The+Second+Great+Awakening+Celina+and+Kate

=// Second Great Awakening // = toc

Westward Expansion
The Awakening, called the "second" after the first one in the 1730's, started as a way to prepare for Jesus' second coming, which many preachers believed was going to occur in the New World. These preachers observed a steady decline in the morality of the nation, particularly in the west. They believed that Jesus would not come again until he saw that men were good once again. The west also provided an ideal situation for the spread of religion. There was minimal competition, and many farmers were open to religion in their lives.

Calvinism
Many Awakening beliefs are based heavily on Calvinism, and the ideas of predestination versus free will. Many preachers taught that men are predestined, but they can change that destination by undergoing conversion. Later in the Awakening, predestination was thrown away, and preachers simply used Calvinistic social beliefs to improve the morality of a society.

Blue Laws
The Blue Laws originated in seventeenth century England where Puritans had outlawed activities, in which they believed was against God's command. During the second half of the nineteenth century in the United States, similar legislation was passed by the state and local governments. Evangelical Protestantism had brought back (reinforced) the Blue Laws. The hope of the Blue Laws in America was to perfect it's future by Christianizing it. Citizens wanted the government to use more moral reform (adding religion to the government), as the spread of Christianity moved through the states. The Blue Laws were used in a way to Americanize immigrants.

Conversion
An important aspect of the Awakening was Conversion experiences. These experiences involved several steps and people were usually directed through their conversions by a preacher. These conversions were derived from Calvinistic beliefs, where each member of the elite had a conversion experience.

Stages of conversion:
Conversion was a series of four steps created by Charles Finney 1) **Concern**: The first step of conversion was concern about the state of your soul. At this stage, you were worried about whether your soul would be saved or damned. 2) **Inquiry**: The second step of conversion was inquiry as to how your soul could be saved. Often, people in this stage would become more in-tune with the basic beliefs of their faith. 3) **Anxiety**: The third step of a conversion experience was a strong sense of anxiety over the fact that your soul will be damned. 4) **Conviction**: The final step of conversion was an overwhelming belief that your soul would be damned and that there was nothing that could be done to save it. It is only when you reach this point that you can fully surrender yourself to God and become saved.



Camp Meetings
Often, preachers would hold meeting where many people would have conversion experiences. One type of these was Camp Meetings. More common out west, camp meetings were typically three days to a week long and involved vigorous religious activities. There was group prayer and major religious figures would preach, and people were engaged in religious activity for the entire day.

Protracted Meeting
Protracted Meetings typically took place father east and were started by Charles Finney in the late 1820's. They were about 2 to 3 weeks long, but people were only engaged in religious activity for a couple hours a day. Usually, the newly converted or soon to be converted were placed on a bench where the rest of the congregation would pray for their souls. Once they had found their faith they newly converted joined the congregation to help other converts.

Francis Asbury
<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Francis Asbury was born in England and was taught by his mother to read the Bible at a young age. Over time Asbury volunteered to go to America as a missionary. He was sent by the Methodist Society. During his time in America, he became one of the two heads of the Methodist Church in America. Francis Asbury was the founder of American Methodism.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">James McGready
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">James McGready was a preacher early in the Awakening. He violently denounced sin and Satan and was one of the first preachers to encourage changes in people's daily lives, not just in their religious beliefs.This was a revolutionary way of preaching and much of his work inspired other Awakening preachers to adopt similar strategies.

[[image:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2291/2243534228_27e2c158c4.jpg?v=0 width="279" height="288" caption="Charles Finney"]]
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Born in 1792, Charles Finney was a major figure in The Second Great Awakening. His main influence to The Second Great Awakening was bringing a new purpose to revivalism. His purpose of revivalism was to reflect the social and physical changes in the nation at the time of the Second Great Awakening. Finney's view rejected the Calvinist idea of salvation, he instead adopted the Armenian doctrine, "all men could be saved through their own active acceptance of God's grace." In Finney's view, revivalism was a way of using spiritual practices to make conversions between the people, especially the youth.

[[image:http://that.is/thewrench/washdc/thursday/Joseph_Smith.jpg width="237" height="299" caption="Joseph Smith Jr."]]
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Although he is not directly involved in the Awakening, Joseph Smith was inspired by Awakening Activists. Smith founded Mormonism in 1872 at his home in New York.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 110%;">Mormonism
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Mormonism was one of the few Awakening religions that lasted into the 20th century. A major belief of Mormonism is recruiting and converting other people, a factor that makes it one of the fastest growing religions in the world. While not completely related to the Awakening, the Mormon ideals of living off the land and leading morally and spiritually guided lives comes straight out of Democratic-Republican and Awakening beliefs.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Social Reform
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">One major effect of the awakening was social reform, particularly the abolishment of slavery. A major goal of the Awakening was to spread morality throughout the west, and the movement succeeded. There was a widespread rise in morality, and a rising awareness of human rights that led to major social reform later in the century.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Revivalism
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Revivalism is a method of inspiration of faith. Something like it could be found in Utopian movements' worship services. People rely upon God by creating a society that was good and decent to the values of God. Revivalism is a Protestant movement concerning ultimate salvation. The Revivalist movement came with the Second Great Awakening. Calvinistic ideas about God and his willful punishments upon their 'sinful world'. According to that idea about God, only a few would be chosen by God for salvation. During the First Great Awakening in the eighteenth century, the idea was that revelations were brought by God and not man.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Charles Scribner's Sons. "Blue Laws." //Encyclopedia of the United States in the// //Nineteenth Century//. 2001. //History Resource Center: World//. Web. 4 May 2010.
 * //__<span style="color: #c74343; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bibliography __//**

- - -. "Revivalism." //Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth// //Century//. 2001. //History Resource Center: World//. Web. 6 May 2010.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">Scott, Donald. "Evangelicalism, Revivalism, and the Second Great Awakening." //National Humanities Center//. N.p., Oct. 2000. Web. 23 May 2010.