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= Second Great Awakening =

The Second Great Awakening was a religious movement that attempted to revive religion in the nineteenth century. Its main methods were revivals and conversions. Fairly successful, the Second Great Awakening gave birth to religious reform and new religious groups, as well as inspiring reform in other fields.

Overview
The Second Great Awakening was a **religious revival movement** that occurred in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the middle of nineteenth century. Though the movement occurred throughout the states, it was especially strong in the **Northeast** and **Midwest.** The Second Great Awakening covers various religious movements and trends concerning the defiance of simple categorizations of religions.

By the late 1700s, God was no longer an important role in everyday lives. People believed that God was not concerned with the number of regular church attendances, but rather how they lived their lives on Earth. Some became too focused on worshiping God by earning money. Due to the decline of religious conviction, many religious figures hoped to revive the importance of religion through out the nation.


 * Camp meetings** were the most popular form of religious revivals. During a camp revival, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists would gather in the wilderness for four days to a week. While there, they would participate in spiritual exercises.

Various different religious groups benefited from the Second Great Awakening. **Baptists** and **Methodists** gained the most number of converts across the nation. Also new religious groups emerged from the revivals due to disagreements with the already established faiths. These new groups created their own doctrines and hierarchy. One of the best known new religious groups that emerged from Second Great Awakening was **Mormonism**.

The revivals brought many people back to dedicate their lives to God and live in a Godly manner emphasizing personal piety over traditional schooling on theology. The Second Great Awakening resulted in an increase of church attendance during the first half of the nineteenth century. The religious revivals also sparked the desire to reform American society and other ways of life.

Leaders

 * Charles Grandison Finney** was the leading figure in the Second Great Awakening. Born on August 27, 1792, in Litchfield County, Connecticut. He studied law for three years, from 1818 to 1821, and then had a coversion experience. He began to preach, and was licensed to in 1824 by the Presbyterian Church. He started extensive religious revivals in which he emphasized the will of man and used revival techniques later known as **"New Measures."** These were designed to create an emotional response. Finney eventually switched from Presbyterianism to Congregationalism. In 1835 he became a professor in theology at Oberlin College. The same year he wrote // Lectures on Revivals //, which became a sort of handbook for revivalists.In 1837 he became a minister of the First Congregational Church at Oberlin, and in 1852 he wasn amed president of the college. His // Lectures on Theology // , written in 1846, used Evangelicalism to influence American Calvinism. Finney died on August 16th, 1875.

 **Lyman Beecher** (1775 - 1863) was a theologian, reformer, and teacher. Though not as influential as Finney, Beecher was a prominent figure in the Awakening, focusing on order and freedom from sin. He graduated from Yale College in 1797 and in 1799 was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, later becoming a minister. He had positions in Litchfield, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts. In 1832 he became president of __Lane Theological Seminary__ in Cincinnati. Here he taught ministers, wanting them to save America from its sinful ways. Beecher's religious beliefs caused disagreements with some of the other ministers who didn't support his extreme views. In 1850 he resigned form Lane, and in 1851 he moved to Brooklyn, New York. He died three years later.

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** Rise of Revivals **
The religious revivals arose in several places at similar time periods in different forms. In northern New England, social activism took precedence. In western New York, the religious revivals sparked growth of new denominations. In the Appalachian region of Tennessee and Kentucky, the revivals popularized different beliefs such as Presbyterianism, Methodism, and Baptism. It also gave birth to the camp meetings.

