The Great Awakening is another name for the remarkable revival of religious enthusiasm that occurred in the eighteenth century. This widespread revival affected not only England, but Wales, Scotland and the new colonies in America. It has probably been the most significant religious movement in the western world since the reformation and has had lasting effects on our modern church life.

In this paper we will survey the field from which the revival grew. We will look at three of the major elements of the revival and then examine some of its fruit.

We will focus primarily on what happened in England because this was the major source of influence on the Anglican church. Our focus is on the development of the Christian church and its faith. So political, intellectual and social history will form the background to our study.

2. SURVEYING THE FIELD

The eighteenth century was the time when the world changed from ancient to modern. Massive changes in science, in intellectual thought and in industrial practice introduced a way of life which was radically different from the period of the Renaissance and Reformation.

In the field from which the Revival sprang, there were many other species. Some competed with gospel religion and some assisted its growth. Let's look at some of the influences and groups that were part of eighteenth century life.

2.1 Dissenters

The Dissenters were the heirs of the Puritans. After the Act of Uniformity in 1662 thousands of puritan clergy left the Church of England. By the eighteenth century four groups had survived. The Quakers had drifted apart as a distinct group. Although they had been the most uncompromising group in the post Restoration era, by the 1700's they were no longer a significant force. They did however become very wealthy and some of the great banking houses of England owe their origins to Quakers.

The Presbyterians developed broad theological views during the eighteenth century so that by its end many were Unitarians. The evangelical revival had little impact on them.

The Congregationalists (or Independents) were a loose grouping of independent autonomous local churches. They and the Particular Baptists were affected by the revival.

2.2 Roman Catholics

The Catholics were a small and discouraged minority. The Hanoverian age did not persecute them, although there was continuing suspicion of them, especially at any suggestion of the restoration of the Catholic line of James II.

2.3 Pietism

Pietism emerged in Germany as a reaction to the rigidity and formalism of church and theological life. It emphasised personal religion, piety, the fear of God, and looked for a freshness and vitality in preaching and worship. Its leaders looked back to Luther for some of their inspiration and so formed a link with the reformation.

Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf established a community at Herrnhut, offering asylum in 1722 to Moravian refugees escaping religious persecution. The community attracted others looking for a renewed experience of God. They developed a powerful corporate fellowship combined with strong personal experiences. Zinzendorf emphasised simple child-like faith and saw love as a warm emotional experience at the heart of true Christianity.

From Herrnhut missionaries went out to the new world, including America where some later met up with John Wesley

Pietism was important because it added an important emphasis on emotional, personal and corporate experience to the revival especially in its Wesleyan form.

Examples of the worship and emphasis of this community appear in two hymns by Zinzendorf: Jesus thy blood and righteousness, and Heart and heart unite together, in the Australian Hymn Book numbers 137 and 363.

2.4 High Church Party

The High Church group had important influences in the eighteenth century. Their major agenda to restore a national church with its old practices and without dissenters and catholics was not achieved. However their emphasis on strict and sacramental devotion was attractive to many including Wesley.

2.5 Religious Societies

Moral life in England after the Restoration declined and by the turn of the century a number of religious societies had sprung up. The Societies for the restoration of Manners was formed in 1691, the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in 1698, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1701. Other societies also sprang up to spread the Christian faith and to introduce people to "primitive Christianity". They offered spiritual direction, and encouraged prayer, fasting and the like. They developed to counteract the moral decline of the age.

John and Charles Wesley's "Holy Club" was a similar society which they formed when they were undergraduates at the University of Oxford.

2.6 Pluralism and the Church of England

The quality of church life varied immensely. Many parish clergy were faithful workers. Others were notoriously immoral or just absent. One of the accepted abuses of the parish system was pluralism. This meant that one person might "have the living", that is, be the rector of more than one parish. One reason for this is that different parishes offered different amounts of income. In some the income was insufficient to provide for a man and his family. Thus those who could, acquired more than one living. Others acquired livings for the sake of status and money. One result of this was that many parishes did not have a resident minister. Furthermore because one man might have more than one parish, the actual work of providing services was done by curates who were often paid a pittance.

