Religion and the
Second Great Awakening
Eileen Luhr
eluhr@csulb.edu
Focus questions for presentation:
How did the American Revolution, the
Enlightenment, disestablishment, and the
market revolution alter religious beliefs
and attitudes about established
religions?
Content standards for presentation:
5.7 Students describe the people and events associated with the
development of the U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution’s
significance as the foundation of the American republic.
5.7.2. Explain the significance of the new Constitution of 1787, including
the struggles over its ratification and the reasons for the addition of the
Bill of Rights.
5.8
Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement
patterns of the American people from 1789 to the mid-1800s, with
emphasis on the role of economic incentives, effects of the physical
and political geography, and transportation systems.
Grade 5
Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills
• Chronological and Spatial Thinking
– Students explain how the present is connected to the past,
identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and
how some things change over time and some things stay the
same.
• Research, Evidence, and Point of View
– Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in
historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters,
diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks, and architecture.
• Historical Interpretation
– Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of
historical events.
Review:
Why study religious history?
• Uses for understanding everyday life
– how did religion influence the practices,
beliefs, and interactions of social groups?
• themes addressed by religious history:
– ideas about human nature, equality, freedom,
community
– revival religions
Review:
my presentations about religion in the colonial period
First presentation: religion during a period when colonial
governments could maintain religious uniformity:
– Church of England—VA
– Puritans—MA
– Quakers (religious diversity)—PA
Second presentation: how new ideas and markets
challenged religious beliefs. Two concepts introduced:
– marketplace of ideas
– importance of the Enlightenment to ideas about personal
autonomy and religion
Key concepts for today:
1. Disestablishment: The First Amendment resulted
in the proliferation of new religions and innovations
within existing belief systems. In order to remain
relevant after disestablishment, American religions
had to compete within the marketplace of ideas.
2. Importance of the American Revolution, the
Enlightenment, and (later) the market revolution.
The emphasis on the individual’s “search for truth”
empowered common people at the expense of
traditional authority structures. Consequently, there
were was great concern about the morality of
American citizens.
Concept 1:
How did the disestablishment affect American religion?
Preamble:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.
Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the
several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the
United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation,
to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances.
Review: the decline of religious monopolies
“The original planters had vowed to keep divergent ideas out of their
settlements, a task that became ever more difficult with a growing
population pushing against town borders and an expanding commerce
bringing hawkers and peddlers with their new goods and ideas. In the
end, defenders of local institutions and traditions failed, as many within
their communities eagerly embraced the newcomers and their wares.
Insistent upon exercising choice, consumers, whether considering
manufactured goods or religious notions, demanded the right to
choose for themselves. The result was a new, more expansive
definition of religious freedom, one characterized by religious
competition among the sects. The world of the settled ministry was
turned upside down. No longer able to count on a monopoly within
their parishes, clergyman had to woo individuals who were now
empowered to decide religious matters for themselves.”
– Frank Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in
America (Princeton UP, 2003), p. 124.
consequences of disestablishment
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Institutional proliferation
Expansion into the cultural marketplace
Denominationalism
Voluntarism
We’ll focus on institutional proliferation &
expansion into the cultural marketplace.
institutional proliferation
example 1: the Shakers
• established by Mother Ann Lee in England
in the 1770s
• beliefs include celibacy, common property,
and pacifism
• separate communities set apart from the
rest of the world.
• equality of the sexes based in Mother Ann
Lee’s belief that she was the Second
Coming of Jesus
Shakers near Lebanon, NY
Shaker meetinghouse at New Lebanon
Description of Shaker worship
…There, collected in a large room devoted to the
purpose, were a large number of men and women,
engaged in the peculiar religious rites of Shaker family
worship. They sang hymns and lively spiritual songs, all
of which were accompanied by dances and marches,
conducted in an orderly, and, at times, very impressive
manner. These exercises were interspersed with brief
exhortations by both men and women…
source: Benson John Lossing, “The Shakers,” as
published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine vol. XV
(July 1857), pp.164-77.
example 2: the camp meeting
P.S. Duval, ca. 1801, from Joseph Smith, Old Redstone
Camp Meeting, c. 1829
Peter Cartwright, memories of the Cane Ridge Revival,
1801-1804
In this revival originated our camp-meetings, and in both these denominations they were held
every year, and, indeed, have been ever since, more or less. They would erect their camps with
logs or frame them, and cover them with clapboards or shingles. They would also erect a shed,
sufficiently large to protect five thousand people from wind and rain, and cover it with boards or
shingles; build a large stand, seat the shed, and here they would collect together from forty to
fifty miles around, sometimes further than that. Ten, twenty, and sometimes thirty ministers, of
different denominations, would come together and preach night and day, four or five days
together; and, indeed, I have known these camp-meetings to last three or four weeks, and great
good resulted from them. I have seen more than a hundred sinners fall like dead men under one
powerful sermon, and I have seen and heard more than five hundred Christians all shouting
aloud the high praises of God at once; and I will venture to assert that many happy thousands
were awakened and converted to God at these camp-meetings. Some sinners mocked, some of
the old dry professors opposed, some of the old starched Presbyterian preachers preached
against these exercises, but still the work went on and spread almost in every direction,
gathering additional force, until our country seemed all coming home to God….
