The+Second+Great+Awakening

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

- Church memberships were falling by the end of the ** 18th century, only 1 in 20 Americans was a member. - The founding fathers did not have a large sense of religion and during the 1790's it started to come back utnil the beginning of the Civil War
 * Why did the revivals start?

- Preachers held meetings all over the country in attempt to revive the people. ** - It acquired the name the "Second Great Awakening," because it became so widespread like the first. - started in central Kentucky in a small community called Cane Ridge, Kentucky where 25,000 gathered to pray. - There were many different preachers, social classes, and religions that gathered. - Cane Ridge set the example and the meetings became more widespread.
 * Spreading the Revival:

- Evangelical means all people must recognize their depravity, repent their sins, and undergo and conversion experience which includes the rebirth of religious feelings. - They were a response to the growing separation of church and state that followed the Revolution - In the past Americans were turned away from religious ideas because of the aristocratic clergy members. - The Revivals kept people committed to higher values because they taught that everyone was capable of sinning. Drinking hard liquor, dueling, and using profanity were considered sins. - In the south they attracted slaves and blacks. - In the north they attracted mobile groups (people who moved around a lot), and middle class women. - New religions came from the revivals and the religions that already existed expanded during this time.
 * Evangelical Revivalism:

****Charles Finney:** - Presbyterian minister and revivalist. - He became a teacher at Oberlin College as a professor of Theology because he wanted to teach and influence the youth about the revivals. - He started preaching in the New York region and then later moved on to Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. - Published many novels that his lectures and ideas.

- He supported the idea of Repenting your sins instead of predestination. - He believed salvation depended on a persons will to reconcile (ask for forgiveness of their sins) on their own will instead of being forced to ask for forgiveness. - Supported mixed gender pray meetings, as he wanted females to be apart of the faith as well. - He said in order to go to heaven you need to be an overachiever and do good things. Now instead of just not being a bad person you need to go above and beyond if you wish to achieve salvation according to Finney. - He had a very strong view on slavery. - Prior to the revivals slavery was looked at as a necessary evil now it was seen as simply an evil - Southerners thought slavery was a good thing because they wanted to go to heaven so they had to convince themselves it was what was right. - The idea of Perfectionism is the idea that people can entirely avoid sin and this will get them into heaven. **
 * Finney's Beliefs: