Great Awakening Essay

Explain the Great Awakening and assess the extent to which it, an intensely religious movement, contributed to the development of the separation of Church and State in America.

The Great Awakening was an American religious revival of the 1730s and 1740s. It originally began with Jonathan Edwards of Northampton, Massachusetts, who gave fiery speeches that scared people back into faith. This movement eventually came to be led by George Whitfield, who hosted and preached at revivals, speaking with passion and charisma that made people roll in the snow with religious excitement. The Great Awakening was also the first spontaneous mass movement of Americans, and it united them as a single people.
However, although the Great Awakening was a religious movement, it also contributed to the separation of Church and State in America. First, this is because of the many schisms that occurred during the movement. With so many new churches, it became increasingly harder for a single religion to be viewed as the colonies' "official" religion. In addition, many people became baptists, who were in favor of separating Church and State. More importantly, the Great Awakening revived religious in an individual sense. Emotion became much more common in religion, so religion became more personal. It became something that people would not want to associate with those ruling over them.
It is also possible, since the Great Awakening united Americans, that it severed Church and State further because the unity of the two reminded Americans of their overseas rulers. Much like an angsty teen, America's increase in religious toleration and non-government sponsored churches could have been an act with the purpose of rebellion. Also, since many colonists left England in flee of religious persecution, they knew the flaws of the unity of Church and State. England had taught Americans to hate such a unity.