The Great Awakening Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Great Awakening - Essay Example The Puritans gained ascendency as a reaction to the perceived corruption and worldliness of the Church of England, while Catholics were a small minority. In 1670, Charles 11, followed by James 11, reestablished Catholic control. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw William and Mary put an end to Catholicism, repress other minority religious groups and unequivocally reinstate the Church of England as the dominant religion. The Anglican clergy shunned doctrinal extremes and adopted a moderate path. Religious belief was confined to mere nominal participation in church services. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Charles and John Wesley, along with others like George Whitefield, â€Å"reacted against the coldness of religion and the deistic rationalism which prevailed† and revived the personal significance of the gospels (Great-Awakening.com, n.d.). These were the seeds of the Great Awakening. ... The political scene in England, described above, engendered an atmosphere of uncertainty in the colonies. These economic and political changes diverted the populace from religious concerns. Orthodox Calvinism was also challenged by the rationalism of the Enlightenment, which rejected the Puritan emphasis on the â€Å"inherent depravity† of human nature. The Enlightenment’s emphasis on logic and reason led to the study of theology being superseded by the introduction of math, science, law, and medicine into the college curriculums. Economic success and rational thought took precedence over religion and led to a laxity of morals. This weakening of religious commitment was further exacerbated by compromise within the Congregational Church. In order to stop the sharp decline in church congregations, the Congregational Churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts adopted the Halfway Covenant in 1662, by which churches baptized the second generation of Puritans as infants, with the assumption that they would be converted later in life. Again, the churches ignored the failure of this generation to adhere to this conversion stricture. The children of unregenerate Puritans were baptized but forbidden communion. By thus isolating the third generation of Puritans from the traditional means of receiving God's grace, this Covenant furthered the degeneration of the church. In 1690, the â€Å"halfway members† of the church were allowed to receive Communion. In effect, â€Å"the second and third generations of Puritans failed to demonstrate the same devotion and discipline that the original Puritans had practiced† (Valkenburg, 2011).  In 1708, the Saybrook Platform, or fifteen â€Å"Articles for the Administration of Church Discipline,† attempted to