The Second Great Awakening

 The Second Great Awakening

By Jake Kohl

     The Second Great Awakening was the second awakening that occurred in the United States during the early nineteenth century.  The Second Great Awakening “triggered a nationwide campaign to transform American law and politics through the lens of evangelical Christianity.”[1] This Great Awakening was a profound movement that involved camp meetings similar to tent revivals many are accustomed too and know today. These camp meetings involved high emotional response to salvation of all who attended, which resulted in a staggering outpouring of increased emotions in worship services. The Second Great Awakening caused an increase in the Baptist and Methodist denominations in incredible numbers and from there, other denominations branched out causing an explosion in the lives of individuals as well as political reform. 

     The Second Great Awakening began in the nineteenth century around 1790 and lasted until 1840. There was not one just cause that contributed to this movement, but many that led up to the start of it. In the late eighteenth century, violence from the French Revolution, bitterness in the social arena and political divisions was in part the reason the Second Great Awakening took off – a response to secularization.[2] The threat of a secular society without God caused fear in many. “Under libertarian influence of the Revolutionary age, individual Christians insisted that the Bible and the Bible only, free from traditional interpretations, was the standard for organizing churches.”[3] The organization of churches was not the only issue that was in the spotlight. “Revivalists emphasized not only that God wished to save the souls of those who repented of their sins, but also that a special divine blessing had been placed upon America.”[4] The fear of a nation without God was heavy on the hearts of many. Atheism was the norm and Christians felt conviction on a rapid change. 

     The Second Great Awakening was first found in small towns in New England in the 1790s, but on August 06, 1801 in Cane Ridge Kentucky, a meeting dominated the American vision of evangelical revivalism.[5] During this meeting, “ministers of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist Churches all came together and cooperated in a common, nonsectarian effort.”[6] During this meeting, these ministers began a revival in which many were saved. It is said that “the gathering was a scene of milling crowds and immense confusion. Everyone walked about, assembled in small groups, and listened to ministers shouting at them simultaneously from several preaching platforms.”[7] What was interesting about the meeting and those who attended was that, as one historian had described – there were huge “crowds of hardened frontier farmers, tobacco-chewing, tough-spoken, notoriously profane,” surrounded by “their scarcely demure wives and large broods of children”[8] who were “… passed rapidly through stages of guilt, despair, hope, and finally assurance of the forgiveness of their sins.”[9] “Cane Ridge became the symbol of tremendous religious changes occurring in the United States.”[10] “Revivals broke out throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and southern Ohio, and thousands of previously unchurched settlers were incorporated into Protestant denominations.”[11]

     This style of preaching forced psychological stress on those who were wavering, to respond immediately which caused “outbursts of religious emotion that[12] punctuated the affair: people sobbing, screaming, dancing, and jerking their limbs spasmodically.”[13] Charles Grandison Finney, born on August 29, 1792 in Warren, Connecticut and deemed a leader of the Second Great Awakening,[14] expounded on the emotional response that was seen during the Second Great Awakening. Finney also advocated for “democracy, abolition of slavery, temperance, education, and eschewing of luxury and fashionable display.”[15]

     Charles Finney raised and educated in upstate New York and an attorney in Adams New York had an intense experience of religious experience in which caused him to converge and to prepare for ministry under a local Presbyterian pastor.[16] Finney then held revival meetings from Willington to Boston, including New York City.[17] His Lectures on Revival (1835), Finney states that a revival “is the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the awakening and conversion of sinners to God.”[18] In his work, his Lectures on Revival is genuinely a compiled lectures on how to. While emotionalism was the norm throughout the camp meetings during the Second Great Awakening, Finney advocated for refrained emotionalism. In Finney’s “New Heart” sermon, he pointed out emotional restraint by stating, “You cannot change your heart by an attempt to force yourself into a certain state of feeling.”[19] Finney established a large and devoted following which included all social classes by leading revivals and combining emotional appeals with lawyerly logic.[20]

     With his role in the Second Great Awakening, the Baptist and Methodist churches began to grow rapidly. Ministers adopted Finney’s theology and began preaching urgency in salvation. This, mixed with emotion created a stir in the hearts of those who listened and the revival took off with an increase in church attendance. According to Noll (1992), “The protestant churches that flourished most decisively in the first half of the nineteenth century were the Baptists and the Methodists, the two bodies that succeeded in joining most efficiently a democratic appeal with effective leadership.”[21] It is interestingly to note, that in 1776 Baptists and Methodists made up 19.4% of Christians in America, and in 1850 they comprised 54.7% of Christians in America – a 35.3% increase within 74 years.[22]

      Finney later moved to Oberlin in Ohio and became president of Oberlin College from 1851 to 1856.[23] “Besides Lectures on Revivals, Finney's most important writings were Lectures on Systematic Theology (1846), which reflects the modifications he made of traditional Calvinist orthodoxy, and his informative Memoirs, published the year after he died. Although he resigned his pastorate at the church in Oberlin in 1872, Finney remained active as a lecturer at the college until shortly before his death on August 16, 1875.”[24]