Just in the midst of our controversies on the subject of the powerful exercises among the people
under preaching, a new exercise broke out among us, called the jerks, which was overwhelming
in its effects upon the bodies and minds of the people. No matter whether they were saints or
sinners, they would be taken under a warm song or sermon, and seized with a convulsive jerking
all over, which they could not by an possibility avoid, and the more they resisted the more they
jerked, If they would not strive against it and pray in good earnest, the jerking would usually
abate. I have seen more than five hundred persons jerking at one time in my large
congregations. Most usually persons taken with the jerks, to obtain relief, as they said, would
rise up and dance. Some would run, but could not get away. Some would resist; on such the
jerks were generally very severe.
example 3: other religious sects and traditions
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Mormons
Disciples of Christ
Millerites (Seventh-Day Adventists)
Communitarian groups
Finneyite revivals
Transcendentalism & Unitarianism
Expansion into the cultural marketplace
example 1: the morality tales of Parson Weems
Mason Locke Weems, History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George
Washington (1800)
"When George…was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet! of which,
like most little boys, he was immoderately fond, and was constantly going about chopping
everything that came in his way. One day, in the garden, where he often amused himself hacking
his mother's pea-sticks, he unluckily tried the edge of his hatchet on the body of a beautiful young
English cherry-tree, which he barked so terribly, that I don't believe the tree ever got the better of
it. The next morning the old gentleman, finding out what had befallen his tree, which, by the by,
was a great favourite, came into the house; and with much warmth asked for the mischievous
author, declaring at the same time, that he would not have taken five guineas for his tree. Nobody
could tell him anything about it. Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance.
"George," said his father, " do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the
garden? " This was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly
recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the
inexpressible charm of all- conquering truth, he bravely cried out, " I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know
I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet."--"Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his
father in transports, " run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid
me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees,
though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold."
It was in this way by interesting at once both his heart and head, that Mr. Washington conducted
George with great ease and pleasure along the happy paths of virtue. But well knowing that his
beloved charge, soon to be a man, would be left exposed to numberless temptations, both from
himself and from others, his heart throbbed with the tenderest anxiety to make him acquainted
with that great being, whom to know and love, is to possess the surest defence against vice, and
the best of all motives to virtue and happiness. To startle George into a lively sense of his Maker,
he fell upon the following very curious but impressive expedient:
Expansion into the cultural marketplace
example 2: the theatrical methods of Charles G. Finney
Charles Grandison Finney, “How to Preach the Gospel.” Lectures on Revivals of Religion, edited by
William G. McLoughlin (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960), pp.194 –
222. First published in 1835.
There are two objections sometimes brought against the kind of preaching which I have recommended…
(1.) That it is letting down the dignity of the pulpit to preach in this colloquial, lawyer-like style. They are
shocked at it. But it is only on account of its novelty, and not for any impropriety there is in the thing
itself…
(2.) It is objected that this preaching is theatrical. The bishop of London once asked Garrick, the
celebrated play-actor, why it was that actors, in representing a mere fiction, should move an assembly,
even to tears, while ministers, in representing the most solemn realities, could scarcely obtain a hearing.
The philosophical Garrick well replied, “It is because we represent fiction as a reality, and you represent
reality as a fiction.” This is telling the whole story. Now what is the design of the actor in a theatrical
representation? It is so to throw himself into the spirit and meaning of the writer, as to adopt his
sentiments, make them his own, feel them, embody them, throw them out upon the audience as living
reality. And now, what is the objection to all this in preaching? The actor suits the action to the word, and
the word to the action. His looks, his hands, his attitudes, and every thing are designed to express the full
meaning of the writer. Now this should be the aim of the preacher. And if by “theatrical” be meant the
strongest possible representation of the sentiments expressed, then the more theatrical a sermon is, the
better. And if the ministers are too stiff, and the people too fastidious, to learn even from an actor, or from
the stage, the best method of swaying mind, of enforcing sentiment, and diffusing the warmth of burning
thought over a congregation, then they must go on with their prosing, and reading, and sanctimonious
starch. But let them remember, that while they are thus turning away and decrying the art of the actor,
and attempting to support “the dignity of the pulpit,” the theatres can be thronged every night. The
common-sense people will be entertained with that manner of speaking, and sinners will go down to
hell…
Background: the impact of the Enlightenment
Gordon Wood, “Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,” New York History (October 1980): 358-86.
