KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education

PARK Hyung-Jin, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Mission History, Torch Trinity Graduate University, South Korea

I. Introduction II. Two Old Posts of American Higher Education: Harvard and Yale III. The Germ of the Educational Awakening IV. The Great Awakening: The Road to the Educational Awakening V. Educational Ideals of the Great Awakening: Piety and Learning VI. Features of the Educational Awakening VII. Summary and Conclusion

Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology Vol. 52 No. 4 (2020. 11), 63-96 DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2020.52.4.003 64 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Abstract

In the history of faith in America, the Great Awakening, started from 1720s, marked a milestone in American church history with its awakening message on repentance and new birth to the dormant churches in America where many moved for religious freedom and settled down with the Puritan ideal. The Great Awakening is a revival movement which not only brought quickening the churches but also splitting the churches that was caused by different attitudes towards revival movement. Among the two existing old posts, Harvard, established in 1636 with Puritan ideal, was abandoning orthodox Trinitarianism and embracing Unitarianism; Yale, with its opposition to revivalism, was dismissing those students who welcomed revivalism. Revivalism, the spiritual currents of that times, and its demand of new ministers to spread the fervor of the revivalism prompted those ministers who felt the need of new educational institution overcoming the apathy of the two old posts to found the new schools. One good example was ‘The Log College’ which later contributed to the birth of Princeton University (then The College of New Jersey). That ignited and spurred the birth of similar institutions. Though the primary goal of the new schools was in the typical motivation of rearing ministers, the scope of education was beyond this ministerial purpose. The new institutions became a birthplace for the modern education with emphasis on science. In this vein, the Great Awakening in America can be called as ‘the educational awakening.”

Keywords

America, The Great Awakening, Revivalism, The Log College, American Higher Education The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education DOI: 10.15757/kpjt.2020.52.4.003 65

I. INTRODUCTION

The impact of the Great Awakening on American culture and society was broad and enormous. In religious mood, it divided American Christianity into two sides: pro-revivalism and anti-revivalism. The sharp issue was on whether one was a revivalist or an anti-revivalist rather than whether one was a Congregationalist, Presbyterian, or Baptist.1 In the other aspect, however, the Great Awakening was paradoxically an interdenominational and intercolonial movement in that the common revivalistic spirit served to draw diverse church bodies together to strive for the common goal: winning the soul. Not only did it cause division within denominations, but it also stimulated the missions to the Indians and the founding of educational institutions. Especially in the educational realm, it ushered the colonial education to new avenues. Prior to 1740 the colonies had only three colleges: Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary. By 1776 there were nine colleges; among six new ones, four had been founded by ministers and laymen with revivalist backgrounds and points of view.2 Those colleges have developed into major universities and produced influential leaders for the church and the nation. This paper focuses on the impact of the first Great Awakening on the early American higher education. In this study, I will discuss the birth of the major colleges which stemmed from the revival movement. For the discussion, the following questions will be considered: How did the Awakening motivate the establishment of the new institutions? Who were the key figures? What was the vision of the new schools? How did those schools influence American education? In Korea, there are some historical studies done in the impact of the religious movement on education.3 Among them, some are

1 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education: A Documentary History (New York: Teachers College Press, 1973), 28. 2 Ibid., 19. 3 For example, Jung Joong Ho et al, “Jonggyojeok kodeung kyoyuk edaehan seon­ seojeok yuksajeok baekyung yongu” [A Study of the Biblical and Historical Background of the Religious Higher Education], Journal of the Church History Society in Korea 6 (1994. 6), 121-204. This study is a very comprehensive historical survey. 66 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 related to the impact of the Protestant Reformation.4 Others are associated with the impact of the Pietism.5 However, there are only a few articles in Korean that briefly mention about the educational impact of the Great Awakening, especially the founding of college.6 In spite of the increasing interests in spiritual renewal movements as well as enthusiastic aspiration for academic learning in the US, not many research was conducted in Korean about the relationship between the Great Awakening and its impact on American higher education. In this context, this article will contribute to the recognition of the significance of religion in its impact on modern education.