     The Second Great Awakening was an era of change – a change from a society that was becoming less of God and more secular in beliefs and lifestyle. Christians were able to discern the wayward shifts and thus, the movement was born. The Second Great Awakening started in New England and shifted to the United States – in particular, Kentucky, Tennessee and Southern Ohio. Revival broke out in Cane Ridge Kentucky which shifted change in both the lives and political arena. Charles Finney had a huge impact on both American religion and American government in which he had a tremendous amount of support from all social walks of lives. After his death; many stepped up to carry on his theology and push the zeal he established throughout the Second Great Awakening. America was in a moral decline and because of the actions of many; this decline was shifted towards a Christian nation. “As French commentator Alexis de Tocqueville remarked in 1835 after visiting America, religion was certainly “the foremost of the political institutions” of the United States.”[25]  

     Today, many still consider The United States a nation founded on the principles of God – many still call this land a Christian nation. However, the moral decline is rapidly being seen as it was prior to the Second Great Awakening. Revivals still occur today, but the impact as it was seen in the early nineteenth century is not comparable in the least bit. A comparable figure today to Charles Finney is none other than Billy Graham. The charismatic attitudes between the two are similar in nature. They both preached by way of “meetings” and salvation is brought to the front lines as if there were no tomorrow. If there is any hope in America today, there must be another awakening. There must be an awakening that not only lights the fire in one particular area, but throughout our land, both individually and politically!

Bibliography

 Finney, Charles G. Lectures on Revivals of Religion. New York: F.H. Revell, 1868.

Johnson, Paul E., A Shopkeeper’s Millennium: Society and Revivals in Rochester, New York, 1515-1837, at 9 (1978). See generally Abzug, supra note 14, at 5-6; Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People 474-75 (1972) Retrieved from http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol26/iss4/10

McIntire, C.T., "Evangelical dictionary of theology." Finney, Charles Grandison”., Edited by Walter A. Elwell,  Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Publishing Group, 2011. Print

McLoughlin, William Gerald. 1959. Modern revivalism: Charles grandison finney to billy graham. New York: Ronald Press Co

Mcguire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875)." What Happened?: An Encyclopedia of Events That Changed America Forever Ed. John E. Findling and Frank W. Thackeray. Vol. 3: The Nineteenth Century. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 17-18. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Sept. 2013.

Noll, Mark A, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1992), 153. Retrieved from Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=VGF3wbzzy9QC&q=153#v=snippet&q=153&f=false

Noll, M.A., "Evangelical dictionary of theology." Great Awakenings”., Edited by Walter A. Elwell,  Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Publishing Group, 2011. Print

S, G H, Jr. "Cane Ridge Revival." Encyclopedia of American Religious History. Edward L. Queen, II, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Facts on File, 2009. 234. Facts on File Library of American History. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1691700087&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

S, G H, Jr. "Finney, Charles Grandison (1792–1875)." Encyclopedia of American Religious History. Edward L. Queen, II, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Facts on File, 2009. 404-406. Facts on File Library of American History. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1691700185&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

S, G H, Jr. "Second Great Awakening." Encyclopedia of American Religious History. Edward L. Queen, II, Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck, Jr. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Facts on File, 2009. 899-902. Facts on File Library of American History. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1691700467&v=2.1&u=vic_liberty&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

Stone, Geoffrey R. (2009) "The Second Great Awakening: A Christian Nation?," Georgia State University Law Review: Vol 26: Iss. 4, Article 10. Retrieved from http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol26/iss4/10

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[1] Stone, Geoffrey R. (2009) "The Second Great Awakening: A Christian Nation?," Georgia State University Law Review, p 1307

[2] Ibid, p 1308

[3] Noll, M.A., "Evangelical dictionary of theology." Great Awakenings., p 523

[4] S, G H, Jr. "Second Great Awakening." Encyclopedia of American Religious History

[5] Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People, 1972,  supra note 17, at 416

[6] S, G H, Jr. "Cane Ridge Revival." Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

[7] ibid

[8] Ahlstrom, supra notes 17, at 433

[9] S, G H, Jr. "Cane Ridge Revival." Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

[10] S, G H, Jr. "Second Great Awakening." Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

[11] ibid

[12] Italics and the word “that” added. Not part of original quote.

[13] S, G H, Jr. "Cane Ridge Revival." Encyclopedia of American Religious History.

[14] S, G H, Jr. "Finney, Charles Grandison (1792–1875)." Encyclopedia of American Religious History

[15] C.T. McIntire., "Evangelical dictionary of theology." Finney, Charles Grandison., p 453

[16] Ibid, p 452

[17] ibid

[18] Finney, Charles G. Lectures on Revivals of Religion. New York: F.H. Revell, 1868. P 14

[19] McLoughlin, William Gerald. 1959. Modern revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy graham. New York: Ronald Press Co., p 91

[20] Mcguire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875)." What Happened?

[21] Noll, Mark A, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, p 153

[22] Ibid Table 6.1

[23] Mcguire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875)." What Happened?

[24] S, G H, Jr. "Finney, Charles Grandison (1792–1875)." Encyclopedia of American Religious History

[25] S, G H, Jr. "Second Great Awakening." Encyclopedia of American Religious History.