Second Great Awakening
in the North

Religion in America

New England diaspora

u After 1783 into New York

u Erie Canal 1817-25

u Northwest Territories

u Iowa, California

Transplanting New England

u Best-organized migrants: State-chartered companies

u New England township

u Long house lots, separate farmland, commons, Congregational Church

u Establish church, school, often a college

Fire in the “Burnt-Over District”

u Charles Grandison Finney

u Presbyterian minister, from Connecticut

u Rejects Calvinism

u “New measures,” 1825-1835

u “Protracted meetings”

u The “anxious seat”

u Role of women

u The fires of revival spread!

Fervor sweeps the nation

u 1820s-1836: High expectations

u America: a new kind of nation

u Freed from constraints of history

u Confidence that all would be solved

u 1500 years of error to be overcome

u Widespread expectation of the Millennium

Democratization of religion

u Faith in the “common man”

u Right to decide for oneself

u Sola scriptura: pure Bible, pure doctrine

u Arminianism replaces Calvinism

u Vernacular preaching

u Mass-market religious press

u American popular religious music

Effects of the Second Great Awakening

u Ministers: From office to profession

u Feminization of Christianity

u Christianization of the nation

u Association of nation with Protestantism

u Split between North and South

u Northern Puritan influence: goal of godly, just society

u Southern slave society: individualistic, gather the saved

u Attack personal sins: dancing, drinking, gambling, etc.

Disciples of Christ

u Dismay at proliferation of denominations

u Goal of Christian unity recedes

u Restorationism

u Thomas & Alexander Campbell, 1808

u “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak;
where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent”

u Simple creed; radical ecclesiology

u Popular on frontier, along Ohio River

The Mormons

u Joseph Smith, Palmyra, NY

u Confusion of denominations

u Treasure seeker

u Angel Moroni, Mt. Cumorah, golden plates

u Translation of Book of Mormon, 1827-30

u Restoration of the true church

u Conversion in Kirtland, Ohio

u Battle in Far West, Missouri, 1839

The Mormon Zion

u Nauvoo, Illinois

u Schism & strange new doctrines

u Revelations

u Polygamy

u Arrested for destroying presses

u Killed by mob, 1844

u Brigham Young

u Trek to Utah, 1846-48

Millennialism

u William Miller, Baptist minister from Vermont

u Predicts millennium 1843

u Recalculated for 1844

u The “Great Disappointment”

u Hiram Edson: cleansing of temple in heaven

u Seventh-Day Adventists, 1860-63

u Ellen G. White

Spiritualism

u The Fox sisters, Hydesville, New York, 1848

u Craze for séances

u Spirit rappings

u Spirit guides

u Levitations