Thus the quality of pastoral care varied a great deal, and left many parishioners hungry for something better.

2.7 The Hanoverians

After the overthrow of the Catholic Stuart king James II, neither William and Mary (1688-1702), nor their successor Queen Anne (1702 - 1714) had any heirs. The Act of Settlement (1701) provided that in the absence of heirs to Anne or William III the crown was to pass to James I's granddaughter Sophia, the Electress of Hanover, or to her protestant descendants. In 1714 George I the Elector of Hanover became King of Great Britain and Ireland. He did not speak English and appeared to many to favour the interests of Hanover to Britain. He was succeeded in turn by George II, III and IV, William IV and Queen Victoria.

Political life was dominated by the Whigs especially Sir Robert Walpole. They had some sympathies with the dissenters, and various Acts were repealed giving the dissenters more freedom to meet. The Whigs had more difficulty cultivating good relations with the Church of England. Their members were more likely to criticise the bishops when church affairs were debated in parliament. However under Walpole's leadership the Church of England was brought on board. New episcopal appointments were made with a view to loyalty to the ruling political party. In time the Church was seen by some as the ecclesiastical wing of the Whig party.

2.8 The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions

The eighteenth century saw a major revolution in agricultural practice. The open field system of strip farming was being replaced by larger fields enclosed by hedges and ditches. New methods and more efficient implements could be used. The quality of stock was improved by scientific breeding. All this resulted in improved food supply for the growing industrial workforce. However tenants who had traditional use of land and who were excluded by unilateral enclosures were severely disadvantaged. This led to strong opposition and resulted in various General Enclosure Acts in the nineteenth century to protect the rights of tenants.

In the midst of these changes in agricultural life, the Industrial revolution started to make an impact from about 1750. Inventions in the textile industry made the production of cloths and yarns more efficient and of better quality. However the machines could not be used in a house, so manufacture moved from homes to factories. The factories were located in the first place near rivers while water power was used, and later near coalfields when steam power was available.

Factory conditions were horrific. Long hours, poor conditions, low wages and the employment of children were some of the abuses. A political philosophy of laissez-faire meant little or no interference in this industrial growth. Industrial towns sprang up with poor living conditions. As well, a movement from the country by people displaced by the agricultural revolution to industrial towns led to the dislocation of families and the shaking of established social traditions. New and pressing social problems arose which neither the church nor the government of the time was able to deal with.

It was amongst some of these towns and their impoverished workers that the evangelical revival had some of its greatest impact.

2.9 The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a movement in thought during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Also called the Age of Reason, it exalted reason over traditional and authoritarian belief systems. Scientists and philosophers such as Newton, Locke, Pascal and Descartes questioned established beliefs and put forward an empirical and rational method of establishing truth. The questioning and scepticism spread throughout Europe. Voltaire in France attacked religious ideas, and Rousseau helped formulate ideas of individual liberty and equality. Ideas which were to be expressed in the French Revolution (1789).

Deism was one of the products of this ferment in thought. Churchmen reacted in different ways to the impact of the new rationalism

2.10 Deism

Deists rejected the idea of revealed religion. They appealed to reason and found sufficient truth about God revealed in nature. The subsequent debates concerned the grounds for believing in revelation and the inadequacies of natural religion. Deism was a significant product of the enlightenment and formed one of the major goads to orthodox belief.

2.11 Latitudinarians

The Latitudinarians included prominent churchmen who tried to steer a course between the Puritan Calvinists and the High Church group. They approached Christian living in a practical non-mystical way. They valued reason and attempted to make things simple. They had a strong emphasis on ethics but their theological views were fairly minimal and not too deep. No complicated or dogmatic views for them.

They tried to help the church cope with the changes that were happening in the thought world of their day. They met the Deists on their own ground, attempting to show that Christianity was reasonable; that the religion of reason is Christianity, and that the natural world has the Christian God as its creator.

