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The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America
In the mid-eighteenth century, Americans experienced an outbreak of religious revivals that shook colonial society. This book provides a definitive view of these revivals, now known as the First Great Awakening, and their dramatic effects on American culture. Historian Thomas S. Kidd tells the absorbing story of early American evangelical Christianity through the lives of seminal figures like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield as well as many previously unknown preachers, prophets, and penitents. The Great Awakening helped create the evangelical movement, which heavily emphasized the individual’s experience of salvation and the Holy Spirit’s work in revivals. By giving many evangelicals radical notions of the spiritual equality of all people, the revivals helped breed the democratic style that would come to characterize the American republic. Kidd carefully separates the positions of moderate supporters of the revivals from those of radical supporters, and he delineates the objections of those who completely deplored the revivals and their wildly egalitarian consequences. The battles among these three camps, the author shows, transformed colonial America and ultimately defined the nature of the evangelical movement.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published November 28, 2007
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303 people want to read
About the author
Thomas S. Kidd
40 books118 followersThomas S. Kidd teaches history at Baylor University, and is Senior Fellow at Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion. Dr. Kidd has appeared on the Glenn Beck tv program, the Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager radio shows, and written columns for USA Today and the Washington Post. He is a columnist for Patheos.com. His latest book is Patrick Henry: First Among Patriots. Other books include God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution. His next book projects are a biography of George Whitefield, and a history of Baptists in America.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 16, 2010
Kidd received his Ph.D. under Marsden at Notre Dame, and clearly exhibits the trend advanced by the Wheaton-Notre Dame axis, now headed up by Mark Noll. Kidd frames the Great Awakening within a broader history of Evangelicalism in an effort to rehabilitate the Great Awakening from the formidable assaults of Jon Butler and Frank Lambert. In the intro, Kidd explicitly sets up this work as a response to Butler.
Should be read alongside Noll's *Rise of Evangelicalism*. Interestingly, in the latter, Noll avoids the term "Great Awakening" altogether. But thanks to Noll and Kidd, the Great Awakening is back on the timeline--albeit a new timeline. Kidd advances a refurbished construction of the revivals which he dubs "the long Great Awakening". It is a transatlantic phenomenon (not just an American colonial phenomenon) that stretches from Solomon Stoddard to the Independence era. Now the revivals of 1739-45 are situated in within a new frame. The Great Awakening is back on the landscape of history.
Kidd answers Butler's critique and actually incorporates the analysis of Frank Lambert (*Inventing the Great Awakening*) into his construction.
Should be read alongside Noll's *Rise of Evangelicalism*. Interestingly, in the latter, Noll avoids the term "Great Awakening" altogether. But thanks to Noll and Kidd, the Great Awakening is back on the timeline--albeit a new timeline. Kidd advances a refurbished construction of the revivals which he dubs "the long Great Awakening". It is a transatlantic phenomenon (not just an American colonial phenomenon) that stretches from Solomon Stoddard to the Independence era. Now the revivals of 1739-45 are situated in within a new frame. The Great Awakening is back on the landscape of history.
Kidd answers Butler's critique and actually incorporates the analysis of Frank Lambert (*Inventing the Great Awakening*) into his construction.
August 18, 2016
Well researched and well written account of the First Great Awakening in the British colonies.
February 6, 2014
For years a matter of speculation, it is now clear that Thomas Kidd is the third member of the Marsden-Noll triumvirate destined to rule Rome, er, American religious studies. In what is now certainly the scholarly standard on this topic, Kidd shows great command over his material. Scholars will be especially appreciate his explicit interaction with issues of historiography in the introduction and elsewhere.
If there is a central theme of this book, it is that the Great Awakening must not be understood as a battle between New Lights and Old Lights, but a three-cornered war between anti-revivalists and two species of pro-revivalists, whom Kidd (following Noll) refers to as "evangelicals": conservatives and radicals. The narrative is as much about the conservatives' growing consolidation and dissociation from the radicals as about proving themselves to or castigating the anti-revivalists. (The Reformation historian in me notices the similarity to the most common way of dividing up the Reformation traditions: Catholic, magisterial Protestant, radical Protestant.)
