Question

a) Briefly describe ONE specific historical difference in North America between the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment. b) Briefly describe ONE specific historical similarity in North America between the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment. c) Briefly explain ONE specific historical effect in North America of either the First Great Awakening or the Enlightenment.

Answer 1

a) One of the differences between the First Great Awakening and the Enlightenment was the fact that, while the First Great Awakening emphasized personal feelings and subjective experience, the Enlightenment focused much more on cold, hard facts. The First Great Awakening encouraged the idea that each person could have a different experience with religion, and that only they could decide how best to practice it. On the other hand, the Enlightenment was a philosophical movement that attempted to get rid of subjectivity in favor of uniformity driven by science.

b) One similarity between these two movements was the fact that they both questioned traditional authorities. In the case of the First Great Awakening, people began to question priests and their sterile speeches, and instead began to follow their own feelings. In the case of the Enlightenment, people questioned traditional authorities, such as priests and kings and instead tried to exercise their own reason.

c) One historical effect of the Enlightenment in North America was th Revolutionary War. To a very large extent, the Revolutionary War was motivated by the ideas of the Enlightenment that originated with philosophers such as Rousseau, Locke and Montesquieu.