II. TWO OLD POSTS OF AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION: HARVARD AND YALE

Before the Great Awakening, colonial education was really scanty. The early two colleges, Harvard (1636) and Yale (1701) were founded with Puritan vision. They had been the main channels through which ministers were produced in the colonies.

4 Yang Kum-Hee, “Jonggyo gaehyuk gieui hakkyo, kyohoi, geurigo kukkaeui kwangye edaehan yongu” [The Relationship between Church, Country and Academic Institutions during the Protestant Reformation], Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 44-4 (2012. 12), 345-72; Lim Hee-Kuk, “Zwingli jonggyo gaehyuk eui yoosan gwa hankuk (Pyongyang) ‘jangrohoi sinhakgyo’ sinhak kyoyuk” [Zwingli’s Reformation Legacy and Theological Education of Korean Presbyterian Theological Seminary],Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology45-1 (2013. 3), 93-117. 5 Yang Seung-Hwan, “A. H. Francke eui kyoyuk ihae wa yeonghyang” [A. H. Fran­ cke’s Understanding of Education and His Influence],Journal of the Church History Society in Korea 41 (2015. 9), 7-37. 6 Oh Deok-Kyo, “New England eui daegakseong woondong” [The Great Awakening in New England], Presbyterian Theological Quarterly 49-2 (1982. 6), 114; Shim Chang- Sub, “Keundae booheung woondongeui kyohoi kyoyukjeok ihae” [An Understanding of the Church Education in the Light of the Modem Religious Revivalism], Presbyterian Theological Quarterly73-4 (2006. 12), 165; Ko Yong-Su, “21 segireul hyanghan kidokkyo hakyoeui jeonmanggwa hankuk kyohoieui kwaje” [The Prospect of the Christian Schools and the Task of Korean Church towards the 21st Century], Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 10 (1994. 11), 607. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 67

After God had carried us safe to New England & wee had builded our houses provided necessaries for our liveli-hood reard convenient places for Gods worship and setled the Civil Government: One of the next things wee longed for and looked after was to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Prosperity dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches when our present ministers shall lie in the Dust.7

This statement shows the Puritan vision of education in early America. Harvard was founded with such Puritan vision and was modeled after Cambridge. John Harvard was a graduate of Emmanuel College, a Puritan foundation of Cambridge University established to provide a preaching ministry for the church. In the same manner, Harvard was the first church college in America. Helpful supporters in the founding of Harvard, such as John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and John Preston, were all Emmanuel fellows. Among the leaderships afterwards, Increase Mather was one of the greatest American Puritans and a voice for orthodox Calvinism. When he was appointed a president at Harvard in 1685, he accepted it in the terms of part-time work because of his zeal for the parish ministry that he already undertook in Boston as a celebrated preacher. His absence from the campus left his able fellows to control over the students. John Leverett who had liberal spirit thought that Harvard was no longer to be considered a seminary for ministers of the orthodox Congregational faith. In 1708, he was elected to the presidency. The death of Increase Mather in 1723 marked the decline of the era of the New England Puritanism. A wealthy merchant of London, Thomas Hollis, gave funds to endow Harvard’s first chair. The Hollis Professorship eventually embraced Unitarianism. With the loss of professorship at Harvard to the Unitarians, Harvard College evolved from Calvinism to Uni­ tarianism. The unfriendly spirit of Harvard on the Great Awakening was manifested in its reaction to George Whitefield’s visit in the Boston area in 1740. Whitefield’s dramatic and powerful preaching stirred the whole Boston area excepting Harvard. Whitefield responded that “piety

7 Guy E. Snavely, The Church and the Four-Year College (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955), 10. 68 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 and true Godliness” were not much better at Harvard than was true at Cambridge and Oxford.8 1701, the same year when Increase Mather was dropped from the presidency, became the time of venture for a new institution in Connecticut. The legitimate reason for founding Yale was twofold: one is the distance and expanse to send the prospective preachers to Harvard; the other is the drifting of Harvard clergymen from Congregationalism to Unitarianism. The purpose of the new college was stated:

