1. The Second Great Awakening
The History of
Christianity
The Second Great Awakening
© John Stevenson, 2016

2. Factors in the Spiritual Decline after the First Great Awakening
The American War for Independence
The Deistic Teachings of Thomas Paine
The Percentage of Americans who were Church Members after the War for Independence has been estimated at 15%

3. Timeline 95
Theses
King James Version
Westminster Assembly
Second Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
1500
1550
1600
1650
1700
1750
1800
Luther
Spener
Sunday School Movement
Zwingli
Zinzendorf
Calvin
Whitefield
Knox
Wesley

5. American Revolutionary War
Fear that Quebec Act would give Roman Catholicism inroads to the Colonies
Example of British Commonwealth
Mennonites, Quakers, pacifists
Anglican loyalists

6. American Revolutionary War
Chaplains in Continental Army
Poor quality of preaching
Sermons justifying the Revolution
Preaching from the Book of Judges
Millennial Sects
Dark Day: May 19, 1780

7. American Revolutionary War
Church membership declined
Massachusetts and Connecticut retained state church
Anglican church disappeared
Roman Catholicism accepted

8. Regular references to Providence Private in his religion
George Washington
Anglican
Freemason
Regular references to Providence
Private in his religion

9. —Letter to the Hebrew congregation of Savannah, Georgia
George Washington
May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivering the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors planted them in the promised land—whose Providential Agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent Nation—still continue to water them with the dews of Heaven and to make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.”
—Letter to the Hebrew congregation of Savannah, Georgia

10. Thomas Paine
“The only idea man can affix to the name of God, is that of a first cause, the cause of all things. And, incomprehensibly difficult as it is for a man to conceive what a first cause is, he arrives at the belief of it, from the tenfold greater difficulty of disbelieving it…”
(Age of Reason, pg. 70)

11. Thomas Paine
“Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity.”
(Age of Reason)

12. “I have read your manuscript with some attention
“I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion.”
- Franklin

13. “I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a
great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it.”
- Franklin

14. Declaration of Independence Jefferson & Jesus Jefferson Bible
Thomas Jefferson
Deism
Declaration of Independence
Jefferson & Jesus
Jefferson Bible

15. How do you bring revival?

16. Timothy Dwight IV Grandson of Jonathan Edwards
Grandson of Jonathan Edwards
President of Yale College
Revival at Yale
Lyman Beecher
Asahel Nettleton

17. Second Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
1730’s – 1750’s
1790’s – 1840’s
Focused primarily in the colonies along the eastern seaboard
Felt throughout the new nation
George Whitefield
Jonathan Edwards
John Wesley
Charles Finney
Lyman Beecher
Peter Cartwright
Largely Calvinistic
Largely Arminian

18. Second Great Awakening
First Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
1730’s – 1750’s
1790’s – 1840’s
Jonathan Edwards described revival as a by-product of his preaching and teaching
His grandson, Timothy Dwight, saw revival as the calculated means to an end
Strong doctrinal foundation
Emphasized emotion over reason

19. Second Great Awakening
Used camp meetings
Man-centered
Rejection of Predestination
Use of techniques
Growth of New Denominations
Female Participation
Temperance
Suffrage
Abolition

20. Presbyterian Calvinist Revivalist in Kentucky
James McGready
Presbyterian Calvinist
Revivalist in Kentucky
Licensed men to preach with minimal education
Cumberland Presbyterian denomination
Cumberland College (1826)

21. “The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly
“The power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. Towards the close of the sermon, the cries of the distressed arose almost as loud as his voice.”
Camp Meeting Revivals

22. Physical Manifestations
The Falling Exercise
“Some fell suddenly, as if struck by lightning, while others were seized with a universal tremor the moment before, and fell shrieking. Piercing shrieks were uttered by many during the whole period of prostration, intermingled with groans, cries for mercy, and exclamations of ‘Glory! glory to God!’”