They were a party in the middle. Not enthusiastic, but moderate and cautious. They held moderate political views, were tolerant and irenical. As the century wore on, their theological views tended towards the creeping Unitarianism evident in other groups. Some veered towards Arianism, others towards Socinianism.

The Latitudinarians emerged partly in response to the changes in the intellectual world, and partly in response to the low levels of morality in the period following the Restoration. They saw reason as the alternative to the enthusiasm of the dissenting groups and the natural way to support Christianity in the face of the new natural science. They had a strong emphasis on common sense morality. Heirs of some of Hooker's appeal to reason, they are one of the forebears of the modern liberal and pluralistic stream in Anglicanism.

Their fear of emotion led to a dry utilitarian faith. This in turn set the scene for the expression of feeling by many as they embraced the Evangelical Awakening.

3. THREE TREES

As well as the agricultural, industrial, scientific and intellectual revolutions happening in the eighteenth century, a profound change happened in spiritual life. Although various groups such as the religious societies, the Latitudinarians and the dissenting groups attempted to reverse the moral decline and deal with the disturbing changes in society, it was the Great Awakening more than anything else that altered the quality of English life.

The Revival was not a single coherent event. Three large oaks stand out in it, and other smaller saplings cluster around them.

The first stirrings of new life appeared not in England but in America. In 1734 the revival began in Northampton, Massachusetts, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. By the end of 1735 more than three hundred had been converted in the small town and the revival was spreading to other parts of the colonies.

3.1 Whitfield and the Welsh

In Britain the first flickers appeared in Wales. Although Griffith Jones, the Rector of Llandowror had preached an evangelical message since 1712, the fire broke out in Talgarth. The schoolmaster, Howell Harris, had been reading books published by SPCK. From March to June 1735 Harris struggled with his relationship with God and his guilt. At the Pentecost communion service he came to accept that Christ had died for his sins, and that he was truly a child of God. On June 18th "being in secret prayer, I felt suddenly my heart melting within me, like wax before the fire, with love to God my Saviour. I felt not only love and peace, but longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Then was a cry in my inmost soul, which I was totally unacquainted with before. 'Abba Father!' I could not help calling God, 'my Father'. I knew that I was his child, and that he loved me, and heard me." (Harris 16)

Harris, although not ordained, began to preach around the district and many were converted. Around the same time Daniel Rowland curate at Llangeitho and Llandewi Brefi had been affected by the preaching of Griffith Jones. His earnest preaching in turn touched off a revival in his own parish. In 1737 Rowland and Harris began to work together in South Wales.

Meanwhile in 1735 George Whitfield was converted while a student at Oxford. He had joined the Methodist's "Holy Club" and struggled to find faith through self-denial and intense religious devotion. Finally with his health damaged and at the end of his resources God revealed his grace to him. He wrote later, "God was pleased to remove the heavy load, to enable me to lay hold of his dear Son by a living faith, and by giving me the Spirit of adoption, to seal me even to the day of everlasting redemption." (Dallimore 1:77)

He was ordained by Bishop Benson in Gloucester Cathedral at the age of 21. Whitfield was the great orator of the Revival. His first sermon provoked protests that he had driven fifteen people mad. The bishop's response was that he hoped their madness would not be forgotten before the next Sunday. (Dallimore 1:97).

Whitfield soon began to preach to enormous crowds in the open air. His field preaching was due partly to the large crowds which were too big for any building, and also because increasingly churchmen would not allow him the use of their churches.

He regularly preached to crowds of up to 20,000. In fact many estimates are much higher. It is likely that some of Whitfield's estimates may be exaggerated. Even allowing for crowds half the size of those recorded, the numbers are still huge, in the order of 20,000 to 30,000.

Benjamin Franklin, the great American scientist and diplomat, was impressed both by the quality of Whitfield's oration and the strength of his voice. Franklin on one occasion measured the area reached by his voice and wrote, "I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand." Dallimore (1:296).