Several well disposed and Publick spirited Persons of their sincere Regard to & zeal for upholding & Propagating of the Christian Protestant Religion by a succession of Learned and Orthodox men, have expressed by Petition their earnest desires that full Liberty and Priveledge be granted unto certain Undertakers for the founding, suitably endowing & ordering a Collegiate School within his Majesties Colony of Connecticut, where in Youth may be instructed in the Arts & Sciences, who through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Public employment both in Church and Civil State.9

By the appeal of Cotton Mather, Elihu Yale, a wealthy merchant working for the East India Company and later a governor of Madras, donated funds for the college, which made the school named after him. Yale produced notable leaders both in the Great Awakening and in colonial education such as Jonathan Edwards, the faithful defender of the Awakening, and Eleazar Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College. During those days, Yale, under the conservative president Thomas Clap, embraced the fervor of the Great Awakening. Whitefield was invited to Yale and preached there. Whitefield wrote in his journal: “The president came to me as I was going off in the chaise and informed me that the students were so deeply impressed by the sermon that they were gone into the chapel and earnestly entreated me to give them one more quarter of an hour’s exhortation.”10

8 Ibid., 16. 9 Ibid., 24. 10 Ibid., 29. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 69

However, at the same time, most of the Yale faculty was not friendly to the Great Awakening. Yale’s critical attitude against the revivalistic spirit came up to the surface through the expelling of revivalist students. One such case was the expulsion of David Brainerd in 1741. Jonathan Edwards, the apologist of the Awakening, explains Brainerd’s experience in his own writing An Account of the Life of the Reverened David Brainerd:11

Tuesday, December 9… Sometime towards the latter end of January, 1740/1, I grew more cold and dull in matters of religion, by means of my old temptation, viz. ambition in my studies. But through divine goodness, a great and general awakening spread itself over the college, about the latter end of February, in which I was much quickened, and more abundantly engaged in religion.12

The picture of the Awakening that threw the Yale campus into turmoil was well pictured in the following Commission’s report to the General Assembly in Connecticut of their inquiry on campus:

Some of the students have fallen into the practice of rash judging and censuring others, even some of the governors, teachers and instructors of the College, as being unconverted, inexperienced and unskillful guides, in matters of religion…13

Obviously, Brainerd became a victim. The circumstances of Brainerd’s expulsion show the unfavorable atmosphere to the revivalism. Until the Great Awakening, most of clergies were the products of the two old posts, Harvard and Yale. However, these two old posts were deteriorated from the Puritan ethos. The Awakening produced severe disturbances among the students at both schools. Yet, the news that

11 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 129-33. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid., 135. 70 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Whitefield was returning to New England in 1744 caused the Harvard and Yale faculty to write a declaration to denounce him. The unfriendly spirit of those two schools was expressed in Whitefield’s journal: “As for the Universities, I believe it may be said, their Light is now become Darkness, Darkness that may be felt, and is complained of by the most godly Ministers.”14

III. THE GERM OF THE EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING

The Great Awakening in early colonies has two origins in its region. One place was New England, the puritan soil. The other place was the middle colonies such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the area with European settlers. The quickening movement of the educational Awakening started in the middle colonies. In the educational context, the middle colonies, unlike New England, were in vacuum state of learning in contrast to the increasing population. In such a soil, the germ of the Awakening was planted by a man from Ireland.

1. Log College: The Germ and Precursor

In the chapter “the Memoir of Rev. WM. Tennent, Sen.” in his book Biographical Sketches of the Founders, and Principal Alumni of the Log College, Archibald Alexander introduces the founder of the College, the Rev. William Tennent.15 He was a native of Ireland, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and originally belonged to Episcopal Church of Ireland. He came to America in 1718. Shortly after, he separated from his Episcopal church as a dissenter and applied to the synod of Philadelphia for admission as a member. In those days, pastoral preparation following college graduation was usually practiced in the pastor’s home as an apprenticeship. Such an

