A Wonderful Work Of God Puritanism and the Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was the American colonial phase of an evangelical revival marking a re-emergence of Reformation fervor that swept through Britain and the colonies during the early eighteenth century. The movement was characterized by mass meetings. In the colonies, local revivals roused by Congregational and Presbyterian ministers such as Jonathan Edwards and Gilbert Tennent were knitted into a mass movement by the charismatic Anglican, George Whitefield. The movement was soon discredited, however, by the extremes reached by radical preachers such as James Davenport. By 1742, it was a spent force, and disintegrated into quarreling factions. However, various divines such as Edwards and Charles Chauncy hammered out important new doctrinal positions. Many of the Friends of Revival later became Baptists; some of the Opposers, Unitarians. The effects of the Great Awakening have been long-lasting, especially in America.