The first movements of religious revival in New England started in 1790s in Connecticut. A Trinitarian clergy believed the nation's religious values were declining after the Revolution. As a result, **Unitarianism** and **Deism** appeared. The revival movement soon spread beyond New England, moving away from its conservative origins. Through the 1830s, the upstate New York became the center of the extensive revival movements led by ministers such as Charles G. Finney. The movements were to provoke religious enthusiasm; however, it also challenged traditional Calvinist beliefs and practices. The bold challenges Finney made to the already existing ministerial system in New York resulted in the **New Lebanon Conference** of 1827. Finney seemed to support a belief similar to the more conventional Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The most successful revival movement of the era was his revival in Rochester during the winter of 1830 - 1831. This revival became the model for the other revivals to come. However, as time passed, the religious revivals drifted even further away from traditional Calvinism. Finney left the Presbyterian community in 1835 and took up a perfectionist theology instead. The **perfectionist theology** declared that "all humans are fully capable of perfect compliance with God's laws." Greater number of audiences were attracted to northern New York when William Miller predicted that in 1843 and 1844 the earth would end.

Revival activities also occurred in South and Southwest states. Due to the revivals, **Methodism** underwent remarkable growth during the end of the eighteenth century. By the start of the nineteenth century, the Second Awakening appeared in the form of **camp meetings**. The camp meeting began with small encampments near revivals and grew into major events, coming to climax with the revival at Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801. After the revival at Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801, the religious meetings in that region had a camp-meeting style. Several denominations such as the Methodist and Baptists became prominent on the frontier as the religious revivals spread through southern Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. They advanced to remote areas where they enjoyed a natural bond with the isolated families they converted by inspiring circuit riders among the common folks. Many of the ordinary farmers became dedicated Baptists who frequently pored over their Bibles and participated in congregations. The Bible belt of the South and border states was born due to the religious revivals.

The reform movement grew due to the increased religious activities and theologies that focused on human abilities. The religious trends of the Second Awakening were: The New School Congregationalists and Presbyterians had the most impulse for reform. Protestant ministers such as Beecher promoted the religious reforms through voluntary societies and occasionally using political actions. In the nineteenth century, the Second Awakening also included anti-slavery movements along with religious elements.
 * missionary enterprises
 * Sabbath observance
 * religious instruction
 * temperance movements

Revivals
Revivals in the 19th century helped spread and maintain the Awakening. They became central in causing conversions, and by the 19th century were human not divine events.

This new style of revival, started by people not divine inspiration, were at first **camp revivals**, originating in West Virginia, North Carolina, and on the Kentucky and Ohio borders. Attendants would spend several days listening to the word of God from different religious leaders. The services were emotional but did not have the hysterical component of the earlier revival movements. The meetings also served as social gatherings where people could meet with their neighbors, since many Americans living on the frontier did not have many opportunities to meet with people regularly. The revival meetings served as rural family meetings, trades, and **social gatherings**, along with the opportunity to hear God's words and participate in spiritual exercises. With ministers of different denominations sharing the same platform, the preachings at the camp meetings were simple, energetic, and persuasive. The common people, deeply affected by the preachers, showed strong emotional responses as proof of conversion. Often the responses included strange physical reactions such as fainting and falling to the ground "slain in the spirit" or suffered uncontrollable shaking called "the jerks." People danced, ran and sang as manifestations of God's presence, producing noises so loud that some said "the noise was like the roar of Niagara."

The second style of revivals were **protracted meetings**, which were associated with Finney's new measures and became the characteristic form of revivals in the North and East. They took place about once a year and lasted for two to three weeks. During this time there were prayers and counseling, especially for the newly recruited and spiritually anxious. The revivals in the East did not have as exited emotional frenzy as those on the frontier. In fact, many of the eastern revivalists frowned upon the emotional excesses of the camp meetings, calling them anarchy similar to that of the French Revolution.

Revivalism pretty much led to the end of the Calvinist belief in predestination, at least among the Evangelicals. While some clergy didn't totally abandon predestination the focus turned instead to **universal salvation**.

In 1835 there was a large camp meeting at what is now known as Wesleyan Grove in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. This spot was used throughout the Awakening by Methodists, and the revivals there grew in size as the years progressed.

Conversions
 **Conversion** was the heart of Evangelicalism in the 19th century. It was compelled by beliefs about God's power, human sin, and the promise of salvation granted by Jesus. It was an emotional experience that left the person being converted with a new sense of self, with a new relationship to the world.