14 Ibid., 142. 15 Archibald Alexander, Biographical Sketches of the Founders, and Principal Alumni of the Log College (Princeton: J.T. Robinson, 1845), 18-32. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 71 example was Samuel Hopkins at Jonathan Edwards’. Tennent’s pattern was similar. The chief motivation was to train his four sons, Gilbert, William Jr., John, and Charles Tennent as evangelistic preachers. It also included young boys in the neighborhood. Its start was humble and obscure. The college was named “Log College,” derisively so by the ministers who had solid educational backgrounds. It was founded in 1725 at Neshaminey, Pennsylvania. According to Murphy, “It was the first institution in the whole land intended for the education of Presbyterian ministers. Nearly all the ministers who were first ordained in our church, and many of the greatest preachers we have ever had, were educated there.”16 We have to pay attention to the significance of the Log College. Above all, it started before Edwards’ “surprising Conversions” at Northampton in 1734 and Whitefield’s first itinerant preaching in 1740. The Log College was not a product of the Great Awakening but produced its leaders. The best description of this college was written by the notable preacher Whitefield, who visited this school in 1739.

It is a log house about twenty feet long and nearly as many broad; and to me it seemed to resemble the school of the old prophets, for their habitations were mean; and that they sought not great things for themselves is plain from those passages of Scripture wherein we are told that each of them took them a beam to build them a house, and that put at the feast of the sons of the prophets one of them put on the pot whilst the others went to fetch some herbs out of the field. All that we can say of most of our universities is that they are glorious without. From this despised place seven or eight worthy ministers of Jesus have lately been sent forth; more are ready to be sent, and the foundations are now laying for the instruction of many others.17

In the words of Whitefield, it was the school of the prophets. The place of the Log College within the plane of the Great Awakening is

16 Thomas Murphy, The Presbytery of the Log College: The Cradle of the Presbyterian Church in America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1889), 67. 17 Ibid., 77. 72 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 significant for two reasons. First it created conflicts by challenging the established theological educational system. Secondly, it molded a paradigm for the following educational models. This transient educational spot played a pivotal role in American education as a whole.

2. The Challenge: The Old and New Side Schism

In the early Presbyterianism in the colonies, the schism was originally inherent from two different heritages: New England ministers, mostly graduates from Harvard and Yale, and Scotch-Irish ministers, mostly educated in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Scotch-Irish ministers, being afraid of doctrinal degeneration, strongly urged to subscribe to the Westminster Confession. The conflicts between conservatism and the new spirit were settled in a compromise: The Adopting Act of 1729 in which, the candidates for ministerial license could reserve on specific articles of doctrine in Westminster Confession. Under this circumstance, the very existence of the Log College accelerated the schism. The enthusiastic and revivalistic preaching of the Log College graduates began to create turbulence in the Presbyterian synod. Eventually their influences were curtailed by reluctant pastors, most of which were Scotch-Irish ministers. Being threatened by young enthusiasts, in 1738 the synod of Philadelphia challenged the educational credentials of the Log College graduates, none of whom had a traditional college degree, and denied them ministerial licenses by passing the proposal that all ministerial candidates must possess a degree either from a European University or from a New England college.18 This action was purposefully aimed at the Log College. It implies that those who have no proper degree would be required to stand examination before a special commission appointed by the synod. The following excerpt shows the case:

We answer, But will Mr. T[ennent] explain himself what he means by a well-qualified Ministry? If a learned Ministry, Why was he unwilling

18 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 23. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 73

that their Candidates should be examined by others, either before or after their Admission?...The Synod conceived, not without Ground, that there were some Slackness in particular Presbyteries, in the Examination of Candidates, at their Admission into the Ministry, and that some of late were admitted, who were remarkably deficient in some Parts of useful Learning, particularly Messrs. Alexander Craighead, Charles Tennent, and John Rowland (the last two graduates of the Log College… Upon these Grounds, and the credible Reports we received of Mr. W.T’s great Slackness in educating Scholars under his Care,…19

In 1740, Gilbert Tennent, one of the Log College graduates and the son of its founder, preached the trenchant sermon, titled “On the Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry.” It was an answer to the challenge from the synod. As a result, it caused the Old and New Side schism in 1741 which divided the Presbyterian body until it was later healed in 1758. In the light of the revivalism, the Old Side and New Side represents anti-revivalist and revivalists, respectively.

