Running head: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 1
History of Christianity
Name
Institutional Affiliation
History of Christianity
The paper focuses on the great awakening of Christianity. The awakening was influenced
by two main preachers namely; Whitefield and Edwards. The great awakening was developed by
Edwards and Whitefield through their passionate preaching styles of the Gospel through fear and
grace of God in order to facilitate people into converting into Christianity.
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Jonathan Edwards and his influence on the great awakening
Jonathan Edwards was a great theologian and philosopher of a religious movement first
started in Britain that had the sole purpose of purifying the church from the normal catholic
practices (Minkema, 2020). He was an influencer of the great awakening. He was born in
Connecticut, New Jersey in 1703 and died at the age of 54 in 1758. He was the only son of 11
children and was born as the fifth child. He was schooled at home and went to Yale College at
the age of 13 and later graduated at the age of 17. He got a Master’s degree in the study of
Divinity in 1723. He then became a tutor in Yale and worked alongside his grandfather who was
a pastor at the Northampton church. He then married to Sarah Pirrepont in 1727 and they had 11
children.
Edwards was a passionate observation and analysis individual. He took interest in the
optical heroics of the English scientist, Isaac Newton. He published scientific and philosophical
works in disproof of materialism and atheism. He recorded his thoughts in notebooks which
widely described a variety of what his interests are. He disagreed with the doctrine of
predisposition which is based on the belief that God saves some and condemns others to be
tormented (Minkema, 2020). He gradually reformed this way of thinking and came to discover a
profound understanding of God’s divine glory, a taste of Christ’s majesty and a beauty that is
transcended and is imprinted on the soul. God’s love and acceptance centered in all his
preaching. He strongly believed that the existence of the universe is wholly dependent on God’s
will. In relation to John Locke’s belief that perception is the source of all knowledge, Edwards
believed that perception is God’s way of communicating ideologies into someone’s mind hence
all knowledge depends on the will of God.
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Edwards took over pastorate work in Northampton after his grandfather died in 1927.
During the great awakening, Edwards used a method of preaching that triggered terror on his
congregation several times like in the Enfield sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
(1741). As a result, the great awakening led to disorders, radicals and civil interruptions.
Edwards maintained his belief that it was purely the work of God that was justified and it was
necessary to extend them and make them pure. Edwards emphasized on personal conversion. He
spoke against critiques of the great awakening, on their belief of a religion that is reasonable and
insisted that it is dependent on a love that relies on a quality on the inside that produces results
on the outside. He then wrote ‘Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible
Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer (1747),that helped get rid of a barrier of
missionary work ideology by arguing that the great tribulations as prophesied in the book of
Revelations(Holy Bible),were all in the past and now they should focus on the future so as to
enable the growth of the gospel.
He believed that I order to be qualified as a partaker of the Lord ’s Supper, one had to be
fully converted. This was to make his congregation view communion as a genuine admission and
implication of faith. This was opposed to his grandfather’s doctrines which allowed the
congregation to own the communion even if they were unconverted. This brought an astringed
relationship between Edwards and his congregation. This after a while got him dismissed from
Northampton. He did a final farewell sermon in 1950.he hem wrote two books; one was to get
the congregation convinced by his religious views and the other was to make a correction of his
works and sermons criticized by a kinsman pastor in Lebanon. He later did a pastorate at
Stockbridge in 1951 and later set aside his pastoral duties to write his work on the “freedom of
will” (1954). The will, according to Edwards goes hand in hand with preference. God holds men
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personally responsible for their moral uprightness in regards to improving their way of living and
withdrawal from this is dependent on the decisions they make.
George Whitefield and his influence on the great awakening
George Whitefield was a Church of England evangelist who was famously known for his
preaching (Jones, 2016). He was born in Gloucestershire, England in 1714 and died in 1770 at
the age of 56. During his school going days he became a big part of the great awakening. He
joined the missionary work of Methodists, John and Charles Wesley in the colony of Georgia in
1738. He joined a club of students who gathered to pray and fast and practice other religious
activities to bring about personal holiness. He became an evangelical preacher throughout the
American colonies and Ireland. He also had an orphanage in Georgia named Bethesda. He
believed that in order for someone to regard themselves as a religious person, they needed to
have an experience of rebirth in Jesus. This means that one must be born again to become a
follower of Christ. He spoke against a pre-established clergy advocating for a kind of religion
that relies on an individual’s personal growth.
He attracted masses due to his charismatic and passionate preaching methods (Jones,
2016). He put his emotions into his preaching and let the congregation see his reactions. To this
effect, the congregation associated emotional input to their religious commitment. He was
sometimes forced to preach in an open field when the crowds were too large to be confined in a
building. He preached daily insisting on seeking out abandoned groups like miners and slaves.
Critiques of the great awakening accused him of being illegitimate in his claims that he receives
a revelation from God. He in turn accused them of worshipping Satan and being ignorant of the
gospel. He travelled a lot between England and Georgia preaching wherever he could to whoever
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invited him to. His journey was well documented by the press and his preaching printed in the
pamphlets.
After taking a break from his tour during the great awakening, he travelled back to
England hoping it would be embraced though he later found things different. He was not allowed
in churches that did not agree to the great awakening. He also accepted donations from slaves
and bought a few himself to raise money for his orphanage in Georgia. To some small extent he
disagreed with the notion of slavery and due to this he became both a supporter and opposser of
slavery.
Comparison between Edwards’ and Whitefield’s Contribution to the Great Awakening.
Both Edwards and Whitefield were passionate in their preaching in relaying the message
of the Gospel to their respective congregations. In the great awakening they both used methods
of preaching that instilled fear in their congregation in order for them to convert into Christianity.
They boldly used hellfire representations in order to instill fear.
While both preachers agreed on the great awakening, they had significantly different
ways of relaying their message in contribution to the awakening. While Whitefield was a
charismatic and energetic kind of preacher, Edwards was a quiet and calm type of preacher.
Whitefield’s main message was based on being reborn through Christ in order to be considered a
follower while on the other hand Edwards placed an emphasis on the saving grace of God.
Whitefield triggered his congregation’s emotional response while Edwards mainly
triggered his congregation rational response. Whitefield was purely an evangelical preacher
while Edwards was both a preacher and a philosopher.
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Other Leaders who Contributed to the Great Awakening
Other than Whitefield and Edwards, there were other religious leaders who contributed to
the great awakening. These were William Tennent and Gilbert Tennent. Gilbert contributed to
the awakening through education. Gilber Tennent was the son to William. William Tennent
started a school and also taught his sons on Ministry. Ministers who attended this school were
later involved in contributing to the great awakening. Gilbert therefore followed his father’s steps
in Ministry after his death. Gilbert also ended up working with Whitefield which brought his
preaching to a success contributing to the awakening.
The paper discusses in detail about the contributions of Whitefield and Edwards to the
great awakening which brought about the modern-day evangelism. It gave birth to many modern
denominations like the Presbyterian and the Anglican church. Though different in preaching
styles, Whitefield and Edwards have to be considered the founding fathers of modern
Christianity.
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Bibliography
Minkema, Kenneth. Jonathan Edwards: A Theological Life.2020. 10.2307/j.ctvvh84xp.7.
Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341834162_Jonathan_Edwards_A_Theological
_Life
Jones, David. George Whitefield and Heart Religion. 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313640880_George_Whitefield_and_Heart_Rel
igion
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