It is said that the political and socio-religious reform in America can be traced back to the Great Awakening. Most Americans have heard of the Great Awakening, and to some extent are aware of its profound impact on the course of the United States. The question is, Did a Great Awakening really occur in mid-eighteenth century America? Of course, the notion of the Great Awakening has been denied by many modern scholars, such as Jon Butler. In his article, Enthusiasm Described and Decried: The Great Awakening as Interpretive Fiction,” Butler writes that “[T]he label ‘the Great Awakening’ [] distorts the character of eighteenth-century American religious life and misinterprets its relationship to prerevolutionary American society and politics” (Butler). However, according to Frank Lambert, from the Perdue University, the religious community was responsible for the revivals that occurred. According to Lambert, “Revivals are extraordinary religious events” (Lambert 22) and can therefore, be cohesively grouped under the label of “The Great Awakening.” Perhaps this is why Butler’s thesis is not very compelling.
On the other hand, in The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America, Thomas S. Kidd tries to renew the old notion of Great Awakening, which according to him occurred in the form of Protestant revivals during the mid-eighteenth century. In his thesis, Kidd examines “what we might call the long First Great Awakening and the contest to define its boundaries” (Kidd 102). Like Lambert, Kidd is firm on his belief that this religious movement was promoted by many religious leaders. The reason Kidd’s thesis is more compelling is because he addresses America’s current fascination with evangelicalism and how this tradition has found its way into American politics, which is quite true. The birth of evangelism of course took place during the Great Awakening. Thus, Kidd succeeds at convincing that evangelic preachers who started to spread after the Great Awakening, played an integral role in the lives of Americans, and thus, proving that there was indeed such a thing as a Great Awakening.
Works Cited
Butler, Jon. "Did a Great Awakening really occur in mid-eighteenth century America?" Madaras, Larry , and James M. SoRelle. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, The Colonial Period to Reconstruction. 15th ed. 1. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Kidd, Thomas S. "The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America." Madaras, Larry , and James M. SoRelle. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, The Colonial Period to Reconstruction. 15th ed. 1. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Lambert, Frank. Inventing the "Great Awakening". Princeton University Press, 2001. Print.