3. The Controversy: Unconverted vs. Unqualified

The most bitterly argued controversy during the Awakening was centered around educational question: “What constitutes the essence of ministerial qualification?”20 It was the issue about the learned ministry. This controversy can be best represented with the two contrasting sermons. Gilbert Tennent, in his sermon “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry” in 1740, stirred the leadership of the Presbyterian synod. Tennent denounced unconverted ministers as powerless to convert others. He called them “Pharisee-Teachers.” He also called attention to the necessities of founding private, revival-centered schools as means of countering a “dead ministry.”

19 Thos. C. Pears, Jr. et al eds., Documentary History of William Tennent and The Log College (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1940), 160-61. 20 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 93. 74 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Isn’t an unconverted minister like a man who would learn others to swim, before he has learned it himself, and so is drowned in the act, and dies like a fool…The most likely method to stock the church with a faithful ministry, in the present situation of things, the public academies being so much corrupted and abused generally, is to encourage private schools, or seminaries of learning…we may learn that such who are contended under a dead ministry have not in them the temper of that Saviour they profess…21

As an answer of this attack, John Hancock replied to Tennent with his sermon, titled “The Danger of an Unqualified Ministry.” Hancock’s argument emphasizes a learned and competent ministry, licensed and appointed by duly constituted church authority. He called unqualified ministers as “novices.”

The Apostles of our Lord have been very careful to give the churches of Christ all the necessary qualifications of good ministers… to be kept pure from a corrupt and bad ministry… And the present unbounded license of public teaching, I apprehend to be a leaping step to the scandalous disorders and confusions of these times… this doctrine also admonisheth the churches of Christ, to take heed of committing their souls to the case of unskillful novices…22

4. The Influence

The Log College men exerted their influences not only in their parish ministries but also in educations. Gilbert Tennent, the eldest son of William Tennent, was born in 1703, the same year when the great figures of the evangelical awakenings such as John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards were born. Gilbert Tennent was in the same rank with the two in his influence in American Christianity as a preacher. During the Awakening, he worked closely together with George Whitefield. After

21 Ibid., 94-104. 22 Ibid., 104-15. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 75 the Log College was closed, his influence as an educator continued as one of the trustee members at the newly started the New Jersey College. Samuel Blair with his younger brother John Blairs were the graduates of the Log College. Samuel started a school at Fagg’s Manor (New Londonderry). It was a seminary similar to that of the Log College. The school produced eminent leaders. Among them was Samuel Davies who became the president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) after Jonathan Edwards, and Robert Smith who established Pequa Academy, a similar institution to Fagg’ Manor. Thus, Pequa Academy was the child of Fagg’s Manor Seminary, which was the child of the Log College.23 John Blair taught and served as the vice president at Princeton. Samuel Finley, one of the key educators in the New Side, established the famous Nottingham Academy in 1744. This institution made his fame so great that he later was elected to the presidency of Princeton. Nottingham Academy produced many figures. Benjamin Rush, the very nephew of Finley, was one of its fruits. His role as a physician and a reformer greatly contributed to the medical education in his times and to the following generations.

IV. THE GREAT AWAKENING: THE ROAD TO THE EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING

The Great Awakening paved the way to the founding of new colonial colleges. In some sense, the Great Awakening is an educational awakening. In this section, I want to briefly sketch the founding histories of the colleges to show that most of them are directly or indirectly the children of the Awakening.

1. The Founding of the Colleges

Rev. William Tennent, the founder of the Log College died in 1746.

