The Great Awakening: The Spiritual Revolution

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Mekaila Hopkins
Dr. Robert Wooster
History 1301.247
19 September 2014
The Spiritual Revolution
The Great Awakening in the New England colonies was a time of chaotic religious uprisings and divisive turmoil. The two main characters in this period were the old and upright
Charles Chauncy and the radical new prophet James Davenport. Both were men of God. Both fought against the evil of misguided teachings and claimed that the other was an agent of the devil himself. In such a serious time these men competed for the souls of the entire colonies.
Religion in America in the early 1700s was very set in tradition. Christian churches consisted of very long, melancholy lectures to the crowd because the priest spoke to his
congregation
Davenport graduated from New Haven’s Yale College at the age of sixteen then continued his theological studies and received a Congressional Minister License in 1735. He then spoke to many audiences before he temporarily settled at The First Church of Southhold (Hollitz
35-36).
After a few zealous preachers popped up, Davenport abandoned his current church to travel and to preach the new teachings that the Great Awakening was famous for. Davenport’s meetings were full of passion. He raised people’s emotions to levels were they would scream, faint, and riot. They sang songs through the streets that praised the lord. Davenport believed that with this more emotional worship people could get closer to their God and not see him as that guy my preacher keeps talking about. He spoke about how the individual was in charge of their relationship with God and not to rely so heavily on what the preacher at church said. This idea of

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not relying on the preacher was very new and caused the colonists to put less emphases on the importance of religious leaders. This lead to religious leaders and political leaders to
When Chauncy heard about Davenport’s teachings he was very upset and immediately spoke out against him on a local level. When Davenport came to his town however, His church was the one Davenport wanted to preach these evil sermons. Chauncy was completely shocked.
Their was no way he was going o let a sermon that went against all his values into his church.
When Chauncy refused, Davenport immediately denounced him just like he did to every authority member that got in the way of God’s will, and parched on the doorsteps of The First
Church instead. Chauncy was livid so he began to write articles about the dangers of enthusiasm and distribute them across North America. It was Chauncy’s duty as a christian to warn the colonist against the dangers of overly enthusiastic sermons that upsetter the order in a community. The victor forever impacted colonists’ minds, thoughts and souls and therefore history.
James Davenport influenced the Colonists greatly making him the most memorable in PreAmerica even if it was because he was in their opinion, insane. One of his major contributions for our country was saying that it was acceptable to challenge authority. Even though