The Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening happened in the new American republic around 1790 and reached its height in the 1840s. The first great awakening was about reconciling the reason of the enlightenment with the faith of the established church in the colonies. In the Second Great Awakening there was tremendous growth in the Methodist and Baptist denominations. If the First Great Awakening had created a diversity of protestant beliefs, such as the separation of church and state, congregational sects based upon a democratic church government, and individual revelation, then the Second Great awakening represented an expansion of the congregational revivalist movement most represented by the these denominations. Rather than faith being reconciled with enlightened reason, emotion and personal revelation was being reconciled with a newly contextualized faith.

The Methodist circuit riders used the worn paths of canal routes to spread their message of holiness to the unchurched. The Presbyterians at the time inherited many of the churched people who were leaving traditional churches, and moving to churches with a more republican volunteer benevolent empire. The hierarchy of the presbytery presented an excellent comparison of republican government. The theological difference in these denominations was the belief in predestination. This is a belief expressed in the bible where God had elected certain people for salvation. This Puritan doctrine did not sit well with John Wesley in the first great awakening. His disciples spread an inclusionary message of "free will" that was well received by the unchurched. It was also appealing that each church could make up its own rules (polity), as long as they followed Wesley's method. Methodism grew from 50 followers in 1790 to 20,000 followers in 1860.

The strategy was to ride your horse or mule along the canal until you found a small town with an open field close by. Then the rider would recruit locals to build a stage, and the minister would distribute pamphlets for a series of revival meetings. The name of the outside area they would set up would soon be referred to as a, "Camp Meeting". A series of messages would follow that emphasized the fallen nature of man, and the need for a savior. This messages were filled with emotional appeal, but many people, especially women responded in dramatic ways. They would fall down and shake on the ground overcome by their guilt from sin. These preachers were not trained in the art of manipulating people's emotions. Instead these unchurched people were responding to a spiritual experience that was affecting their emotions to the point where the unseen force of revival was more real than the physical world. These camp meetings would last for weeks, and sometimes months. Eventually they would become permanent revival areas where people would develop the area with semi permanent camp sites. You can see remnants of these campsites today in many cities. I have visited two in the Philadelphia Area. Brandywine Camp Summit (1866) and Chester Heights camp meeting (Established 1872) . As you can see from the establishment dates, the second great awakening like the first had a lasting effect on American society.

The most famous of these circuit riders was Charles Grandison Finney. He was not a Methodist. He refused to attend a seminary because he felt that God had revealed to him that the institutionalism produced by seminaries was killing Christianity's revival. Despite this he became President of Oberlin College 1849-1866. There he advocated the abolition of slavery, as well as admitting women and blacks to the college. Traditional seminaries did not take a stand on these issues. Finney was a lawyer by training. He had a dramatic personal conversion experience that marked his life. 

As he was praying in the woods near Adams, New York, he felt the Holy Spirit speak to him in the thoughts of his mind. “Then shall ye go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. Then shall ye seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” He realized that he had intellectually believed the Bible before; but never had the truth been in my mind. that faith was a voluntary trust instead of an intellectual state. He was as conscious  of his existence, and of trusting at that moment in God’s veracity. Somehow he knew that, that was a passage of Scripture, though he did not think he had ever read it. He knew that it was God’s word, and God’s voice, as it were, that spoke to him. He cried in response, “Lord, I take thee at thy word. Now thou knowest that I do search for thee with all my heart, and that I have come here to pray to thee; and thou hast promised to hear me.” Afterward the Holy Spirit came upon him in a most powerful way". (Taken from Together for the Gospel Coalition) 

Finney left his law practice, and became a circuit rider along the Erie Canal. This first canal in the United States became so frequented by circuit riders that it became known as the burnt over district. The Rochester Revival was probably his most famous. It began in September of 1830, and lasted six months. People traveled over one hundred miles to hear Finney preach. Here is an anecdote from The Association of Religious Data Archives.

After scripture reading and powerful preaching, which prompted fervent feelings in congregations, individuals contemplating conversion with whom Finney had already conversed in the private meetings that he pursued throughout the week - were made the focal points of the revivals by sitting on "anxious benches" near Finney’s pulpit. These very public conversions, often of leading members of the community, gave added weight to the revival and Finney’s message.

Finney's main themes were perfectionism, and free moral choice. These themes were not Presbyterian. However, because his background was most associated with the Presbyterian church his new theology was thought of as New School Presbyterianism also known as the New Divinity. Finney views on a number of subjects caused him to be criticized by many. Finney rejected original sin, a substitutionary atonement, the supernatural character of the new birth, and justification by grace alone through faith alone. Some of these differences can resolved with semantic arguments. However, his revivalist methods became the foundation for protestant church revivals into the 19th and 20th century. He was sincere, hardworking and most importantly hard praying. It was found in Finney's home in upstate New York that the floorboards were imprinted by his knees from the hours of prayer that he invested before and after revival meetings. 

Where the Puritans attempted to purify the church of England The Baptists separated from them. They  rejected infant baptism, which was a fundamental belief in the sacramental theology of the Anglican Church. Roger Williams and John Clark are credited with founding the first baptist church in Rhode Island after Williams was banished from the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Where Methodists focused revival efforts along the canals of the north; the Baptists became the largest Christian community in the southern states. Today the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest protestant religious community in the United States. 

Finney was not the only person to receive a revelation in the woods of upstate New York. Joseph Smith received his vision from an the angel Moroni. He revealed to him golden plates in the woods near Manchester, New York. There were many utopian movements that occurred during the second great awakening. Unlike Finney, they were all rejected by mainstream christianity. Smith founded the mormons, Ellen White and her husband founded the 7th day adventists. Mother Ann Lee had a vision in Manchester, England and brought the Shaker movement to the colonies. John Humphrey Noyes moved his followers from Vermont to form a utopia in Oneida, New York. The utopian movements of the second great awakening differed from the Methodists, Baptists, and Finney's denominations because the practices were borderline illegal with the adoption of polygamy, adultery, and arranged marriages. 

All of these changes had lasting effects on American history. One of the most important contributions was the role of women in the new American republic. Seventy percent of the people involved in these revivals were women. Women were critical to spread the word about the revivals to keep the momentum going. Because of this they became leaders in the social problems of the day. These causes include abolition, temperance, and suffrage. In many ways the second great awakening was a women's movement. It is difficult to overstate the importance of this awakening that formed the basis for the modern women's rights movement.