23 Thomas Murphy,The Presbytery of the Log College, 89. 76 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Coincidentally, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) opened in the same year. With his death, the Log College, the old prophet school, also closed its career and property of the Log College was sold the next year.24 The Log College existed for only two decades. But its influence was explosive. The graduates of the Log College founded similar institutions at Londonderry, Pennsylvania, and Nottingham, Maryland. Two of the most well-known schools were the Fagg’s Manor Academy of Samuel Blair and the Nottingham Academy of Samuel Finley. These were the little Log Colleges. However, the most permanent trace of the Log College was Princeton (then the College of New Jersey). “Was the Log College the germ of Princeton College?” asked Mur­ phy in his book.25 The answer depends upon the perspective one takes. The answer is “No” because there was no organizational transference and connection between Log College and Princeton. In fact, more direct cause for the new institution was the expulsion of David Brainerd. This event became catalysis to found the College of New Jersey. This event caused a group of New Jersey and New York Presbyterians to discuss the founding of an institution in their area for the training of ministries: “If it had not been for the treatment received by Mr. Brainerd at Yale, New Jersey College would never have been erected.”26 Official catalogue of Princeton also introduces its history:

Princeton University is the child of the Great Awakening...It was chiefly because both Harvard and Yale denounced the movement and Yale actually expelled several students for joining in it, that the New Lights, as the revivalists called themselves, considered it necessary to found a new college...27

24 Thos. C. Pears, Jr., et al eds., Documentary History of William Tennent and The Log College, 144. 25 Thomas Murphy,The Presbytery of the Log College, 121. 26 David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary, Vol.1, Faith and Learning 1812-1868 (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1994), 5. 27 Guy E. Snavely, The Church and the Four-Year College, 32. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 77

The answer of the question is “Yes” because the Log College made it necessary for its foundation and prepared the way for it. The educational aim of both institutions was same: the suitable education for young men for the work of the gospel ministry. The graduates of the Log College took an influential part in founding Princeton:

The active friends and founders of Nassau Hall were the Tennents, Blairs, Finley, Smith, Rogers, Davies and others who had received their education in the Log College or schools instituted by those who had been instructed there.28

When funds were needed for a building, Presbyterian ministers Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Davies crossed the stormy Atlantic to spend part of 1754 in Great Britain appealing for aid.29

The College of New Jersey became the fourth college in America after Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale, and the first in the Middle Colonies. The mark of the Great Awakening on this new college is more apparent when we see its history. The third president of Princeton, who succeeded in his son-in-law, Aaron Burr, was Jonathan Edwards. Unfortunately, he served only thirty four days, being a victim to inoculation. After him, the two presidents, Samuel Davies and Samuel Finley were closely related to the Log College, one as a graduate of the Log, the other as a graduate of Fagg’s Manor which was the daughter seminary of the Log. The very creator of the Great Awakening, George Whitefield, visited Princeton and was invited as a commencement speaker. Princeton was all the time Whitefield’s favorite American college because of its revered connections with the Log College and the Great Awakening.30 The first five Presidents of the college all wholeheartedly supported the Great Awakening and held to the New England Calvinistic theology and piety of Jonathan Edwards.31

28 Thomas Murphy,The Presbytery of the Log College, 124. 29 David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary, Vol.1, 6. 30 Ibid., 14. 31 Ibid., 10. 78 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Princeton became a model to the eighteenth century institutions of higher education in its curriculum and others. The College of Philadelphia (now University of Pennsylvania) also had imprints of influence of the Great Awakening. The man responsible for the organization of the 1740 Charity School was George Whitefield. Whitefield’s powerful preaching moved the deistic Benjamin Franklin. However, the main reason was chiefly due to Whitefield’s appeal for his charity school in Georgia. Whitefield was an ardent Calvinist, and Franklin was a moralist and philanthropist. Though they were apart in religious view points, they became close friends. The following inscription by Franklin on the monument shows the appreciation of Whitefield’s contribution to the establishment of that school:

Zealous advocate and patron of higher education in the American Colonies. The Charity School of 1740, the beginning of the University of Pennsylvania, was a fruit of his ministry. The University of Pennsylvania held its first sessions in a building erected for his congregations and was aided by his collections, guided by his counsel, inspired by his life. I knew him intimately upwards of thirty years. His integrity, disinterestedness and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equalled, and shall never see excelled. -BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 32

Dartmouth College (founded in 1769) was an outgrowth from an Indian mission school first conducted at Lebanon, Connecticut. Its first president, Eleazar Wheelock, was a zealous Congregational New Light preacher with revivalistic spirit and a close friend of Jonathan Edwards. The chief purpose of the school was to train missionaries for the Indians. It was stated:

for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land in reading, writing & all parts of Learning which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing & christianizing Children of Pagans as well as in all liberal Arts and Sciences; and also of English