Another important feature is Kidd's interaction with Butler and Lambert over in what sense there even was something that can be called a Great Awakening. Kidd incorporates some critiques of the traditional concept, reframing the subject in terms of continuity: the "long" Great Awakening that stretches through most of the 18th century. Really, even the Second Great Awakening is simply a continuation of the same revival tradition, but turned toward Baptist and Methodist prominence.
Kidd's narrative is quite thorough. It contains invaluable chapters on the Awakening's interaction with African Americans and Native Americans. The chapter on the Awakening's influence on the Revolution was a satisfying synthesis of scholarship. The introduction is a gold mine for scholars new to the field. However, it was a bit narrow in terms of its historiographical approach. It employs almost all straight narrative history focusing the leading persons; social, economic, anthropological, etc. approaches are ignored or only lightly touched upon. It is of course his right to restrict his approach, but it does make his narrative a long, unremitting sequence of names and places, verging on one-damned-thing-after-another history. I hope it is not too unprofessional to admit that I found the book somewhat boring. On the other hand, the conclusions to each chapter do a good job of tying threads together. Savvy readers might read the conclusions first to decide whether to brave the preceding material.
If there is a central theme of this book, it is that the Great Awakening must not be understood as a battle between New Lights and Old Lights, but a three-cornered war between anti-revivalists and two species of pro-revivalists, whom Kidd (following Noll) refers to as "evangelicals": conservatives and radicals. The narrative is as much about the conservatives' growing consolidation and dissociation from the radicals as about proving themselves to or castigating the anti-revivalists. (The Reformation historian in me notices the similarity to the most common way of dividing up the Reformation traditions: Catholic, magisterial Protestant, radical Protestant.)
Another important feature is Kidd's interaction with Butler and Lambert over in what sense there even was something that can be called a Great Awakening. Kidd incorporates some critiques of the traditional concept, reframing the subject in terms of continuity: the "long" Great Awakening that stretches through most of the 18th century. Really, even the Second Great Awakening is simply a continuation of the same revival tradition, but turned toward Baptist and Methodist prominence.
Kidd's narrative is quite thorough. It contains invaluable chapters on the Awakening's interaction with African Americans and Native Americans. The chapter on the Awakening's influence on the Revolution was a satisfying synthesis of scholarship. The introduction is a gold mine for scholars new to the field. However, it was a bit narrow in terms of its historiographical approach. It employs almost all straight narrative history focusing the leading persons; social, economic, anthropological, etc. approaches are ignored or only lightly touched upon. It is of course his right to restrict his approach, but it does make his narrative a long, unremitting sequence of names and places, verging on one-damned-thing-after-another history. I hope it is not too unprofessional to admit that I found the book somewhat boring. On the other hand, the conclusions to each chapter do a good job of tying threads together. Savvy readers might read the conclusions first to decide whether to brave the preceding material.
February 7, 2012
Kidd shows how the first Great Awakening was long and resulted in a new form of Protestatism: evangelicalism. He argues that evangelicalism is defined in part by its attention to the Holy Spirit, particularly in revival. While scholarship often characterizes GA groups as "Old Light" and "New Lights", Kidd argues that there were anti-revivalists, moderate evangelicasl, and radical evangelicals. This book explores the effects of the GA, but also how these three groups interacted and its effect on religion and revivals. Their disagreements were not over theology so much as social order. Kidd focuses on Whitefield and how he was the primary force behind the GA. The Holy Spirit provided Americans with an understanding of what was happening to them. The birth of evangelicalism was also spurred by consumerism.
April 25, 2020
In The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America, Professor Thomas Kidd, a leading authority on the history of religion in early America, sets forth his model of understanding a long series of revivals of Christian belief in 18th century colonial British North America.
His approach is largely to lay out the story from the primary sources while maintaining a dialogue with other historian’s writings, showing where he agrees – and disagrees -with other scholars. While I am a major fan of Dr. Kidd, having ready and even owning many of his other books, even those whom might disagree with his interpretation will benefit from a close read of this excellent and well-written book.
In particular, Thomas Kidd writes that the often-stated division between Old Lights (establishment Christians who rejected the First Great Awakening as false) and New Lights (who accepted the awakening as a true work of God’s Holy Spirit). Instead, Kidd argues for tripartite division: anti-revivalists, moderate revivalists, and radical revivalists. The actions seems to be, in my view, on the degree to which an evangelical consensus holds and will eventually break apart in the aftermath of the American Revolution’s emphasis upon individualism.
