The Great Awakening

The Great Awakening was a religious devotion but alos an authority.
It was a wake up call that religion is not something you can make people do. I took place in the 1730's and 1740's in Great Britain and in the british colonies in North America.

It was a movement of church which should intensify the faith of people and which should garuantee the freedom of religious life. The people experienced new forms of religion, they experienced religion themselves and they learned that they are responsible for their actions.
The Great Awakening boosted little groups like the Baptists and in the time of 1740-1780 the number of churches grew twice its size.
It was ignited in Northampton, Massachusetts by the pastor Johnatan Edwards. He was a great preacher and he wanted everybody to have is personal religious experiences.
George Whitefield continued his doctrine, traveled to the british colonies and preached in a different style than Johnatan Edwards.( more emotional)
The great Awakening was to advance the interest in religion. The spiritual conversion was not necessary for the church membership.
Johnatan Edwards also preached to poor peolpe and also many young people decided to join the church. The people liked his preaching more than the speeches of chaplains, (as known as "Old Lights".)
So all in all the great Awakening underlined the massage that religion is not something you can make people do, no they have to experience their religion and faith themselves. This caused an evolution of the American Character of single person. The people should get independent.
It also contributed to the evolution of the ideal of seperation of church and state. The Puritans (before the Great Awakening) and also the church of England had a state religion. This means, the government is connected to the church. But this is exactly the thing the Great Awakening was against. The government shouldn't say what religion you have to attend and the government souldn't make laws for the church, too.
So because of this , I think the Great Awakening was a big progress of the church to be independent and this also supported the individuality of every person and caused an evolution of American character. Religion is not something you can make people do!!