The Great Awakening

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From the time of the European arrival to the middle of the 18th century there were many different periods of what was more important, especially in terms of politics and culture. For example, culturally/religiously speaking, the things that were acceptable fluctuated drastically. It went from being acceptable to be different, to having to be catholic, to having to be Christian, the being religiously tolerant, to being shamed as a puritan, and so forth. The political and religious ideology that was acceptable fluctuated from the arrival in Jamestown to the mid-18th century. One major example of cultural and political change is the enlightenment. During the early to mid-eighteenth century the new world went through an era known as the enlightenment. …show more content…
The Great Awakening was a time right after the enlightenment and a time of empiricism where people were rediscovering God and religion. It was a series of highly emotional revivals of religion. During this time people were actively going out and informing people about Christianity. Ministers would go out and teach the ways of God, and a good example of that is George Whitefield. George Whitefield was an Anglican minister who would travel throughout all of the colonies and preach about God. He preached about human sin and how to be forgiven by the grace of God. This led to a cultural change from the enlightenment when people were starting to state their beliefs against religion, to a time when questioning or religious dissent was extremely discouraged. A good change politically about the Great Awakening was that it gave those who were less educated the chance to learn about God and his merit. Because of this revival and the fact that so many ministers/preachers were going out to spread God’s way it gave those who were less educated and/or poor a chance to understand and ask for God’s forgiveness. Especially ever since the enlightenment when people began to come out with more religious denominations, this gave Christianity the chance to become the more prevalent religion in the colonies again. However, the one thing that didn’t change