According to Thomas Kidd, “[t]he long First Great Awakening started before Jonathan Edwards' 1734-35 Northampton revival and lasted roughly through the end of the American Revolution, when disestablishment, theological change, and a new round of growth started the (even more imprecise) Second Great Awakening." (p. xxi). In fact, he argues that the theology of revival and focus on personal conversion, rather than the establishment churches notion of social stability and focus on membership based on where one lived, could be traced back into the earlier history of colonial New England.
For example, Edwards’ own grandfather, Solomon Stoddard would stand out, writes Kidd among the pastors and theologians who had thought most carefully about revival and persona salvation. Other flavors of Christian belief and practice had important impact. "Continental Pietism and Scots-Irish Presbyterianism helped condition the faith and practice of early American evangelicalism, just as English Puritanism did." (p. 39)
Professor Kidd noted that Jonathan "Edwards was always cautious about definitively declaring anyone "saved," but he guessed that a about three hundred people had been saved in six months. This meant that the church had grown to 620 communicant members, almost all the adults in Northampton," including men and women of all ages, as well as several African Americans." (p. 19). These professions of repentance and coming to Jesus Christ alone for salvation, with God’s Holy Spirit using Edwards’ sermons to convict of sin and convert the lost necessarily gained much attention.
The revivals were not limited to colonial British North America. Local pastors such as Jonathan Edwards were preconditions to the impact of the great and sometimes controversial itinerant pastor George Whitefield, who barnstormed in both England itself and throughout the American colonies. Kidd argues that George Whitefield's "decision to remain an Anglican [while working across denominational boundaries] was momentous for the transdenominational nature of Anglo-American evangelicalism." (p. 43). "Nevertheless, Whitefield's approach also caused controversy everywhere he went, especially concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit, the authority of established ministries, and the rights of the itinerancy." (p. 54).
By the word "itinerant," Professor Kidd is referring to pastors like Whitfield who did not serve in specific local churches, but who traveled around and preached both in local churches and at times in the open air. Many of these itinerant pastors – unlike Whitefield who was Oxford educated and a member of the English middle class – were men who lacked the sort of educational background and social status that a very much striated Anglo-American society expected of pastors. Even more controversial, such itinerants often argued that the pastors of the established churches were not actually Christians – that it, that they had not had a personal experience of salvation.
While Kidd correctly puts the emphasis on the New England and Middle Atlantic colonies, he also traces the beginnings of evangelicalism in the southern colonies. For example, he points the ministry of an established pastor who supported Whitefield, Josiah Smith. Kidd argues that "Smith's work as the chief evangelical voice in Charleston during the revivals reveals several distinctive features of early evangelicalism in the southern colonies....He envisioned an evangelicalism focused on personal salvation and critical of the consumer excesses of Charleston's elites [but] he would countenance no challenge to the racial order." (p. 81)
Shifting his focus back northward with Whitefield’s movements, Thomas Kidd argues that, in the fall of 1740, Whitefield's New England preaching tour proved successful, yet "[h]is incautious remarks about unconverted ministers...and his friendship with such figures as Tennant, Davenport, and Cross laid the groundwork for greater controversies the awakenings in the years ahead." (p. 93). The tension within the movement accelerated with revival continuing in New England under the preaching of local pastors and itinerants, "[t]he year 1741 also saw developing moderate anxiety over the bodily manifestations of revival fervor." (p. 116).
In 1742, with disputes over the revivals' excesses rising, "[moderates like Jonathan Edwards tried to shape the evangelical movement within ostensibly reasonable boundaries, but...radicals....had no interest whatsoever in placing limits on their followers mystical experiences." (p 147). Both the anti-revivalists and the moderate revivalists had grave theological questions of whether such outbursts and supposed visions were the work of God, or of Satan deluding people.
In part as a result, "[b]y March 1743, the evangelical movement in New England and the Middle Colonies had publicly split between radicals and moderates, due in large part..to real disagreements...over the role of exhorters and itinerants, the doctrine of assurance, the witness of the Spirit, ecstatic responses among laypeople, and the leveling effects of the revivals." (p. 155).
In the 1740s, "[t]he Separates and the Baptists, then, formalized the radical impulse and helped break down the legal hegemony of the established Congregational churches of New England." (p. 188.)
