First Great Awakening

A wave of Protestant revival in the British American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s, marked by itinerant preaching, emotional conversion, and challenges to established churches.

Itinerant preaching: Preaching by ministers who travel between communities rather than serving one settled congregation. Traveling ministers carried revival messages across colonial boundaries and beyond established parishes.
George Whitefield: An English Anglican evangelist whose tours drew large audiences in Britain and the American colonies. His colonial tours turned itinerant revival preaching into a transatlantic public event.
Pietism: A Protestant movement emphasizing personal devotion, practical faith, and heartfelt religious experience. Pietist emphases on inward faith helped shape the revival’s focus on personal conversion.
Baptist expansion in colonial America: The growth of Baptist congregations and influence in Britain’s American colonies. Revival preaching encouraged some converts to join or form Baptist congregations.
Field preaching: Preaching delivered outdoors to audiences gathered in open spaces. Outdoor sermons let revivalists address crowds larger than many colonial churches could hold.
Jonathan Edwards: A New England Congregational minister and theologian associated with the early revival. His sermons and writings defended revival while analyzing its emotional and spiritual effects.
Puritanism: A Protestant reform movement that sought to purify the Church of England and shaped New England society. New England revivalists inherited Puritan concerns about conversion, sin, and communal faith.
Methodism: A Protestant movement emphasizing disciplined devotion, evangelism, and personal holiness. The revival’s evangelical networks and practices helped create conditions for Methodism’s colonial growth.
Conversion: A change in religious belief or commitment, often understood as turning toward God. Revival preaching centered on personal conversion rather than mere church membership.
Gilbert Tennent: A Presbyterian minister in colonial America and a prominent revival preacher. His attacks on unconverted clergy sharpened controversy within Presbyterian churches.

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