A Brief History of Christianity Part Four – The Great Awakening & Rationalism
HOW THINGS WORK - BOOK II SCIENCE & RELIGION – CONSIDERATION #162
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TUESDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2024
"We can preach the Gospel of Christ no further than we have experienced the power of it in our own hearts. "
― George Whitefield
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
The Crusades helped to divide the “One Universal Church” into an Eastern Orthodox Church, that was more in line with the original Apostle’s view of the Christian Church, and a Western Roman Catholic Church that reflected a more Pauline version of the Church that fit well within a Roman approach to authority in the form of a one all-powerful Pope. Essentially, a religious emperor. In addition, the Protestant Reformation further divided Christianity and led to a plethora of new Christian sects. Now, in addition to long standing feudal and ethnic divisions and resentments, there were new religious divisions and resentments growing in Europe.
“In Europe, Catholic and Protestant nations often persecuted or forbade each other's religions… In Great Britain, the Protestant Anglican church had split into bitter divisions among traditional Anglicans and the reforming Puritans, contributing to an English civil war in the 1600s.”
– Library of Congress (Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1)
This led many Europeans to migrate to the “New World” and establish their own unique form of Christianity away from the religious limitations and restrictions of Europe.
“Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe. The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established ‘as plantations of religion’… the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create ‘a city on a hill’ or a ‘holy experiment,’ whose success would prove that God's plan for his churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness.”
– Library of Congress (Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1)
However, most of those fleeing Europe were not seeking religious freedom for “everyone.” They were very much intent on implementing their own unique understanding of Christianity in the “New World.” Each sect attempting to impose their vision and interpretation on everyone else. It was not an attempt to implement religious pluralism.
“The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that uniformity of religion must exist in any given society…
Nonconformists could expect no mercy and might be executed as heretics. The dominance of the concept, denounced by Roger Williams as "inforced uniformity of religion," meant majority religious groups who controlled political power punished dissenters in their midst. In some areas Catholics persecuted Protestants, in others Protestants persecuted Catholics, and in still others Catholics and Protestants persecuted wayward coreligionists.”
– Library of Congress (Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1)
The purpose for many moving to the American colonies was not related to general religious freedom, but to their own unique individual religious freedom and a possibility for establishing the “correct” form of Christianity in the New World.
CONSIDERATION #160 – The Great Awakening & Rationalism
Although the concept of universal religious freedom does eventually become a part of the American Dream it was not the motivation for most people immigrating to America in early colonial times. Colonies developed around the particular Christian sect, or sects, that founded them.
“Although most colonists considered themselves Christians, this did not mean that they lived in a culture of religious unity. Instead, differing Christian groups often believed that their own practices and faiths provided unique values that needed protection against those who disagreed, driving a need for rule and regulation…
In the early years of what later became the United States, Christian religious groups played an influential role in each of the British colonies, and most attempted to enforce strict religious observance through both colony governments and local town rules.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs)
Early America reflected a variety of religious views essentially established within specific regions: New England Colonies, Mid-Atlantic Colonies, and Southern Colonies. These regions manifested the specific purposes and intentions of those settling in that specific area related to their specific objectives. Many of the differences between these regions were put aside in order to unite in a common revolution against Britain; however, many of them would later reappear in a disunion of the nation leading to the Civil War.
The root of these differences often stemmed from a resentment related to religious schisms and a legacy of violent religious oppression sometimes encompassing centuries of embitterment going all the way back to Europe.
“Although England renounced religious persecution in 1689, it persisted on the European continent. Religious persecution, as observers in every century have commented, is often bloody and implacable and is remembered and resented for generations.”
– Library of Congress (Religion and the Founding of the American Republic America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, Part 1)
The New England colonies, with the exception of Rhode Island, consisted of a Protestant sect of Christians called Puritans. Puritans lived a strict religious life under the authority of a highly educated elite who studied both Scripture and Natural Science and directly connected their theology to politics.
“Government in these colonies contained elements of theocracy, asserting that leaders and officials derived that authority from divine guidance and that civil authority ought to be used to enforce religious conformity. Their laws assumed that citizens who strayed away from conventional religious customs were a threat to civil order and should be punished for their nonconformity.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs)
However, even the New England Puritans were beginning to consider a division between the direct power of the “state” and the direct power of the “church.”
“New England churches operated quite differently from the older Anglican system in England. Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut had no church courts to levy fines on religious offenders, leaving that function to the civil magistrates. Congregational churches typically owned no property (even the local meetinghouse was owned by the town and was used to conduct both town meetings and religious services), and ministers, while often called upon to advise the civil magistrates, played no official role in town or colony governments.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs)
Although not implemented directly by the church, the punishment delivered by the official magistrate was often just as harsh.
“In those colonies, the civil government dealt harshly with religious dissenters, exiling the likes of Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams for their outspoken criticism of Puritanism, and whipping Baptists or cropping the ears of Quakers for their determined efforts to proselytize. Official persecution reached its peak between 1659 and 1661, when Massachusetts Bay’s Puritan magistrates hung four Quaker missionaries.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs)
Despite the passage of the Toleration Act of 1689 by the English Parliament, which the colonists were subject to, religious persecution persisted in both England and its American colonies.
The “middle” Mid-Atlantic and Southern colonies reflected a greater diversity of religious sects than the generally “Puritan” New England colonies. Maryland was founded specifically as a “safe haven” for Catholics in 1634, Quakers founded Pennsylvania in 1681, and Anglicans never constituted a majority in the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, or Delaware.
“The middle colonies saw a mixture of religions, including Quakers (who founded Pennsylvania), Catholics, Lutherans, a few Jews, and others. The southern colonists were a mixture as well, including Baptists and Anglicans. In the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland (which was originally founded as a haven for Catholics), the Church of England was recognized by law as the state church, and a portion of tax revenues went to support the parish and its priest.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs)
Much of America’s religious diversity was fostered by absolute necessity and the very nature of America itself.