Then, "[i]n the 1750s, "[the Separates and the Baptists] began to export their noisy, populist religious style to the largely unchurched reaches of the southern backcountry." (p. 188). This history is worth noting, given that the American South's modern image often means a lack of historical memory of this fact.
Thomas Kidd also does a good job of accessing the impact of the First Great Awakening upon Native Americas. In a fashion similar to the negative impact of racism on their willingness to accept African-descended persons as equal in social matters, unfortunately, in the mid-1700, "[w]hen it came to empowering Native American missionaries and pastors, white evangelicals moved very slowly...white missionary agencies' neglectful policies and patronizing attitudes led Indians like Occom and his Brothertown colleagues to abandon white evangelical sponsors altogether." (pp. 211-212). (To look at this from a Biblical standpoint, this history may stand as a cautionary tale of the negative impact on missions and churches when we confuse our culture with the gospel. See Acts 15 and Galatians 2:11-11).
Herein lies a story that would plague American evangelicalism to the present day: being either unable or unwilling to see past the racial hierarchy that was part of their societies. “[M]any early white evangelicals ... believed strongly that the gospel of the new birth should be preached to all... But the Anglo-American evangelical leaders usually did not think that the egalitarianism implications of their gospel would have social ramifications for African or Native Americans." (pp. 213-214).
Impressively, "[b]y the Revolution, evangelical Presbyterians and Baptists in Virginia had successfully broken the near-monopoly of Anglican religious adherence...Most white evangelicals took a moderate path on questions of race, but their serious attention to the spiritual needs of African-American heralded the massive shift of southern blacks into the evangelical fold in the nineteenth century." (p. 252).
"The revivals of 1762-65 were historically crucial...in mainstreaming the radical tendencies of the evangelical movement, in building a foundation for evangelical populism and democratization in America, and in helping align evangelicalism with the incipient Patriot cause." (p. 268).
"The American Revolution made evangelicalism more democratic, but evangelicalism did not need the Revolution to create within it a powerful egalitarian impulse. That tendency existed within evangelicalism from its beginning." (p. 289). However, Kidd suggests that the sort of anti-authoritarian aspects of Revolutionary political ideology would have important theological impacts in the decades after the American Revolution.
In this regard, he seems to agree with Nathan Hatch’s The Democratization of American Christianity, which focuses on the dramatic growth in previously marginalized evangelical groups like Baptists and Methodists, the rise of African American Christianity, and Mormonism as the key example of new American religious movements in the early 19th century. He writes with particular detail of a radical pastor named Henry Alline who had moved to Nova Scotia. Coming from an unlettered background as a tradesman, “Alline ..anticipated one of the distinctives of the Second Great Awakening in his rejection of Calvinist theology...Rising authoritarianism made the rejection of Calvinism possible, signaling the centrifugal theological impulses of the next generation of American evangelicalism..." (p. 309, p. 311, p. 312).
In wrapping up the book, Dr. Kidd gives attention to the rise of splinter groups from the Separate Baptists, such as Free Will Baptists, the rise of universalistic and hence non-Biblical theories of salvation, as well as the rise of more non-white male elite pastors, including women, African American, Native American, and poorer white men in these new church movements and what I might label as cults, being myself an American evangelical. In this regard, he argument seems to point forward to the Nathan Hatch model of understanding American social and religious history in the decades between the American Revolution and the American Civil War.
His approach is largely to lay out the story from the primary sources while maintaining a dialogue with other historian’s writings, showing where he agrees – and disagrees -with other scholars. While I am a major fan of Dr. Kidd, having ready and even owning many of his other books, even those whom might disagree with his interpretation will benefit from a close read of this excellent and well-written book.
In particular, Thomas Kidd writes that the often-stated division between Old Lights (establishment Christians who rejected the First Great Awakening as false) and New Lights (who accepted the awakening as a true work of God’s Holy Spirit). Instead, Kidd argues for tripartite division: anti-revivalists, moderate revivalists, and radical revivalists. The actions seems to be, in my view, on the degree to which an evangelical consensus holds and will eventually break apart in the aftermath of the American Revolution’s emphasis upon individualism.
