Role of Johnathan Edwards on First Great Awakening - Essay Example

During his final years he was in charge of a boarding school where he preached the Indian boys. He died from smallpox in 1758, five weeks after he was inaugurated as the President of the College of New Jersey (“Jonathan Edwards”). The First Great Awakening Religious renewal The First Great Awakening was a movement that revitalized Christianity in the American colonies during the third and fourth decades of the eighteenth century. The impact was particularly felt in New England. The movement was caused by certain Christians who began to protest against the traditional mode of worship.

It was generated by intense preaching from theologians like Jonathan Edwards which encouraged the avid listeners to disassociate from established rituals. They could feel a new sense of spiritual sincerity and their prayers were intensified by deep emotions (“Basic Concepts of the First Great Awakening”). Cause of the movement The glorious revolution of 1688 brought an end to the fights between different religious and political groups in England. The Church of England became the most important church of the country.

People began to practice only one religion as the other religions like Catholicism, Judaism, and Puritanism were suppressed. Although this created religious stability but there was lack of fervor among the worshippers. Religion became a set of rituals to be followed without deep faith in the heart and soul. This state of complacency continued for several decades in England and American colonies before the First Great Awakening brought a religious renewal in the second quarter of the eighteenth century (“Basic Concepts of the First Great Awakening”).

First Revivals in 1733-35 The roots of the First Great Awakening grew when a terrible earthquake struck on October 29, 1927 in New England. This led to wide-spread spiritual awakenings among the general people which paved the way for future revivals. The massive impact of the event and thirty sermons regarding the earthquake that were published shook the spiritual complacency among the believers. As an immediate effect of the earthquake people began to crowd in churches to seek for salvation through Christ.

The pastors began to preach the benefits of revival. Haverhill’s church became the largest center for revival after the earthquake where many fervent meetings were held with the churches of Bradford and Massachusetts. Pastor John Brown wrote in a letter that 154 people most of whom were youths came to him for “full membership, baptism, or renewal of their baptismal covenant” (Kidd, 10). Many people who had committed grave sins came to the church with deep faith to seek salvation. Brown however did not believe that the earthquake was the only cause of the start of revival, as he saw new interests for religion in his congregation in the spring of the same year.

The next revival came in a “Time of great Security” with no external provocations like natural disasters. This was the revival generated by Jonathan Edwards in Northampton in 1734-35. Although George Whitefield was the most important preacher of that era, Edwards was the “greatest American articulator of the evangelical view of God, man and revival” (Kidd, 10-13). In April of 1734, a young man died within two days of being attacked by Pleurisy. Soon after that a young married woman died who seemed to have been blessed with God’