Religious Revivals: The Great Awakenings

Religion suffered some major setbacks in the 18th and 19th centuries as Enlightenment thinkers challenged religious dogma by introducing the world to a new scientific method as a means to understand the workings of the universe. Religious "mysteries" were explained and dogma was questioned by scientists and intellectuals who introduced to the world the Enlightenment concepts of Rationalism, Relativism, and Individualism. The power and influence of the church was under siege by the rise of secularism, which is the belief that religion should hold no place in public life. In response to this, the church mounted a few religious revivals in the last two centuries to try to reclaim its position as the moral and spiritual leader of the world. The first of these revivals is known as the Great Awakening, which occurred between the years 1730 and 1760. This movement was lead by the Puritan minister Jonathan Edwards, whom we have studied in the previous marking period. His passionate and intense sermons attracted a tremendous following; his sermons were often terrifying pictures of hell and damnation, a hell that can only be avoided by the saving grace of accepting Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah, the Savior of Mankind. His most famous sermon was entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"; the title itself suggests the terrifying repercussions of living a life without redemption. This revival settled down after 1760, only to be revived again between the years 1800 and 1830. This period is known as the Second Great Awakening. Once again, religious leaders achieved a large following by emphasizing a return to the roots of Christianity, focusing on the belief of Original Sin and seeking forgiveness from Jesus. It is the belief of Original Sin and this return to fundamental Christian beliefs that are the core of a new movement that began after 1840 known as Anti-Transcendentalism.

Emerson's Man-Thinker, from The American Scholar

In Ralph Waldo Emerson's speech, The American Scholar, he uses the term "man-thinking" to denote an independent thinker, or one who is free of constraining fetters of conformity and dogmatic beliefs. The mind of the independent thinker is engaged by the spectacles of nature and ponders his connection to "the inexplicable continuity of this web of God." The scholar sees his connection to nature and his soul's reflection therein; thus, to study and contemplate nature is to study and contemplate one's soul. The scholar also finds inspiration in books and knowledge; however, the true man-thinker uses this rich source of information to create ideas relevant and reflective of his day. He does not deify past thinkers nor apotheosize their works. Great minds think against themselves and accepted ideas in an attempt to arrive at their own personal truth; they are not afraid of contradiction and change. One of interesting comments Emerson makes about the universe is it is "without center, without circumference." (If you saw the movie "I (heart) Huckabees" this should sound familiar.) The size and scope of the universe is beyond our imagination and understanding. What thoughts do you have about the universe? What thoughts does the universe inspire you to think? Think for yourself and be a non-conformist.

Transcendentalism

We can think of the literary and social movement called Transcendentalism as the American child of Romanticism because the former stems from and was engendered by the latter. They both have many ideas and perspectives in common, but Transcendentalism takes these ideas a bit further. The basic precept, or rule, of Trans'ism is : The basic truths of the Universe lie beyond the knowledge we obtain through our senses. Through senses, we learn the facts and laws of the physical world, and we can create science and technology, but there is another realm of knowledge that exists beyond what we can hear, see, or learn from books. We must use the sense of Intuition to transcend the physical world if we want to know the existence of our souls and our realation to the meta-reality beyond the physical world. Because we cannot use our senses to understand this spiritual reality, we can only understand it through direct experience. What the Trans'ists were seeking is direct communion with the Over-Soul, which is an idea very similiar to Brahman, which is a shared universal soul that connects and includes all forms of Being- God, humanity, nature. Therefore, a Trans'ist feels ALL living beings are significant, from the smallest flea to the most important human. Everything is a significant part of this Universal Spirit the Over-Soul.

The Enlightenment: The Rise of New Governments

Kings, emperors, and czars have ruled over Europe for hundreds of years, and the general public accepted them as their rulers because they believed they were placed in this hierarchical position of supremacy by a divine deity. This hierarchical structure of society was never really questioned because most people simply could not conceive of another form of government or society; however, as Enlightenment thinkers questioned everything around them, they turned their attention to the political sphere and began to question the long-standing tradition of a monarchy. English political thinker John Locke believed a government should be subject to the people, not the people as subjects to the government, as under a monarchy. Locke suggested the idea that the governments sole purpose is to secure the rights of the governed- the protection of the life, liberty, and property of all- and if a government begins to abuse those rights or ceases to defend them effectively, the governed have a moral right to overthrow that government and replace it with one that does the job properly. If this idea sounds familiar it is because this is the exact same idea propounded in the American Declaration of Independence. The type of government suggested by Locke involves a type of social contract between the government and the governed in which the governed agree to give up a certain amount of individual freedom in exchange for the protection of their individual rights. One of the key concepts to arise from this time period is the idea of inalienable rights. These are certain rights each individual has that cannot be taken away. Intellectuals and revolutionaries sought a new form of government that would constitutionalize the rights of citizens and deprive the State of any right to set those human liberties aside. The culmination of these ideas is ultimately expressed in the Constitution of the United States of America.

