Great awakening essays

Great awakening essays American Philosophy in the eighteenth century was divided into two halves. The first heavily influenced by the Calvinism of the Puritans, the second more directly along the lines of the European Enlightenment and associated with the political philosophy of the Founding Fathers (Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, etc...). The age of the Enlightenment began when people started to question authority, religion, and philosophize about life and science. The First Great Awakening was started to bring the fire back into religion. Both the Great Awakening and Enlightenment played a big role in contributing to the growth of colonial America and independent. The powerful Enlightenment ideas of the eighteenth century, concerning reason and natural law, spread widely throughout Europe and its colonies and gave hope to many people for future progress and reform. As England gained control over the colonies in America, many colonists felt victimized by the unfair treatment they were receiving from their country. They used the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers, or Philosophies, in their aim for independence and liberties. The Enlightenment ideas also spurred the discontented French to revolt against their unfair ruling class. Both, the Americans and the French, were enlightened by the new, liberal and logical thoughts, and these encouraged them to demand change in the social order and unjust authorities they were subjected to. The ideas of the Enlightenment were spread through the writings of many Philosophies, through different intellectual gatherings, and through traveling. Enlightenment was used as a weapon against the old French society and encouraged tolerance, reasoning, and improvement of society. Considered as revitalization, an awakening of religious devotion, called the Great Awakening. The fear of the flames of hell swept through the American colonies, mainly in New England, between 1730-1745. The Great Awakening st...