32 Guy E. Snavely, The Church and the Four-Year College, 29. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 79

Youth and any others.33

The school started under the name of Moor’s Indian Charity School. To be nearer to Indians, it moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. The school motto, “Vox clamantis in deserto,” chosen by Wheelock well represents its spirit. Later, the school was named Dartmouth College after the second Earl of Dartmouth who was a donator of gifts. Wheelock, a graduate of Yale in 1733, participated in the Great Awakening as a respectful preacher. By the year of 1741, he preached five hundreds sermons, but counseled wisely against “emotional extravagance.”34 His fame as a revivalist preacher can be well recognized in the letter from his friend, Jonathan Edwards:

From the Rev. Jonathan Edwards Northampton, June 9, 1741. Rev. and Dear, Sir, The special occasion of my now writing to you is a desire I have of two things; one is, that you and your brother Pomeroy would go to Scantic, my father’s parish, and preach there as often as the people will be willing to hear you...You have lately been so remarkably blessed elsewhere, that I cannot but hope you would success there also.35

Wheelock also had a friendly relationship with George Whitefield who continuously contributed to the college through his fundraising efforts when he returned to England. The College of Rhode Island (now Brown University) was established in 1764 under revivalist Baptist sponsorship with the desire to build a college for the Baptist churches. The scattered Baptists felt a strong need to establish a school following the other religious denominations, and formed the union through the Philadelphia Association in the region of the middle colonies. The College of Rhode Island emerged

33 Ibid., 58. 34 Ibid., 60. 35 David M’Clure and Elijah Parish, Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D. D. (New York: Arno Press, 1972), 220. 80 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 from the work of the Hopewell (New Jersey) Academy which was founded in 1756 by the Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches. Under the leadership of Issac Eaton, the Baptist pastor at Hopewell, the academy successfully supplied preachers, lawyers, and physicians. The Philadelphia Association felt “encouraged to extend their designs of promoting literature in the society by erecting on some suitable part of this continent a college or university, which should be principally under the direction and government of the Baptists.”36 The firm belief of this group was in the separation of church and state, and made its location in Rhode Island, the colony founded by the Baptist Roger Williams. James Manning, the graduate of Hopewell and the College of New Jersey, was the first president and exemplified much of his work after the College of New Jersey. In 1804, Nicholas Brown offered the funds to endow a chair and the college was renamed in his honor. The college became more famous by the great work of Adoniram Judson, who was the fruit of the Second Great Awakening and the missionary to Burma. The King’s College (now Columbia University) was chartered by King George II in 1754. There was no clear mark from the Great Awakening in its foundation process. It was established for general education. Though there was no religious discrimination, it was under auspices of the Anglican Church. When the Trinity Church gave the land for the original site of the college, one condition given was “that the president should forever be a member of or in communion with the Church of England.”37 The Queen’s College (now Rutgers University) was the output from the revivalist wing of the Dutch Reformed Church. The moving spirit in that enterprise was Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the son of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen who was the first Awakening preacher in the middle colonies. He feared that the willingness of the Dutch pastors of New York City to unite with the Anglicans in establishing King’s College in 1754 would threaten the very existence and identity of

36 Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607-1783 (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 327. 37 Guy E. Snavely, The Church and the Four-Year College, 43. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 81 the Dutch Reformed Church in America. In response Frelinghuysen gathered like-minded ministers, which resolved to plant a school in 1766. Later it became New Jersey’s land-grant college.

V. EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF THE GREAT AWAKENING: PIETY AND LEARNING

Religion, especially Christianity, with no exception, seeks its ideals through education. So was started the universities in Europe during the Middle Ages. Puritans planted their ideals in the New World. Likewise, the Great Awakening in America also set its ideals in newly established colleges. Educational ideals of the newly established colleges had two directions: one was the restoration of the piety; the other was the searching for the broader learning.