According to Thomas Kidd, “[t]he long First Great Awakening started before Jonathan Edwards' 1734-35 Northampton revival and lasted roughly through the end of the American Revolution, when disestablishment, theological change, and a new round of growth started the (even more imprecise) Second Great Awakening." (p. xxi). In fact, he argues that the theology of revival and focus on personal conversion, rather than the establishment churches notion of social stability and focus on membership based on where one lived, could be traced back into the earlier history of colonial New England.
For example, Edwards’ own grandfather, Solomon Stoddard would stand out, writes Kidd among the pastors and theologians who had thought most carefully about revival and persona salvation. Other flavors of Christian belief and practice had important impact. "Continental Pietism and Scots-Irish Presbyterianism helped condition the faith and practice of early American evangelicalism, just as English Puritanism did." (p. 39)
Professor Kidd noted that Jonathan "Edwards was always cautious about definitively declaring anyone "saved," but he guessed that a about three hundred people had been saved in six months. This meant that the church had grown to 620 communicant members, almost all the adults in Northampton," including men and women of all ages, as well as several African Americans." (p. 19). These professions of repentance and coming to Jesus Christ alone for salvation, with God’s Holy Spirit using Edwards’ sermons to convict of sin and convert the lost necessarily gained much attention.
The revivals were not limited to colonial British North America. Local pastors such as Jonathan Edwards were preconditions to the impact of the great and sometimes controversial itinerant pastor George Whitefield, who barnstormed in both England itself and throughout the American colonies. Kidd argues that George Whitefield's "decision to remain an Anglican [while working across denominational boundaries] was momentous for the transdenominational nature of Anglo-American evangelicalism." (p. 43). "Nevertheless, Whitefield's approach also caused controversy everywhere he went, especially concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit, the authority of established ministries, and the rights of the itinerancy." (p. 54).
By the word "itinerant," Professor Kidd is referring to pastors like Whitfield who did not serve in specific local churches, but who traveled around and preached both in local churches and at times in the open air. Many of these itinerant pastors – unlike Whitefield who was Oxford educated and a member of the English middle class – were men who lacked the sort of educational background and social status that a very much striated Anglo-American society expected of pastors. Even more controversial, such itinerants often argued that the pastors of the established churches were not actually Christians – that it, that they had not had a personal experience of salvation.
While Kidd correctly puts the emphasis on the New England and Middle Atlantic colonies, he also traces the beginnings of evangelicalism in the southern colonies. For example, he points the ministry of an established pastor who supported Whitefield, Josiah Smith. Kidd argues that "Smith's work as the chief evangelical voice in Charleston during the revivals reveals several distinctive features of early evangelicalism in the southern colonies....He envisioned an evangelicalism focused on personal salvation and critical of the consumer excesses of Charleston's elites [but] he would countenance no challenge to the racial order." (p. 81)
Shifting his focus back northward with Whitefield’s movements, Thomas Kidd argues that, in the fall of 1740, Whitefield's New England preaching tour proved successful, yet "[h]is incautious remarks about unconverted ministers...and his friendship with such figures as Tennant, Davenport, and Cross laid the groundwork for greater controversies the awakenings in the years ahead." (p. 93). The tension within the movement accelerated with revival continuing in New England under the preaching of local pastors and itinerants, "[t]he year 1741 also saw developing moderate anxiety over the bodily manifestations of revival fervor." (p. 116).
In 1742, with disputes over the revivals' excesses rising, "[moderates like Jonathan Edwards tried to shape the evangelical movement within ostensibly reasonable boundaries, but...radicals....had no interest whatsoever in placing limits on their followers mystical experiences." (p 147). Both the anti-revivalists and the moderate revivalists had grave theological questions of whether such outbursts and supposed visions were the work of God, or of Satan deluding people.
In part as a result, "[b]y March 1743, the evangelical movement in New England and the Middle Colonies had publicly split between radicals and moderates, due in large part..to real disagreements...over the role of exhorters and itinerants, the doctrine of assurance, the witness of the Spirit, ecstatic responses among laypeople, and the leveling effects of the revivals." (p. 155).
In the 1740s, "[t]he Separates and the Baptists, then, formalized the radical impulse and helped break down the legal hegemony of the established Congregational churches of New England." (p. 188.)
