Great Awakening Term Paper

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American History

The Battle over Political Influence: Dominance of the 'New Lights' (Evangelist) Movement in the Great Awakening

After the England colonies have established themselves in their newfound territory, New England, they started establishing a new society that will be governed under the Puritanist moral code. This is vital in understanding New England society, whose step towards self-governance is implementing laws and norms in the society adherent to the teachings of Puritanism, the prevailing religion not only in the colonies, but in England (their mother country) as well.

The development of a "theocratic society" in New England is accompanied with the leaders' preoccupation in implementing this kind of society by "were worrying less about conversion and more about improving society based on their moralistic beliefs" (Findling 2). Thus, with this objective in mind, leaders of the New England society encouraged the religious revival popularly known as the "Great Awakening," identified as the "public expressions of faith and conscience," and wherein emotions are considered the best way to convey feelings of religious belief.

With the development of the Great Awakening came the New Lights movement -- groups of religious believers commonly identified as the Separatists, or Baptists, because they believe that "...

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infant baptism was wrong and that God ordained that a believer's baptism was necessary for the purity of the church. For them, immersion in water fully represented the complete rebirth of the believer" (Swift 4). Evidently, the Baptists' view of Christianity differs from the traditional Puritanist belief in infant baptism; however, because the New Lights has managed to entice people to convert willingly to Christianity, it was considered an essential movement for a bigger agenda, which is to establish a theocratic society dominated by the Puritanist moral codes and norms.

However, over time, what occurred is the dominance not a of a theocratic society run by the Puritans, but an evangelist society, where the Baptists became leaders, and evangelism, the prevailing form of religion and belief. Hence an inevitable conflict between the "Old" and "New" Lights occurred. Because of the 'personalistic' form spreading the Good News of the Lord, evangelism has become popular in 18th century New England society, weakening the power and influence of traditionalist religion in the society. Another advantage….....

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