The Enlightenment: The Decline of the Church

German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) declared the Enlightenment creed in 1784: Sapere aude! "Dare to Know!" The Enlightenment was a period of intense intellectual fervor and advancement that we can date from 1650 to 1800. During this period, philosophers, intellectuals, scientists, and laymen began to question and challenge the authority of the Church and State in a frenzied pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the world. The roots of the Enlightenment begin with the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, when scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton made discoveries that shook the very foundation of Church dogma, creating a bitter, antagonistic relationship between religion and science that continues to this day. The Age of Exploration introduced Europeans to new cultures, new religions, and new ideas that opened the doors to innovative and novel ways of thinking. Also, the explorers brought back with them new plants and animals that added fuel to the scientific curiosity sweeping across Europe. These two factors led to the declining influence of the Church and to the rise of either religious reform or the abandonment of religion altogether. The Enlightenment saw the rise of Deism as an alternative to organized religions, differing from the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) in that it viewed God as a sort of "cosmic watchmaker" who created the universe and set it in autonomous motion and never again tampered with it. They fulminated against the dogma and doctrines of organized religion and believed god's revelation to mankind existed in man's communion with nature, not through the hearsay of prophets and the Bible. Contrary to popular belief, the founding fathers of the United States were Deists, not Christians.

The Crucible, Essay Topic

Arthur Miller's play The Crucible is an allegory set in the theocratic Puritan settlement of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The author uses actual historic events as a backdrop for his condemnation of the paranoia and hysteria over the threat of Communism that consumed the United States during the Cold War. The town of Salem was consumed by its own fear of witchcraft, which led to 150 people arrested and imprisoned, 29 people convicted of the capital felony of witchcraft, and 19 executed by hanging. Five more people died in prison while they awaited trial. Although the play has been slightly altered for literary and symbolic purposes, we can use the characters, their actions and motives, and the themes of the play to gain a better understanding of the history, and we can apply this knowledge to understand our modern world and contemporary issues. Choose one of the following three topics to write an essay:
I. Discuss three instances in which a character's concern for Reputation affects the action and events of the play.
II. Discuss three characters who use the hysteria of the witch hunt to express or release repressed feelings of anger, lust, guilt, jealousy, or frustration.
III. Play the part of Devil's advocate and defend three of the following characters: Abigail, Tom, Ann, Parris, Mary, Danforth, and John (regarding his affair and sin). Provide extenuating circumstances that may soften the readers' judgment of them.
This is a five-paragraph essay, size 11 font, 4-5 pages. You must provide at least 2 quotations for each body paragraph. The introduction of the essay is very important. You must demonstrate a solid understanding of Puritanism in order to establish yourself as someone who is qualified to write about the subject.

Puritans in the New World

Puritanism is a form of Protestantism that developed in the 16th century. Protestantism, like Catholicism, is a form of Christianity, and it was the dominant religion in England since 1536 when King Henry VIII founded the Protestant Church of England. The early Puritans were discontented with the state of religious affairs in England and the direction in which the Church of England seemed to be headed. They strongly disapproved of London life, with all of its plays, theatre, art, and literature (remember the Renaissance was in full effect) because they believe all of these activities lead to spiritual corruption and moral decay. The Puritans believed their interpretation of the word of God is the absolute truth, and the pursuit of Grace and the worship of God is to be pursued each and every minute of every day, not just on Sundays. To them, the fact that England was ruled by a monarchy, or a king, was upsetting because a king, or any political leader in charge of the state, was too often influenced by politics, corruption, or state affairs instead of adhering strictly to the moral guidelines set out in the New Testament. Without a proper spiritual and moral authority, the people would retrogress into a natural state of sin and disorder in a sort of spiritual recidivism. A more suitable form of government for a Puritan would be a Theocracy, in which a Puritan authority would establish, rule, and enforce the laws. When exploration of the New World in North America commenced, the Puritans saw a way to separate from the Church of England and the English monarchy and establish themselves in a new land. Because of what they considered to be persecutions and tribulations, the Puritans quickly identified themselves with the Israelites, who were the chosen people of God in the Old Testament, and they began to look at the New World as the future center of Christianity where they would build a new "City on a Hill." The allusion is a Biblical reference to the reconstruction of Jerusalem by the Israelites from a wasteland into the spiritual center of the Benei Israel, the descendants of Israel; the Puritans felt a divine mission to reconstruct Christianity from its European "wasteland" in the New World.