About his speech, Franklin wrote, " ... every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of musick." (Dallimore 1:116)

There is no doubt that Whitfield possessed a remarkable voice as well as an amazing ability to capture the imagination with his words.

He persuaded the Wesley brothers to preach in the open air, and like them he often preached two or three times a day. He did this from soon after his ordination until his death at 55.

He preached many times in nearly all the counties of England, made seven trips to America, fifteen to Scotland and many visits to Wales. He established two large churches in London.

He had an important ministry to Lady Huntingdon who became a patron of evangelical ministry and provided openings for Whitfield and others to minister to the nobility.

Whitfield, like Wesley, organised his followers into "societies" and was regarded as the leader and founder of Methodism during his lifetime. At that stage "methodism" was a general, disapproving, term for the "enthusiasts", and the various groups were not distinguished.

Such distinctions developed over time. One of the most important was the difference in theology between Wesley and Whitfield. Whitfield had a Calvinist theology of salvation, whereas Wesley was an Arminian. This led to a parting of the ways after Wesley preached a strong sermon against predestination. After reconciliation proved difficult, Whitfield pulled back from the leadership of the movement preferring to let Wesley have first place. In response to his supporters who urged him against such a move, he said, "Let the name of Whitfield perish, but Christ be glorified!" (NDT 721). The two men remained friends and Wesley preached at Whitfield's funeral.

Although Whitfield established societies, he was not nearly as effective as Wesley and in time his branch of Calvinist Methodism did not continue like Wesleyan Methodism did.

3.2 Wesley and the Methodists

If Whitfield was the great orator of the movement, Wesley was its great organiser and writer.

Born as the fifteenth child of Samuel and Susannah Wesley in 1703, John grew up with his younger brother Charles (one of the revival's great hymn writers) in the rectory at Epworth where his father was rector. John took his BA at Oxford in 1724 and MA in 1727. It was not until 1725 that he decided to enter the ministry. This was his religious or moral conversion. He became a fellow of Lincoln College Oxford, and after a short time as his father's curate he returned to Lincoln in 1729.

On his return he became the leader of a small religious society Charles had formed. Dubbed the "Holy Club" by others, they were later called "methodists". They studied the Greek New Testament, read other ancient authors in Greek or Latin, fasted twice a week, took the sacrament weekly, and visited the sick and imprisoned. Habits which led to great ridicule in the predominantly clerical community of Oxford!

In 1735 John and Charles went to Georgia. John was a rigorist still not at peace with himself. His time in Georgia was marked by conflict and he was virtually driven out of the colony. The return journey was very frightening because of a massive storm that broke over the ship. Wesley wrote as he approached England, "I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh! who shall convert me? who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of mischief? I have a fair summer religion. I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is near; but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I say, "To die is gain!" (Journal 53).

On the ship home he met some Moravian brethren. Another of them, Peter Bohler, continued to talk to Wesley after his return. Wesley was searching for real faith. He wrote, "All this time I conversed much with Peter Bohler, but I understood him not; least of all when he said, "MY brother, my brother, that philosophy of yours must be purged away." (Journal 57). Frustrated that he did not have true faith he resolved to give up preaching till he did. Bohler's advice was, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." (Journal 58).

The resolution of his difficulty happened on May 24, 1738. Wesley's account is, "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." (Journal 64).

This personal experience of salvation was a new element in religious life of the time. Most clergy thought baptism was a sufficient mark of salvation. Wesley's experience changed his ministry dramatically. There was a new fire in his preaching and a new power. At last he was able to make an impact on the terrible moral state of English society. His preaching was a dramatic contrast to the Latitudinarian style which one commentator described as "a blank verse style of preaching" (EQ 53.3, 135).

As for the change in people, Wesley wrote, "Many persons in London, in Bristol, in York, and in various parts, both of England and Ireland, have experienced so deep and universal a change as it had not before entered into their hearts to conceive, After a deep conviction of inbred sin ..., they have been so filled with faith and love (and generally in a moment) that sin vanished, and they found from that time no pride, anger, desire, or unbelief. they could rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks. Now, whether we call this destruction or suspension of sin, it is a glorious work of God - such a work as, considering both the depth and extent of it, we never saw in these kingdoms before." (EQ 53.3, 147 ).

