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The Great Awakenings (revivals)
c. 1734–1745 and c. 1795–1840· Event· Bible story & events
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
Waves of fervent Protestant revival in Britain and America that stressed personal conversion and spread through traveling preachers.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
The First Great Awakening began in Jonathan Edwards's church in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and peaked when the English preacher George Whitefield toured the colonies in 1739–1740; Benjamin Franklin calculated that his voice could reach a crowd of 30,000. In Britain it was the Evangelical Revival of Wesley and Whitefield. A Second Great Awakening (about 1795–1840) brought frontier camp meetings and Charles Finney's revivals, and made Methodists and Baptists America's largest churches.
Why it matters
They created modern evangelicalism, with its stress on being 'born again' (John 3:3), and powered missions, the fight against slavery and other reform movements.
Sources and history
Edwards's Faithful Narrative (1737), Whitefield's journals, Franklin's Autobiography, newspaper reports and church membership records document the revivals and the churches' growth.
Questions and debates
Some historians, notably Jon Butler (1982), argue 'the Great Awakening' is a later label stitching scattered local revivals into one movement that never existed as such.
Inside this (3)
Connections (5)
▸Puritans and the Pilgrims laid the ground for The Great Awakenings (revivals)Mostly agreed by scholars
The connection
New England's Puritans made a personal, felt conversion the sign of true faith, and their churches, colleges and sermons carried that ideal into the 1700s. Jonathan Edwards, grandson of the Puritan minister Solomon Stoddard, revived it in Stoddard's old Northampton church in 1734, sparking the First Great Awakening.
When and where
Northampton, Massachusetts, 1734–1735, in the pulpit Stoddard had held for about 60 years; Edwards was a Yale-trained heir of Puritan theology.
How do we know?
Edwards's writings cite Puritan authors heavily, and New England church records show earlier 'harvests' of conversions under Stoddard.
Questions and debates
Whether the Awakening revived Puritanism or broke with it, by prizing emotion and splitting churches into 'New Lights' and 'Old Lights', is debated.
▸John Wesley and Methodism led the British side of The Great Awakenings (revivals)Historical record
The connection
Wesley joined George Whitefield's open-air preaching in Bristol in 1739 and became the Evangelical Revival's chief organizer in Britain. Whitefield was the great orator, making seven preaching tours of America; Wesley built a lasting network of societies, classes and lay preachers that turned revival into a church.
When and where
Bristol, April 2, 1739, Wesley's first open-air sermon, to about 3,000 people; then across England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland until 1791.
Historical evidence
Wesley's and Whitefield's journals record their meetings, crowds and disputes; Methodist membership figures show the movement's growth.
Questions and debates
The two split in 1741 over predestination (Whitefield was Calvinist, Wesley Arminian), and historians debate whether one 'Awakening' really spanned Britain and America.
▸The Great Awakenings (revivals) fueled Wilberforce and the Christian fight against slaveryHistorical record
The connection
Revivals taught that every soul is equal before God and that converts must turn from sin, including social sins. Evangelical converts like Wilberforce and the former slave-ship captain John Newton, author of 'Amazing Grace', joined Quakers to attack the slave trade; America's Second Great Awakening fed Northern abolitionism.
When and where
Britain from the 1780s, around the evangelical 'Clapham Sect'; the U.S. North from the 1830s, where Charles Finney's converts filled abolition societies.
Historical evidence
Wilberforce's 1787 journal names ending the slave trade one of two 'great objects' God set before him; Newton's Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1788) and church petitions survive.
Questions and debates
The same revivals also produced Southern churches that defended slavery from the Bible; why faith pointed people in opposite directions is still examined.
▸The Great Awakenings (revivals) inspired William Carey and the modern missionary movementHistorical record
The connection
Revival preaching insisted that everyone needed conversion, and revived believers looked outward. Jonathan Edwards's call to pray for worldwide revival (1747) inspired English Baptist prayer meetings from 1784 that shaped Carey; America's Second Awakening produced the Haystack Prayer Meeting (1806) and the first U.S. foreign mission board (1810).
When and where
Northamptonshire, England, 1784–1792; Williams College, Massachusetts, 1806; the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, formed in 1810.
Historical evidence
John Sutcliff reprinted Edwards's Humble Attempt in 1789, and Carey and his colleagues cited Edwards and his Life of David Brainerd as inspirations.
Questions and debates
Historians debate how much missions grew from revival piety versus Britain's expanding trade and empire, which made distant lands reachable.
▸Billy Graham carried on the revival style of The Great Awakenings (revivals)Historical record
The connection
Graham carried on the revival tradition of the Great Awakenings: George Whitefield's open-air preaching, Charles Finney's 'new measures' and public call to come forward, then D. L. Moody and Billy Sunday. Graham's 'invitation' was Finney's altar call, scaled up with stadiums, radio and television.
When and where
Revivals in Britain and America from the 1730s; Finney in upstate New York in the 1820s–30s; Graham's crusades from Los Angeles in 1949 onward.
Historical evidence
Historian William McLoughlin traced the line in Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham (1959); Graham acknowledged his debt to earlier revivalists.
Questions and debates
Some historians question whether the 1950s American religious boom was a true 'awakening' or a Cold War civil religion that Graham's crusades rode.