“[Liberalism] ate away the premises of
Calvinism, indeed, of all orthodox Christian
beliefs. It told people they were not naturally
sinful but naturally good, possessed of moral
sense or instinct, and evil lay in the corrupt
institutions of both church and state…[antireligious writings] reached out to new popular
audiences and gave many ordinary people the
sense that reason and nature were as important
(and mysterious) as revelation and the
supernatural.” (363)
Concept 2:
Importance of the American Revolution, the Enlightenment,
and (later) the market revolution
The emphasis on the individual’s “search
for truth” empowered common people at
the expense of traditional authority
structures. Consequently, there were
was great concern about the morality of
American citizens.
Background: Evangelical Christianity & Democracy:
Gordon Wood, “Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,” New York History (October 1980): 358-86.
“Once ordinary people found that they could change traditional
religion as completely as they were changing traditional politics, they
had no need for deism or infidelity…Evangelical Christianity and the
democracy of these years, the very democracy with which Jefferson
rode to power and destroyed Federalism, emerged together and
were interrelated.
This democracy and the popular evangelicalism of the early
nineteenth century were both products of a social disintegration
unequalled in American history. All the old eighteenth-century
aristocratic hierarchies, enfeebled and brittle to begin with, now
collapsed under the impact of long developing demographic and
economic forces.” (364-6)
Background: Revolution & Religion
Gordon Wood, “Evangelical America and Early Mormonism,” New York History (October 1980): 358-86
“The ideology of the Revolution aggravated this social disintegration but at the same time helped make it
meaningful. The egalitarianism of the Revolution explained and justified for common people their new
independence and distance from one another. The change and disruptions were offset by the Revolutionary
promise for the future of the country. Improvement became an everyday fact of life for unprecedented numbers of
people. Traditional structures of authority crumbled under the momentum of the Revolution, and common people
increasingly discovered that they no longer had to accept the old distinctions that had separated them from the
upper ranks of the gentry.
As the traditional connections of people fell away, many Americans found themselves in a marginal or what
anthropologists call a liminal state of transition and were driven to find or fabricate new ways of relating to one
another…People were urged to transcend their parochial folk and kin loyalties and to reach out to embrace even
distant strangers. The Enlightenment’s stress on modern civility came together with the traditional message of
Christian charity to make the entire period from the Revolution to the Age of Jackson a great era of benevolence
and communitarianism.
The Enlightenment was not repudiated but popularized. The great democratic revolution of the period forged a
new popular amalgam out of traditional folk beliefs and the literary culture of the gentry...
Like the culture as a whole, religion was powerfully affected by these popularizing developments. Subterranean
folk beliefs and fetishes emerged into the open and blended with traditional Christian practices to created a wildly
spreading evangelical enthusiasm. Ordinary people cut off from traditional social relationships were freer than ever
before to express publicly hitherto repressed or vulgar emotions…
The American Revolution itself was invoked by this evangelical challenge to existing authority, and Christianity for
some radicals became republicanized. As in government so in religion. The people were their own theologians and
could no longer rely on others to tell them what to believe…” (366-74)
Concerns about a “moral” citizenry
example 1: Alexis de Tocqueville discusses the role of religion
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1831), chapter XVII
“The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship
which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to
man. Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral
law in the name of God. If it be of the highest importance to man, as an individual, that his religion
should be true, it is not so to society. Society has no future life to hope for or to fear; and provided
the citizens profess a religion, the peculiar tenets of that religion are of little importance to its
interests. Moreover, all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of
Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.
It may fairly be believed that a certain number of Americans pursue a peculiar form of worship
from habit more than from conviction. In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and
consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the world where the Christian
religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no
greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully
felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.
I have remarked that the American clergy in general, without even excepting those who do not
admit religious liberty, are all in favor of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular
political system. They keep aloof from parties and from public affairs. In the United States religion
exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon the details of public opinion; but it directs the
customs of the community, and, by regulating domestic life, it regulates the state.”
Concerns about a “moral” citizenry
example 2: Catharine Beecher discusses women’s role in a democracy
Catharine E. Beecher, A Treatise On Domestic Economy (1843)
“...The success of democratic institutions, as is conceded by all, depends upon the
intellectual and moral character of the mass of the people. If they are intelligent and
virtuous, democracy is a blessing; but if they are ignorant and wicked, it is only a
curse, and as much more dreadful than any other form of civil government, as a
thousand tyrants are more to be dreaded than one. It is equally conceded, that the
formation of the moral and intellectual character of the young is committed mainly to
the female hand. The mother forms the character of the future man; the sister bends
the fibres that are hereafter to be the forest tree; the wife sways the heart, whose
energies may turn for good or for evil the destinies of a nation. Let the women of a
country be made virtuous and intelligent, and the men will certainly be the same. The
proper education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but educate a
woman, and the interests of a whole family are secured.