“Local variations in Protestant practices and ethnic differences among the white settlers did foster a religious diversity. Wide distances, poor communication and transportation, bad weather, and the clerical shortage dictated religious variety from town to town and from region to region. With French Huguenots, Catholics, Jews, Dutch Calvinists, German Reformed pietists, Scottish Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, and other denominations arriving in growing numbers, most colonies with Anglican or Congregational establishments had little choice but to display some degree of religious tolerance.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs
Although, some colonies were founded for the specific purpose of establishing true religious diversity in the New Word.
“Indeed, Pennsylvania’s first constitution stated that all who believed in God and agreed to live peacefully under the civil government would ‘in no way be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion of practice.’”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs
Despite America’s rocky beginnings related to religious diversity, it still eventually became the mechanism for “freedom of religion” and a “separation of church and state” related to direct government authority and political participation in the United States Constitution.
POSTSCRIPT
Two key factors that shaped the direction of religion in America was The Great Awakening and Rationalism.
“The Great Awakening was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the 1730s and 1740s. The movement came at a time when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale. Christian leaders often traveled from town to town, preaching about the gospel, emphasizing salvation from sins and promoting enthusiasm for Christianity. The result was a renewed dedication toward religion. Many historians believe the Great Awakening had a lasting impact on various Christian denominations and American culture at large.”
History. com – The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening attempts to essentially break the power of the church, any church, and give it directly back to each individual Christian. There is actually no need for a church at all, which is reflected by the itinerant “preachers” who moved from town to town holding “spiritual” revivals.
“Relying on massive open-air sermons attended at times by as many as 15,000 people, the movement challenged the clerical elite and colonial establishment by focusing on the sinfulness of every individual, and on salvation through personal, emotional conversion—what we call today being “born again.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs
One of the key initiators of this new movement, that was open to everyone, was George Whitefield, who came from England to advance this unique form of direct “Christian Evangelism.”
“Whitefield preached to common people, slaves and Native Americans. No one was out of reach. Even Benjamin Franklin, a religious skeptic, was captivated by Whitefield’s sermons, and the two became friends.”
History. com – The Great Awakening
Most historians agree that The Great Awakening was a key factor in making the American Revolution against England possible. The same “independent spirit” of that movement naturally evolved into an “independent spirit” in other areas of reality.
“In retrospect, the Great Awakening contributed to the revolutionary movement in a number of ways: it forced Awakeners to organize, mobilize, petition, and provided them with political experience; it encouraged believers to follow their beliefs even if that meant breaking with their church; it discarded clerical authority in matters of conscience; and it questioned the right of civil authority to intervene in all matters of religion. In a surprising way, these principles sat very well with the basic beliefs of rational Protestants (and deists). They also helped clarify their common objections to British civil and religious rule over the colonies, and provided both with arguments in favor of the separation of church and state.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs
The fact that many of these ideas worked well with the Rationalism of Enlightenment philosophy followed by many Deists helped to solidify a common approach regarding individual liberty and autonomy.
“Whether Unitarian, deist, or even Anglican/Congregational, rationalism focused on the ethical aspects of religion… The political edge of this argument was that no human institution—religious or civil—could claim divine authority. In addition, in their search for God’s truths, rationalists such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin valued the study of nature (known as “natural religion”) over the Scriptures (or “revealed religion”).
At the core of this rational belief was the idea that God had endowed humans with reason so that they could tell the difference between right and wrong. Knowing the difference also meant that humans made free choices to sin or behave morally. The radicalization of this position led many rational dissenters to argue that intervention in human decisions by civil authorities undermined the special covenant between God and humankind. Many therefore advocated the separation of church and state.
Taken further, the logic of these arguments led them to dismiss the divine authority claimed by the English kings, as well as the blind obedience compelled by such authority. Thus, by the 1760s, they mounted a two-pronged attack on England: first, for its desire to intervene in the colonies’ religious life and, second, for its claim that the king ruled over the colonies by divine inspiration. Once the link to divine authority was broken, revolutionaries turned to Locke, Milton, and others, concluding that a government that abused its power and hurt the interests of its subjects was tyrannical and as such deserved to be replaced.”
– Facing History & Ourselves (Religion in Colonial America: Trends, Regulations, and Beliefs
According to Digital History. com, the nature of religion in the British colonies directly led to five key principles that that evolved into the American Revolution:
1. The American colonies were settled by people of deep religious convictions who crossed the Atlantic to escape religious persecution and practice their faith freely. New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were founded for religious reasons.
2. The Great Awakening of the 1730s and '40s, the first event shared by all the colonists, promoted the growth of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. It convinced many Americans that God works directly through the people and that Christ's Second Coming was rapidly approaching.
3. Religion contributed greatly to the Revolution. Many clergy pictured the Church of England as a dangerous, almost diabolical, enemy of American freedom and argued that resistance to tyranny was a Christian duty.
4. Both the central and state governments were convinced that morality and national survival depended upon religion. But there was also a growing belief that government and the churches should be separate. Intense debate erupted over the propriety of government providing tax support to an established church or indeed to any churches.
5. The Revolution gave rise to the American System of religious pluralism: Churches were disestablished, that is, they lost tax support.
History. com – The Great Awakening
Eventually, the influence of religious diversity in America led to a codified level of “religious freedom” and “separation of church and state” never seen before. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and Article VI of the Constitution declares, “No religious Test shall ever be required as Qualification for federal office holders,” essentially guaranteeing individual religious liberty, and eliminating the possibility of a state theocracy, such as the “Church of England.”
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