Genre: History; Religion
Published: 2007
My edition: Yale
University Press, paperback
I consider myself an evangelical, though I’d never considered, that at some point, it was a new term, and I’ve heard of The Great Awakening, and could even name two principals figures: George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, but I couldn’t name the dozens more who were involved, nor pinpoint precisely when it occurred.
Thomas S. Kidd’s The Great Awakening sheds light on the two mysterious terms. Indeed the first question he addresses is whether there even was such a thing as The Great Awakening. He saves the conclusion till the end, but yes, there was such an event. It began in the 1730s with ebb and flow throughout most of the remaining 18th century. It was primarily an American-Colonial phenomenon, though it had traces to the old world. As I’ve mentioned, one of its most prominent figures was English itinerant preacher George Whitefield.
Kidd identifies three main camps that shaped the movement:
- Moderate revivalists—the mainstream evangelical core that emphasized order, but accepted some level of fervor or enthusiasm. Whitefield and Edwards were in this camp.
- Radical revivalists—whose meetings were often characterized by chaotic frenzy of the congregation who could simultaneously experience, terror, repentance, joy, evidenced by cries of despair, laughing, singing, fainting, praying, exhorting, and seeing visions.
- Anti-revivalists who staunchly opposed the movement, and its challenge to convention and authority.
Kidd portrays all in the historical context, without making heroes or villains.
The tenets of this new brand of Protestant Christianity—evangelicalism—include emphasis on personal conversion, or new birth, the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit in conversion, assurance of salvation, and a spiritual equality before God of converts, which in this American story included women, children, African-American slaves and free, and native-Americans.
Kidd concludes The Great Awakening was a real historical event. He also offers his own view, which I think may be the popular opinion, that this period, 1730s to 1780s or 90s, is the FIRST Great Awakening, but that there is only an ambiguous break between the First and Second Awakening—and probably continuing with the third as well.
Finally, Kidd addresses the Awakening’s relationship to the American Revolution. He sees real cultural and rhetorical connections—ideas of liberty, resistance to tyranny, and individual conscience—without asserting direct cause and effect. He cites numerous examples of moderates, radicals, and anti-revivalists in both the patriot and loyalist causes.
I felt the title and subtitle were reversed from the emphasis that I inferred. It seems more about the genesis of evangelicalism in America as it was shaped by the widespread, phenomenal spiritual experiences, known as The Great Awakening. Either way, it was not quite what I was expecting—a Christian perspective celebration. The book is much more historical and documentary. I thought it was very thorough and enlightening.
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