If this be so, as none will deny, then to American women, more than to any others on
earth, is committed the exalted privilege of extending over the world those blessed
influences, which are to renovate degraded man, and "clothe all climes with beauty."
The American Revolution, the Enlightenment, and
the market revolution: examples & cautionary tales
• Joseph Smith
• The prophet Matthias & concerns about
“confidence men”
The American Revolution, the Enlightenment, and
the market revolution: cautionary tales
The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)
Question. What do you mean by the Spirit?
Answer. The Spirit that spoke to the prophets in former days, and I was greatly astonished, and for two years prayed continually, whenever my duty would permit;
and then again I had the same revelation, which fully confirmed me in the impression that I was ordained for some great purpose in the hands of the Almighty.
Several years rolled round, in which many events occurred to strengthen me in this my belief. At this time I reverted in my mind to the remarks made of me in my
childhood, and the things that had been shown me [Ed. Note: that he would not be of any use as a slave]; now, finding I had arrived to man's estate, and was a
slave, and these revelations being made known to me, I began to direct my attention to this great object, to fulfill the purpose for which, by this time, I felt assured
I was intended. Knowing the influence I had obtained over the minds of my fellow-servant (not by the means of conjuring and such like tricks-for to them I always
spoke of such things with contempt), but by the communion of the Spirit, whose revelations I often communicated to them, and they believed and said my wisdom
came from God, -- I now began to prepare them for my purpose, by telling them something was about to happen that would terminate in fulfilling the great
promise that had been made to me-- —About this time I was placed under an overseer, from whom I ran away—and after remaining in the woods thirty days, I
returned, to the astonishment of the negroes on the plantation, who thought I had made my escape to some other part of the country, as my father had done
before. But the reason of my return was, that the Spirit appeared to me and said I had my wishes directed to the things of this world, and not to the kingdom of
Heaven, and that I should return to the service of my earthly master—“For he who knoweth his Master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes,
and thus have I chastened you. And the Negroes found fault, and murmured against me, saying that if they had my sense they would not serve any master in the
world. And about this time I had a vision—and I saw white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle, and the sun was darkened-the thunder rolled in the heavens,
and blood flowed in streams-and I heard a voice saying, "Such is your luck, such you are called to see; and let it come rough or smooth, you must surely bear it."
[the Spirit] appeared to me, and reminded me of the things it had already shown me, and that it would then reveal to me the knowledge of the elements, the
revolution of the planets, the operation of tides, and changes of the seasons. After this revelation in the year 1825, and the knowledge of the elements being
made known to me, I sought more than ever to obtain true holiness before the great day of judgment should appear, and then I began to receive the true
knowledge of faith. And from the first steps of righteousness until the last, was I made perfect; and the Holy Ghost was with me, and said, "Behold me as I stand
in the heavens." And I looked and saw the forms of men in different attitudes; and there were lights in the sky, to which the children of darkness gave other
names what they really were; for they were the lights of the Saviour's hands, stretched forth from east to west, even as they were extended on the cross on
Calvary for the redemption of sinners. And I wondered greatly at these miracles, and prayed to be informed of a certainty of the meaning thereof; and shortly
afterwards, while laboring in the field, I discovered drops of blood on the corn, as though it were dew from heaven; and I communicated it to many, both white and
black, in the neighborhood-and I then found on the leaves in the woods hieroglyphic characters and numbers, with the forces of men in different attitudes,
portrayed in blood, and representing the figures I had seen before in the heavens. And now the Holy Ghost had revealed itself to me, and made plain the miracles
it had shown me; for as the blood of Christ had been shed on this earth, and had ascended to heaven for the salvation of sinners, and was now returning to earth
again in the form of dew, -- and as the leaves on the trees bore the impression of the figures I had seen in the heavens, -- it was plain to me that the Saviour was
about to lay down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and the great day of judgment was at hand…
.. the Spirit appeared to me again and said, ‘As the Saviour had been baptized so should we be also;’—and when the white people would not let us be baptized
by the church, we went down into the water together, in the sight of many who reviled us, and were baptized by the Spirit…I heard a loud noise in the heavens,
and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should
take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.
Ques. Do you not find yourself mistaken now?
Ans. Was not Christ crucified? And by signs in the heavens that it would make known to me when I should commence the great work, and until the first sign
appeared I should conceal it from the knowledge of men; and on the appearance of the sign (the eclipse of the sun, last February), I should arise and prepare
myself, and slay my enemies with their own weapons…
Primary Sources on the web:
Divining America: http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/divam.htm
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic: http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/
African American Odyssey: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
Selected secondary sources:
Frank Lambert, The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America (Princeton UP,
2003).
Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias (New York: Oxford UP, 1994).
R. Laurence Moore, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture (Oxford
UP, 1994).