Hello!
Both the movement of Christian revitalization of the Great Awakening and the cultural movement of the Enlightenment have had a great impact on the American colonies in the eighteenth century.
On the one hand, the Enlightenment, extended from France, has led to important intellectual debates that had a clear influence on the political and social movement of the American Revolution, which led to the formation of an independent United States (1776).
Most of the "founding fathers" can be considered both political and intellectual enlightened, who politically defended the concept of social contract, civil and political rights and religious tolerance.
The American illustration was characterized by the conciliation between reason and faith through a deistic sensibility, which rejected dogmas and mysticism and demanded a complete separation between the churches and the State. In this sense, the different movements of the Enlightenment were reactions against the authoritarianism, irrationality and obscurantism of the established churches.
On the other hand, the great awakening (movement of Christian revitalization) spread between 1730 and 1740 in the colonies of North America, leaving a permanent impact on American religion. This movement consisted of an intensely personal Christianity by fostering a deep sense of spiritual conviction and redemption, and by fostering introspection and commitment to a new norm of personal morality. It led to changes in God's understanding of Americans, of themselves, and of the world around them. In the colonies of the center and of the south, especially in the "interior regions of the country," the awakening influenced to a great extent among the Presbyterians. In the southern regions, the Baptist and Methodist northern preachers converted whites as well as blacks, slaves and freemen alike. Baptists, especially, welcomed blacks into active roles in congregations, including their performance as preachers. Before the American Revolution, the first black Baptist churches were founded in southern Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia; while in Saint Petersburg, Virginia, two Black Baptist churches were founded.
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