Then, "[i]n the 1750s, "[the Separates and the Baptists] began to export their noisy, populist religious style to the largely unchurched reaches of the southern backcountry." (p. 188). This history is worth noting, given that the American South's modern image often means a lack of historical memory of this fact.
Thomas Kidd also does a good job of accessing the impact of the First Great Awakening upon Native Americas. In a fashion similar to the negative impact of racism on their willingness to accept African-descended persons as equal in social matters, unfortunately, in the mid-1700, "[w]hen it came to empowering Native American missionaries and pastors, white evangelicals moved very slowly...white missionary agencies' neglectful policies and patronizing attitudes led Indians like Occom and his Brothertown colleagues to abandon white evangelical sponsors altogether." (pp. 211-212). (To look at this from a Biblical standpoint, this history may stand as a cautionary tale of the negative impact on missions and churches when we confuse our culture with the gospel. See Acts 15 and Galatians 2:11-11).
Herein lies a story that would plague American evangelicalism to the present day: being either unable or unwilling to see past the racial hierarchy that was part of their societies. “[M]any early white evangelicals ... believed strongly that the gospel of the new birth should be preached to all... But the Anglo-American evangelical leaders usually did not think that the egalitarianism implications of their gospel would have social ramifications for African or Native Americans." (pp. 213-214).
Impressively, "[b]y the Revolution, evangelical Presbyterians and Baptists in Virginia had successfully broken the near-monopoly of Anglican religious adherence...Most white evangelicals took a moderate path on questions of race, but their serious attention to the spiritual needs of African-American heralded the massive shift of southern blacks into the evangelical fold in the nineteenth century." (p. 252).
"The revivals of 1762-65 were historically crucial...in mainstreaming the radical tendencies of the evangelical movement, in building a foundation for evangelical populism and democratization in America, and in helping align evangelicalism with the incipient Patriot cause." (p. 268).
"The American Revolution made evangelicalism more democratic, but evangelicalism did not need the Revolution to create within it a powerful egalitarian impulse. That tendency existed within evangelicalism from its beginning." (p. 289). However, Kidd suggests that the sort of anti-authoritarian aspects of Revolutionary political ideology would have important theological impacts in the decades after the American Revolution.
In this regard, he seems to agree with Nathan Hatch’s The Democratization of American Christianity, which focuses on the dramatic growth in previously marginalized evangelical groups like Baptists and Methodists, the rise of African American Christianity, and Mormonism as the key example of new American religious movements in the early 19th century. He writes with particular detail of a radical pastor named Henry Alline who had moved to Nova Scotia. Coming from an unlettered background as a tradesman, “Alline ..anticipated one of the distinctives of the Second Great Awakening in his rejection of Calvinist theology...Rising authoritarianism made the rejection of Calvinism possible, signaling the centrifugal theological impulses of the next generation of American evangelicalism..." (p. 309, p. 311, p. 312).
In wrapping up the book, Dr. Kidd gives attention to the rise of splinter groups from the Separate Baptists, such as Free Will Baptists, the rise of universalistic and hence non-Biblical theories of salvation, as well as the rise of more non-white male elite pastors, including women, African American, Native American, and poorer white men in these new church movements and what I might label as cults, being myself an American evangelical. In this regard, he argument seems to point forward to the Nathan Hatch model of understanding American social and religious history in the decades between the American Revolution and the American Civil War.
July 14, 2020
I had two main issues with this book: (1) lack of historical narrative and analysis to tie the different facets of the Great Awakening together--without this, the events are sort of strung randomly together--and (2) rather than provide a cogent historical explanation to justify the arrival of the Great Awakening, Kidd's evidence largely consists of why the participants in it believed it occurred (God poured out "showers" on people seeking sincere conversion--Okay, but this isn't a historical explanation, it's a religious one and this is supposed to be a history book). Despite this, Kidd obviously knows this topic and provides a litany of excellent quotes of the visions people experienced and the mindset of the people experiencing it. I just wish there was more historical analysis.
May 19, 2018
There is a wealth of information in this book. As a Wesleyan Christian, I was forcibly struck by the long evangelical movement in the American colonies before Methodism took root and how the revivalism of around half a century provided a platform for the Methodists to explode across the new United States. The history of the early evangelical movement in America also clarified to me that many of the issues we struggle with today have been difficult issues from the beginning of the movement, particularly along the lines of race and sex. My primary criticism of the book is that it often reads like a simple concatenation of incidents with little interpretation or reflection provided by the author.
