Second Great Awakening

Background

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement that arose shortly after American independence, following the First Great Awakening of the mid-eighteenth century. It is generally dated to roughly 1795–1835, though some date it more broadly, from the 1790s to the 1840s. Church leaders of the time feared that faith was declining as deism (the belief that God created the world but does not intervene in its affairs) and Enlightenment rationalism spread. Other factors included the weakening of state-supported church establishments, which left the various denominations to compete on equal footing, and the migration of population to the western frontier.

Development

The movement is commonly divided into three phases.

• Frontier camp meetings (c. 1795–1810): Presbyterian minister James McGready moved to Kentucky in 1796 and began preaching revival. Beginning on August 6, 1801, Barton W. Stone's Presbyterian congregation at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, held a communion gathering. Methodists also took part, and attendance is reported at between 10,000 and 20,000 or more, although estimates vary among sources. Participants displayed intense responses, such as falling to the ground. Thereafter, camp meetings, at which people pitched tents in the fields and stayed for several days, spread throughout the frontier.
• New England (c. 1810–1825): This phase was led by figures such as Timothy Dwight, who became president of Yale College in 1795, and Lyman Beecher. It was a comparatively restrained revival centered on the Congregational churches.
• Charles Finney: Finney, a former lawyer without formal theological training, led meetings in western New York beginning in the 1820s. He employed what were called the "New Measures," including the "anxious bench" at the front, where people were urged to make a decision; protracted meetings lasting several days; and public prayer by women. When these methods became controversial, a conference of ministers was convened in 1827, but it failed to reach agreement. The Rochester meetings, held from the fall of 1830 to March 1831, are regarded as the high point of his ministry.

Results and Influence

• The Methodists and Baptists grew dramatically. Methodism spread across the frontier through circuit riders, itinerant preachers who traveled on horseback from settlement to settlement, and it became the largest denomination in the United States during this period.
• Within Presbyterianism, conflict arose over revival methods and ministerial qualifications. When the Synod of Kentucky (a governing body above the presbytery) disciplined the revivalists, the revivalist ministers reconstituted the Cumberland Presbytery in February 1810. This marked the beginning of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Cane Ridge congregation left Presbyterianism in 1804, and Stone's movement flowed into the Restoration Movement (a movement seeking to return to the church of the New Testament era) and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
• New religious movements such as the Latter Day Saint movement and the Adventist movement also emerged during this period.
• Numerous colleges, seminaries, and missionary organizations were founded. The movement also gave rise to social reforms such as the temperance movement, the women's rights movement, and the abolitionist movement.
• Theological emphasis shifted from predestination toward human free will and personal decision.

Assessment

Methodists regard the movement as a work of the Holy Spirit through which Methodism displaced Calvinism and, together with the Baptists, rose into the mainstream of American Christianity. Those in the Reformed tradition view it critically, pointing out that Finney cast doubt on Calvinism and disregarded the Westminster Standards. Even at the time, conservative Old School Presbyterians opposed the New Measures. It is widely accepted that the movement made the saving of souls the foremost task of ministry and established the pattern for modern revival meetings. In the Korean church, it is frequently presented as an example of personal conversion leading to social reform.