John Wesley's Beliefs In The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was a time period where many religions were approaching revival through the American population under British rule. With religious fermentation sweeping western Europe in the late seventeen hundreds, independent religious practice in the British American colonies was inevitable. The movement was fully ignited by the preachings of George Whitefield. He drew significant crowds of colonists with his emotional sermons to convince people to convert to Calvinism. Colonial ministers put out a vast amount of energy in their masses which made colonists hesitant and doubtful. Men in the old line clergy found the revivalists questionable and ridiculous. Older New England denominations eventually split into two groups: “Old Lights” and “New Lights”. The Great Awakening was composed of religious revival, “Old Lights” and “New …show more content…
Freedom to speak your mind led George Whitefield, an associate of John Wesley, to preach revivals of the church that had been declining in previous years. Jonathan Hampton, a minister from Massachusetts, sprea his own unremitting Calvinism that clashed with other teachings being spread throughout the colonies. Since his views were so diverse and different, his preachings eventually costed him his pulpit. With people becoming more interested in religion, they felt like they had to share their beliefs with everyone. Many revivalists tried to conform Native Americans to the new ways of the newly reformed church.
When life in the colonies started to change, education was the first to be impacted. With change circulating within the colonies, people felt that they should have a better understanding of things. This yearning for a higher intellect led to the creation of Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Rutgers. These higher electoral colleges were obtainable to higher class men with the financial means to do