June 28, 2017
Thomas Kidd is on the forefront of Evangelical scholarship, mostly due to his clear and thorough handling of early American Christianity. This work can get tedious at times, and oftentimes I felt myself wishing for more comment on theological themes, but Kidd does a great job of keeping the pace consistent. If you are interested in the Great Awakening (Kidd lumps both the first and second together, for reasons that become clear in his book) this is a great place to start.
December 16, 2021
Kidd provides a solid framework for understanding the major figures, events, and basic timeline of the Great Awakening. This book is a goldilocks-sized mixture of narrative and primary source quotations. He obviously has mastered the material. This book was more than helpful in moving beyond a superficial understanding of the Great Awakening, accompanied by his supplementary book of GA primary sources.
May 30, 2023
Kidd does produce a chronological assessment of how the Great Awakening shaped colonial America. However, the book is a very slow read and each chapter feels like a thesis on a particular time period or group. These chapter are then presented in a chronological order. Required reading for doctoral seminar, and I understand it’s importance. Not for the faint of heart
March 19, 2019
A comprehensive look at The Great Awakening. You can tell an extensive amount of research went into this book, as it is very well informed. Good book if you enjoy Protestant/Calvinist history. If you do not like religious history it is boring, and I do not like religious history.
December 16, 2019
This is a fantastic introduction to the Great Awakening. Dr. Kidd is an engaging writer and interacts with primary sources in a helpful way. I would encourage anyone looking for a fair assessment of the Great Awakening, its glories and disappointments, to pick up this book.
August 19, 2018
The purpose of this review:
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2023
Pretty good
November 12, 2008
This is a good overview of the Great Awakening. Insofar as Kidd presents an original interpretation, his interpretation persuades.
Kidd emphasizes continuity. First, he argues that the Great Awakening divided American Protestants into a spectrum of three ambiguous groups, not two sharply defined ones: instead of New Lights and Old Lights, Kidd gives us "radical evangelicals," "moderate evangelicals," and "anti-revivalists." Second, Kidd argues that the Great Awakening was part of a revival tradition that both predated it and survived it. Thus, the "Second" Great Awakening of the nineteenth century was really just a late phase in the evolution of the first Great Awakening. Third, Kidd argues that the evangelical movement neither radically challenged the old sociopolitical order nor left it alone. Rather, evangelicalism suggested opportunities for social reorganization without, in most cases, overtly threatening the basic principles of southern slave regimes, patriarchal families, or the British empire.
Ultimately, Kidd is assuming a fourth kind of continuity: between the evangelicalism of the Great Awakening and the evangelicalism of America today. It is no accident that evangelical is the term he uses most often to refer to the revivalists. There is a hint here that the social legacy of contemporary evangelicalism will be ambivalent just as the legacy of the Great Awakening was. To believers, therefore, Kidd's book may serve as a warning. To unbelievers, on the other hand, it serves as a defense. Kidd ends the book with a musing on slavery. The evangelicals' mixed record, he writes, "may suggest that in a broken world where the faithful are deeply flawed, fleeting hints of a coming egalitarian kingdom appear in the most surprising places, even in the church."
Kidd emphasizes continuity. First, he argues that the Great Awakening divided American Protestants into a spectrum of three ambiguous groups, not two sharply defined ones: instead of New Lights and Old Lights, Kidd gives us "radical evangelicals," "moderate evangelicals," and "anti-revivalists." Second, Kidd argues that the Great Awakening was part of a revival tradition that both predated it and survived it. Thus, the "Second" Great Awakening of the nineteenth century was really just a late phase in the evolution of the first Great Awakening. Third, Kidd argues that the evangelical movement neither radically challenged the old sociopolitical order nor left it alone. Rather, evangelicalism suggested opportunities for social reorganization without, in most cases, overtly threatening the basic principles of southern slave regimes, patriarchal families, or the British empire.
