Second Great Awakening

Religious Revival in America 19th centuryPicture of a Revival Meeting: Chopped down trees just to sit thereTons of people People with very different dress, fancy top hat to wandering out of the woods “Sacramental Scene in a Western Forest” Using Land for Sacred purpose…to have Christians on every acre of land (Not NA love of the natural world)  Not in the building, outside, outdoor meeting  Moving west What caused the SGA? GodVacuum created from having no state-sponsored Church Voluntarism Denominationalism How was the SGA different from the FGA? Emergence of evangelical organizations and institutionsSocial reform movementsMore widespread travel More physical religious excitement Revivals & Camp Meetings last longer  More entertainment More NRMs emerge  More New Religious Movements emerge

1839: Camp MeetingFalling all over the placeEmphasis on the Audience Does not look as formal as the previous one Significance: Town: Awkward to have a new person walk into Church, because everyone new each other, friends maintaining the status quoThis has less of an exclusive thing to it  Anyone who walks by can come in  Message of acceptance  Can fit many more people Importance of Having an Audience Being outside does not only allow for the inclusivity of the audience but also allows for the individualism of the preachers themselves  Since it is not required to be in a Church, you can be your own preacher, not have a Church, just breach outside, create your own branch if you can be good enough to obtain the audience  Leads to the whole development of the marketplace of religions that still exist today, the ability that you can start your own, American dream People went to thousands of meetings in their lifetime She said Catholics start coming afterwards and that everyone sees them as very undemocratic because of the Pope, and therefore un-American Camp Meeting Plan: (Cain Ridge, KY)25,000 people to Revival 17,000 people live in Lexington, KYHaving a plan illustrates that they are expecting to have a ton of people Note that there are separation of tents between Negroes/Whites  But the Negroes can still be there Comparing Revivals to Theatre  Plan looks like a Theatre  Plays  Performance Acts of FictionLocated on waterways & main roads  Easy to access Fact that there is even a plan is significant because Jonathan Edwards the revivals were “All God”  “Revivals are all God”  And then is showing that there is notAlso were separa

Their objection to taxation in support of the church was two-fold: taxation not only gave the state some right of control over the church; it also represented a way of coercing the non-member or the unbeliever into supporting the church. In New England, where both Massachusetts and Connecticut started out with state churches, many people believed that they needed to pay a tax for the general support of religion - for the same reasons they paid taxes to maintain the roads and the courts. Henry David Thoreau's (1817-1862) first brush with the law in his home state of Massachusetts came in 1838, when he turned twenty-one. The State demanded that he pay the one dollar ministerial tax, in support of a clergyman, "whose preaching my father attended but never I myself." ^[8]

Denominationalism is the division of one religion into separate groups, sects, schools of thought or denominations. Denominationalism as an ideology which views some or all Christian groups as being, in some sense, versions of the same thing regardless of their distinguishing labels, is not accepted by all Christian churchesProtestant Denominations: Churches of Christ, Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh-Day Adventist

Lorenzo Dow (1777 – 1834)Methodist PreacherLed the Jerking exercise Picture of him What do you see on their faces? Looks of shock, seems like telling Ghost stories…Huge emotional excitement  How do you know they have a relationship with God?

Charles Grandison Finney (August 29, 1792 – August 16, 1875) was aPresbyterian and Congregationalistminister who became an important figure in the Second Great Awakening. His influence during this period was enough that he has been called "The Father of ModernRevivalism".^[1]Finney was known for his innovations in preaching and religious meetings, such as having women pray in public meetings of mixed gender, development of the "anxious seat" (a place where those considering becoming Christianscould come to receive prayer), and public censure of individuals by name in sermons and prayers.^[2] He was also known for his use ofextemporaneous preaching.

New Measures: (Nevin)Caused by people Praying for people by nameWomen, youth, and African-Americans could pray & give testimonies Meetings lasted several daysAltar call Anxious Bench Emotional PrayersInformal LanguageUsed advertisements & flyersMoral & social action reform efforts would follow from personal salvation Theologically: Not Calvinist, but a belief that people could help themselves to conversion & salvation  Away from Predestination