The experience of methodism was focussed on love. An experience of God's love and a consequent love for God and others. The care of the poor and needy was a dominant aspect of Wesley's life and the instructions he gave to his converts. He taught that justification was by faith, and accompanying this was also the gracious sanctifying of God. This sanctification was received by faith and could therefore also be instantaneous. However Wesley always denied any sort of static absolute perfectionism. He believed that although sanctification by grace was received by faith and therefore was complete in one sense, the work of changing the life of the believer was progressive and continued until death.

Wesley organised his followers into small groups, classes, which were united by a strong discipline. Lay led, and focussed on prayer and bible reading, the classes were also marked by mutual encouragement, the reporting of personal failures and an openness to scrutiny by others in the group. A highly developed organisation allowed these groups to multiply and to nurture new converts. Although Wesley stayed a loyal member of the Church of England all his days, his converts were not always welcomed in the churches. Thus the class groups formed the centre of spiritual life, and eventually, when they could no longer be nurtured in the Church of England, provided an infrastructure for a new denomination.

Wesley's work was awesome. It is estimated during his 52 years of ministry he travelled about 4,000 miles each year, and preached more than 40,000 sermons. He wrote tracts, published sermons, wrote materials for his classes - over 400 publications in his lifetime.

His contribution to English religious life is still being felt. Methodism as it developed had a strong concern for the poor and needy. The modern Pentecostal and charismatic movements can trace their heritage back to this evangelical revival . Wesley and the others brought a vital Christianity to all strata of eighteenth century Britain especially to the working classes.

3.3 Anglican Evangelicals

Whitfield and Wesley quickly moved outside the sphere of normal parish church life. Partly this was due to opposition on the part of incumbents, and partly due to the enormous crowds they gathered.

However the revival also touched ordinary churchmen. As the century wore on, more and more clergy of the Church of England were brought to an evangelical renewal and a new preaching of the old reformation doctrines. This third stream existed alongside Wesley and Whitfield. There were some strong bonds of fellowship, but the parish clergy affected by the renewal were less inclined to follow the methodist way in practice. One reason was that the evangelical clergy came more slowly to their evangelical convictions. In 1769 Wesley knew of 50-60 clergy in London who preached salvation by faith. He wrote to them inviting some cooperation. Only three replied. He called them a "rope of sand".

These evangelical clergy were influenced by the puritan heritage, especially Baxter, Alleine, Bunyan. Some stayed in their parishes, others moved around as itinerant preachers. The group included many godly parish clergy, including famous names such as John Newton, the former slave trader; Charles Simeon who had a long ministry at Cambridge amongst ordinands and undergraduates; Henry and John Venn at Clapham; William Romaine, a scholar who had produced a revised edition of Calasio's Hebrew Lexicon, who was touched by the revival and established one of the first evangelical lectureships in London; William Cowper who wrote hymns at Olney along with Newton; and Thomas Scott who at first tried to convert Newton to Unitarianism but was forced back to his Greek New Testament, to evangelical orthodoxy, and ultimately produced a famous Bible Commentary.

It was from within the Church of England that the Eclectic Society arose. Formed in 1783 by John Newton, Richard Cecil, Henry Foster and Eli Bates, the group met fortnightly in London to discuss various matters which the members raised. As well as its founders, the group included at various times, Charles Simeon, the great Cambridge preacher and evangelical leader, Josiah Pratt, the first secretary of the Church Missionary Society, John Venn, Rector of Clapham (centre of the "Clapham Sect"), and later included visitors such as Richard Johnson and Samuel Marsden, chaplains in NSW.

The Eclectic Society was instrumental in forming the Church Missionary Society and earlier had posed the question, "What is the best method for planting the gospel in Botany Bay?". A question which led them to lobby for an evangelical chaplain on the First Fleet. Richard Johnson was appointed and another evangelical, Samuel Marsden followed.

