority of established churches and bishops in the belief that everyone was equal before God. Whitefield's tour would launch a great religious revival that burned for decades, up to the eve of the American Revolution.

The Great Awakening was more than just a Christian religious revival. It was a national moral revival that would spread ideas of equality and a new zeal for campaigns for moral reform.

Nor was the Great Awakening unique. About fifty years later, it would happen again as a new moral and religious revival started to burn across America drawing Americans into a zealous campaign for more moral reforms like temperance and the abolition of slavery creating a Second Great Awakening.

Check out the book: https://www.amazon.com/Next-Realignment-Americas-Parties-Crumbling/dp/1633885089
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Видео The First Great Awakening канала Frank DiStefano