The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Reflecting a reembracing of spirituality, perhaps in reaction to the rationalism of Enlightenment thought, the Second Great Awakening describes a period in American history from the late 1700s to just before the Civil War when zeal for Protestant religious participation, church membership, and Bible study increased rapidly (Schwarz, 2005, p. 91). Along with this revival of personal piety grew a strong “evangelistic” desire to go throughout “the world and convert nonbelievers to Protestant Christianity” (Everett, 2018). While its genesis was discussions in 1806 among theology students at Williams College in Massachusetts who had a strong desire to go as missionaries, the American Board…