The "Clapham Sect" was a nickname given by Sidney Smith in the Edinburgh Review, to a group of laymen who lived in Clapham and who were part of the congregation of John Venn. These included members of the House of Commons, such as Henry Thornton, a banker and financier; William Wilberforce, whom Pitt and Burke claimed was the greatest orator of his day; Charles Grant, Chairman of the East India Company; and James Stephen a famous barrister; Zachary Macaulay, former Governor of Sierra Leone, and Lord Teignmouth a former Governor General of India.

This loose friendship circle not only lived a practical Christian life of integrity and help to the poor, but became the base for the opposition to the slave trade.

The evangelicals in the Church of England were scattered throughout England as well as London. They grew slowly but eventually had a significant impact on the national and church life.

4. TWO CROPS

From the various trees of this revival, a number of long-lasting crops grew.

4.1 Social reform

The abolition of the slave trade was one of the most notable social reforms bred by the awakening. Slavery was a common and accepted part of European life. It had been legalised by an Act of Parliament in 1698. During the century before 1786 Britain alone transported two million Africans to the New World. In 1787 the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed with Macaulay and Wilberforce prominent members. William Pitt raised the matter in the House of Commons in 1788 but it was not until 1807 that the slave trade was made illegal in England, and not until 1834 was slavery itself abolished in all British territories. Wilberforce was the major force in this significant social reform.

Hannah More was a prominent social and literary figure. After her conversion she wrote "Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society" in 1788. This had some impact on social customs. However Wilberforce directed her attention to villages in the Mendip Hills where the labourers were ignorant, poor and oppressed, and clergy were lazy and didn't care. She and her sister established schools, at first for children and then for adults, amidst strong and prejudiced opposition. Gradually with some set-backs and finance from Thornton and Wilberforce, they helped change the character of the region round about.

Earlier, in 1780 Robert Raikes, the editor of the Gloucester Journal, began his first Sunday School. He was a wealthy evangelical, a friend of Wesley and Whitfield but a committed churchman. His Sunday Schools were an attempt to provide basic education and some discipline to the many young street children. The children attended from ten in the morning until five thirty at night with a break for lunch. They had instruction in reading, writing, the catechism and attended church. Raikes employed others to do the teaching, but was himself involved with the children. The Sunday Schools flourished and other evangelicals took up the idea in their own area.

4.2 Missionary Societies

The Church Missionary Society was formed in 1799 as a direct result of discussions in the Eclectic Society.

The Religious Tract Society was formed in 1799 to develop the work which Hannah More had begun and to distribute her writings, many of which became very popular.

The British and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804 after attempts by some to have the Welsh Bible reprinted and distributed by SPCK. The decision to form a Bible Society arose in discussions of the Religious Tract Society. When the Society was founded it was the men of Clapham who were behind it. Lord Teignmouth was President, Wilberforce Vice-President, Thornton Treasurer and Pratt the secretary of CMS one of the secretaries. The Bible Society was interdenominational and included non-conformist clergy.

In 1809 the London Jews Society was formed. In the following years various other societies were formed to bring the gospel to the colonies.

5. LATER SHOOTS

5.1 Evangelicals

Evangelicals continued to gain strength in the Church of England, although it was not till later that a strong evangelical theology emerged.

5.2 Pentecostals and Charismatics

The seeds of the later Pentecostal movements were watered during the eighteenth century revival. Many of the modern charismatic phenomena were experienced in the preaching of Whitfield and Wesley, including people making strange noises and falling down in a faint. Wesley and Whitfield after a short time did not encourage such outbreaks. The theology of Pentecostalism also has roots which go back through the Holiness Movements of the nineteenth century to Wesleyan Arminianism.

5.3 Social Action

Both the evangelicals and the Methodists were strong on social action and this fostered a strong tradition which has continued in different forms to the present day.

18th Century Evangelical Revival

Article Index

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EVANGELICAL REVIVAL

OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCING THE NEW CENTURY