Ultimately, Kidd is assuming a fourth kind of continuity: between the evangelicalism of the Great Awakening and the evangelicalism of America today. It is no accident that evangelical is the term he uses most often to refer to the revivalists. There is a hint here that the social legacy of contemporary evangelicalism will be ambivalent just as the legacy of the Great Awakening was. To believers, therefore, Kidd's book may serve as a warning. To unbelievers, on the other hand, it serves as a defense. Kidd ends the book with a musing on slavery. The evangelicals' mixed record, he writes, "may suggest that in a broken world where the faithful are deeply flawed, fleeting hints of a coming egalitarian kingdom appear in the most surprising places, even in the church."
November 14, 2008
This extensively researched work examines the social impact of a swelling of religious revival prior to the Revolutionary War. Its origins were found in the loss of Puritan adherents in the third generation after the Pilgrims. Traveling preachers caused mass religious hysteria to the point that they became worried that the entire movement might be the work of the devil. It saw the emergence of the first true religious celebrity, George Whitefield, who, although cross eyed was a mesmerizing speaker, that on one occassion preached to a crowd in Boston Common greater than the entire population of that city. The movement enventually ran its course but not before achieveing one act of enormous unforeseeable consequence, they brought the messages of Christianity to the slave community in America, a message that became a true religion by appealling to the slaves of the Roman Empire. A barely mentioned item of American history well worth knowing if one wishes to understand the evangelical community of today.
September 16, 2014
The definitive work on the Great Awakening.
There are many invaluable insights in this book. Rather than the traditional Old/New Light distinction among evangelicals, he presents a more nuanced distinction of Moderate/Radical evangelicals. Ironically, it was moderate evangelicalism that fed into revolution while radical evangelicalism led many into neutrality. Kidd surveys the various anti-authoritarian religious impulses of the 1740s that influenced the Revolutionary War of 1770s. Kidd argues that it is better to think of it as a "long" Great Awakening that spanned many more years than the traditional dating. As a result, we should stay clear from referring to a First and Second Great Awakening. Instead, there was "a long-term turn toward Baptist and Methodist piety from the American Revolution to the Civil War, punctuated by new revivals…"
There are many invaluable insights in this book. Rather than the traditional Old/New Light distinction among evangelicals, he presents a more nuanced distinction of Moderate/Radical evangelicals. Ironically, it was moderate evangelicalism that fed into revolution while radical evangelicalism led many into neutrality. Kidd surveys the various anti-authoritarian religious impulses of the 1740s that influenced the Revolutionary War of 1770s. Kidd argues that it is better to think of it as a "long" Great Awakening that spanned many more years than the traditional dating. As a result, we should stay clear from referring to a First and Second Great Awakening. Instead, there was "a long-term turn toward Baptist and Methodist piety from the American Revolution to the Civil War, punctuated by new revivals…"
March 17, 2012
In a very well researched and thoroughly organized work, Thomas Kidd seeks to capture the Great Awakening in one single volume. As I read this book, I made a note in one of the margins, "Kidd puts more in one paragraph than most put on a page". This book is filled with names, facts, and dates to capture the details of the Great Awakening.
That said, the presence of so many facts does make this a complex read. You feel the urge to be taking notes versus casually reading for enjoyment. The margins are filled on my book now! I am now walking back through the book trying to take it all in!
If you are looking for a well developed and well presented book on "The Great Awakening", this is a must read.
That said, the presence of so many facts does make this a complex read. You feel the urge to be taking notes versus casually reading for enjoyment. The margins are filled on my book now! I am now walking back through the book trying to take it all in!
If you are looking for a well developed and well presented book on "The Great Awakening", this is a must read.
May 2, 2012
A well written account of the Great Awakening. Chronicles the various awakenings that took places in the colonies. Provides an explanation for the rise of evangelicalism as a force in American Church history. Great footnotes. Now I have to go back a read Mark Noll's "The Rise of Evangelicalism" published by IVP. I've developed a high regard for Professor Kidd's acumen and writing.
September 1, 2014
This was very good. Kidd traces the roots of evangelicalism in colonial America - an intriguing story in its own root and a much needed back-story to understanding our own times.
Also read in Nov, 2013.
Also read in Nov, 2013.
August 29, 2014
Riveting! I greatly enjoyed Kidd's social history narrative of the long Great Awakening. In addition to functioning as a reliable account of a remarkable period, this work also serves as a thoughtful introduction to the origins of modern evangelicalism
April 20, 2014
Helpful overview of "The Great Awakening."
March 27, 2015
Interesting, but it's a survey so it deals with too much information.
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