Conversion began with concern about the soul, led to inquiry about how to save oneself, followed by a period of anxiety about damnation, then conviction that one was justly damned. This was followed by the duty of the penitent to repent sin and surrender to God's will, which would lead God's grace and mercy and forgiveness.

Conversion was recognized by the emotions felt during the event, generally **peace, humility, and a love of God.** The convert was in a spiritual stage known as regeneracy and sanctification, with the desire to serve God and an active concern for the states of family's, friend's, and even strangers' souls.

Mormonism
Mormonism was started by **Joseph Smith** in 1830 when he published the **Book of Mormon**. This became the foundational sacred text for the Mormons. According to Smith, an angel called Moroni had appeared to him in 1823 and told him of a book buried under a hill in Manchester, NY and written on gold plates. On Sept. 22, 1827, Moroni gave the bo ok to Smith, who translated it and than returned the book to Moroni. Mormonism disposed of the Evangelical idea of original sin, promising salvation to anyone who believed in Christ, renounced sin, and was willing to follow Mormon laws. Just as Evangelicalism adapted Calvinist beliefs about predestination into original sin and salvation, Mormonism adapted Evangelical beliefs.

To Mormons, the Book of Mormon is a sacred book, with the same standing as the Bible. They view it as the third book of the Bible, a continuation of the earlier texts following the Old and New Testaments. It signals the "end times" and preparation for Christ's Second Coming.

Effects
The Second Great Awakening caused a more of a lasting change on American society than any other religious revival. Even though its excitement lessened, the Second Great Awakening left many established denominations, churches, and created social reform.

American Religion
The Second Great Awakening had a strong impact on American religion and reform before the American Civil War. The religious foundations of the early Republic were broadened and deepened due to the Second Awakening. Even during the periods when the nation grew dramatically, churches were active and able to adapt well throughout the nineteenth century. The Second Great Awakening led to the birth of Mormonism, and the growth of Methodism and Baptism.

Social Activism
The **reform movements** gathered strength in 1826, when Charles G. Finney preached in Utica, New York. With his charismatic lawyer-like attitude, Finney preached through out the northern United States against the Calvinist belief of predestination, stating that human beings were "moral free agents" who could get salvation through their own efforts. In addition to being an leading Evangelicalist preacher, Finney believed that the Bible saved people but also was a way to reform society. He encouraged other Christians to get involved with social reform movements. The **social activism** produced various secular reform movements such as abolition of slavery, prison reform, moral reform, and Utopian socialism once the belief in "heaven on earth" was popularized. Women were especially inspired and many of the encouraged became missionaries and preachers. A wide range of reform movements were inspired by the religious revival's emphasis on the ability of individuals to control their lives, and were aimed at rectifying injustice. On the other hand, the western states used the religious revivals to form missionary groups, such as the American Home Missionary Society, American Bible Society, and the American Tract Society. Those groups became the witnesses of the faith, teachers, civic pillars and publishers of Christian literature.

Economy
The Second Great Awakening had effects beyond the religious and moral aspects of the American culture. The period affected by the religious revivals is also called a "shopkeeper's millennium" because capitalists accomplished discipline in independent artisan workers by using the church's influence. The expansion of the middle class was due to supports on virtues and behaviors of strong work ethic, frugality and temperance.

Historically
The Second Awakening is historically perceived in different ways. Those who see the movement as an "expression of optimism in human nature" focus on how new theologies branched away from traditional Calvinist religion, such as the perfectionist theology of Finney. However, others interpreted the religious activities as a method trying to exert control over the rapidly changing society, focusing more on Beecher who preached for settled order. Another interpretation of the Second Awakening focuses on the general **democratic** trends in the denominations, such as the Methodists or the Disciples of Christ, created during the period. The democratic trends helped appeal to a wider range of social classes.