The Great Awakening directly led to the American Revolution as it was an era characterized by widespread religious revival and unity throughout the colonies. This unity was the result of religious public meetings and gatherings to revolt against England's unfair laws. Many religious leaders were also viewed as political leaders throughout the colonies. As salutary neglect came to an end, and Britain started enforcing laws that secured the idea of mercantilism, colonists became angry and gathered to discuss not only religion, but the unjust practices of the British Monarchy, and devised plans to counteract the unfair leadership of Britain. At first, the Great Awakening split the colonies between people who followed the enlightenment, and people
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George Whitefield, also called the "Grand Itinerant", united colonists of different Protestant denominations around a shared "born-again" experience. More than the others, Whitefield drew together into a common experience the separate, local revivals that had gotten the attention of the British world by the 1740’s. In his absence, these local disturbances can continue to grow as they had been doing since the 1690s, but they will never reach the threshold of general awareness of "a great and extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit. The idea of rebirth really fell around Whitefield and Edwards, as they preached about rebirth throughout their sermons. In Alan Heimert’s argument, he divides late eighteenth-century Americans into evangelicals and anti evangelicals, linking evangelicals to the revolution and argued the preacher Jonathan Edwards as the intellectual predecessor of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. His anti evangelicals resisted the Revolution or embraced it awkwardly and with reservations. Alan Heimert’s argument has faced a lot of opposition, as many believe Jonathan Edwards did have an impact of the Revolutionary War and he did support the revolution. Heimert argues the split of evangelicals and anti-evangelicals really defined the views of the each group on the revolution. He argued that
George Whitefield, also called the "Grand Itinerant", united colonists of different Protestant denominations around a shared "born-again" experience. More than the others, Whitefield drew together into a common experience the separate, local revivals that had gotten the attention of the British world by the 1740’s. In his absence, these local disturbances can continue to grow as they had been doing since the 1690s, but they will never reach the threshold of general awareness of "a great and extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit. The idea of rebirth really fell around Whitefield and Edwards, as they preached about rebirth throughout their sermons. In Alan Heimert’s argument, he divides late eighteenth-century Americans into evangelicals and anti evangelicals, linking evangelicals to the revolution and argued the preacher Jonathan Edwards as the intellectual predecessor of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. His anti evangelicals resisted the Revolution or embraced it awkwardly and with reservations. Alan Heimert’s argument has faced a lot of opposition, as many believe Jonathan Edwards did have an impact of the Revolutionary War and he did support the revolution. Heimert argues the split of evangelicals and anti-evangelicals really defined the views of the each group on the revolution. He argued that