The%20Religious%20Awakening%20(Again)

1
The Religious Awakening (Again)

• Maybe we hit the snooze button the first time
  around ?
• (pages 266-273)

2
A Second Great Awakening(early to mid 1800s)

• Many Protestants concerned over growing
  immorality
• Revivalist preachers wanted to
  revive/reenergize religion in US
• Evangelical movt high energy and emotional
  played on mob mentality
• Debate over church/state relationship

3
African-Americans/Slaves

• Welcomed by some northern evangelical churches
• Established their own churches
• Slaves
• Offer of an afterlife in paradise was appealing

4
New Religious Groups

• Mormons
• Led by Joseph Smith (NY)
• Church membership expanded quickly
• Bigamy controversial belief (no longer part of
  Mormon church now only with some LDS)
• Group structure made them fairly wealthy and
  politically influential
• Kept moving west, led by Brigham Young, founded a
  number of towns
• Unitarians viewed God as a trinity
• Viewed as a liberal movement

5
Discrimination

• Focused on non-Protestants
• Roman Catholics
• Fear of loyalty to pope before country
• Connected with poor Irish immigrants
• Jews
• Also often barred from political office
• 1840s increasing number of Jewish immigrants
• Also targeted by Nativist groups

6
Transcendentalism

• Part of the Utopian Movement
• Believed that people could transcend their
  senses and reach a higher understanding of the
  world and God
• Harmony with nature was the path to
  enlightenment, not religious doctrine/dogma
• Emphasis on the power and awe of nature
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau wrote on civil disobedience
  as well

7
Creation of an American Culture

• Websters dictionary standardize American
  English
• Hudson River School of Art