23. Physical Manifestations
The Falling Exercise
The Jerking Exercise
“Sometimes the head would be twitched right and left to a half round, with such velocity that not a feature could be discovered, but the face appeared as much behind as before.”

24. Physical Manifestations
The Falling Exercise
The Jerking Exercise
“In the quick, progressive jerk, it would seem as if the person was transformed into some other species of creature.”

25. Physical Manifestations
The Falling Exercise
The Jerking Exercise
The Rolling Exercise
“It consisted in falling on the ground or floor, and rolling over like a log, very swiftly. Dust, mud or water formed no barrier to the movement.”

26. Physical Manifestations
The Falling Exercise
The Jerking Exercise
The Rolling Exercise
The Running Exercise
The Dancing Exercise
The Barking Exercise

27. Asahel Nettleton Studied at Yale after the revival there had begun
Studied at Yale after the revival there had begun
Reformed and Calvinist Evangelist
Rejected excesses of other evangelists

28. Asahel Nettleton
These revivals were not temporary excitements, which like a tornado, sweep through a community, and leave desolations behind them; but they were like showers of rain, which refresh the dry and thirsty earth, and cause it to bring forth “herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed.”  These fruits were permanent.

29. Asahel Nettleton
That holy, humble, meek, modest, retiring Form, sometimes called the Spirit of Prayer, has been dragged from the closet, and so rudely handled by some of her professed friends, that she has not only lost all her wonted loveliness, but is now stalking the street, in some places, stark mad.

30. Circuit Riding Preachers

31. Peter Cartwright Methodist Preacher “God’s Plowman”
Methodist Preacher
“God’s Plowman”
Dealt with the “rowdies” by physical confrontation
“…it was a part of my creed to love everybody, but to fear no one; and I did not permit myself to believe any man could whip me till it was tried” (Chapter 11, Autobiography)

32. Charles Finney Converted in 1821 Presbyterian evangelist
Converted in 1821
Presbyterian evangelist
Revivalist preacher in New York City
Abolitionist
Denied justification via imputation

33. Charles Finney
“Should the firemen sleep, and let the whole city burn down, what would be thought of such firemen? And yet their guilt would not compare with the guilt of Christians who sleep while sinners around them are sinking stupid into the fires of hell.”

34. Charles Finney Anxious bench Revival based on techniques
Anxious bench
Revival based on techniques
Theatrical techniques
Revival techniques in modern political party conventions

35. Charles Finney
“Instead of telling sinners to use the means of grace and to pray for a new heart, I call on them to make
themselves a new heart and press the duty of immediate surrender to God.”

36. Lyman Beecher Attended Yale with Asahel Nettleton
Attended Yale with Asahel Nettleton
Presbyterian minister
Adopted Finney’s “new measures”
Spoke against slavery
His daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

37. Results of the Second Great Awakening
The Christianization of America
The Democratization of American Christianity
Congregationalism
Women in Christianity
The Decline of Calvinism among American Christians

38. Henry Ward Beecher Son of Lyman Beecher Congregational minister
Son of Lyman Beecher
Congregational minister
Popular preacher
Abolition of Slavery
Rejected his father’s Calvinism
Emphasis on God’s love
Theistic Evolution

39. Henry Ward Beecher Son of Lyman Beecher Congregational minister
Son of Lyman Beecher
Congregational minister
Popular preacher
Adultery scandals
Feminist Victoria Woodhull
Elizabeth Tilton
Tilton civil suit
Excommunication

40. Growth of Methodists Named for the “Method”
Regular observance of Lord’s Supper
Love Feasts
Fasting
Abstaining from amusements
Ministries of mercy
Very small at the end of the American Revolution

41. Growth of Methodists Organized as an American Denomination in 1784
Arminian Theology
Itinerant System
Formalization and a desire to return to earlier roots

42. Growth of Methodists Methodist Episcopal Church
1784
Methodist New Connexion
1797
African Methodist Protestant Church
1816
Primitive Methodists
1807
Bible Christians
1815

45. Seneca Falls Woman’s Convention