1. Back to the Piety: Ministry and Missions

Entering the eighteenth century, one of the two old posts, Yale, showed the continuing and undimmed strength of the religious atmosphere. The more conservative character of Yale produced the New Lights leaders and these leaders assumed significant roles in the Great Awakening. In the origin of Yale, the chief motive of the founding was to counteract the growing signs that Harvard was developing a more liberal religious outlook. Though Harvard was more venerable and intellectually prestigious, it was Yale that served as the institutional model for the College of New Jersey, the College of Rhode Island, and others.38 The statements by the two staunch Calvinists, Clap and Edwards, well represent the ideals of college education. During the peak of the Awakening, Yale was under the presidency of Thomas Clap (1739-1766). He stated his philosophy: “Colleges, are Religious Societies, of a Superior Nature to all others. For whereas Parishes, are

38 Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education, 510. 82 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Societies, for training up the common People; Colleges, are Societies of Ministers, for training up Persons for the Work of the Ministry…”39 Jonathan Edwards, the third president of Princeton, claimed with even stronger voice that the main design of colleges should be to train for the ministry. Therefore the college should be “Nurseries of Piety” and “Schools of the Prophets” to prepare persons to be “Ambassadors of Jesus Christ.”40 These ideals are proven by the statistics by Cremin.41 In his book American Education: The Colonial Experience, Cremin illustrates the numbers and occupations of the graduates of Harvard, Yale, and the College of New Jersey during 1700-1770. All three schools share common fact in that among the total graduates, the occupation of ministers outnumbered that of others. The year that produced the highest numbers of ministers are varied in each school. While Harvard and Yale showed the eventual decrease in numbers after their peaks in 1725 and 1760, respectively, the College of New Jersey shows gradual increase up to 1770. The ideals of the Awakening also embraced the missions. It is to be emphasized that the Great Awakening re-stimulated the Puritan’s heartfelt obligation to bring the Gospel to the Indians: “Solomon Stoddard posed the QUESTION, Whether God is not Angry with the Country for doing So little towards the Conversion of the Indians?”42 Not surprisingly, this voice caught his grandson. Jonathan Edwards, after the dismissal from his parish church, spent his life on Native Americans in Stockbridge, Massachusetts until he became the president at Princeton. Likewise, David Brainerd threw himself into Indian missions after the expulsion from his school. The passion for the mission to Indians was shown through other key educational leaders such as Wheelock. Close

39 R Freeman Butts and Lawrence A. Cremin, A History of Education in American Culture (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1953), 81. Quoted from Thomas Clap, The Religious Constitution of Colleges, Especially of Yale-College in New-Haven (New London, Conn., T. Green, 1754), 4, 12. 40 R Freeman Butts and Lawrence A. Cremin, A History of Education in American Culture, 82. Quoted from Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts Concerning the present Revival of Religion in New-England, 112-14. 41 Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education, 554. 42 Roland H. Bainton, Yale and Ministry (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 26. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 83 connection among these leaders in Indian missions during the Great Awakening is noteworthy. Eleazer Wheelock and David Brainerd, both being zealous missionaries to Indians, corresponded to each other regarding the conversion and education of Indian boys. Brainerd wrote to Wheelock: “When I consider the doings of the Lord among these Indians, and then take a view of my journal, I must say ‘tis a faint representation I have given of them.” In Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock was written: “On the eighteenth day of December, 1754, arrived… two Indian boys of the Delaware nation. They were sent, at the request of Mr. Wheelock, by the Rev. John Brainerd, missionary to the Indians in New Jersey… At Mr. Wheelock’s request, Mr. Brainerd sent him two other lads of the same nation…”43 One of the fruits of the mission was Samson Occom, the Mohegan Indian. Later, Occom was responsible for the great fundraising for Wheelock’s school. The Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge supported missionaries of this school and others.44 In one word, mission was an inseparable goal in the education of the Great Awakening times.

2. Toward the Learning: Broader Purpose and Profession

Sloan says,

Initially the strongest motive in the founding of revivalist academies and colleges was to secure opportunities for the training of ministers. This was never the exclusive purpose of the revivalist-oriented institution.45

He argues that it is a mistake to suppose that revivalists’ educational programs were a direct, practical application of their particular outlook.46 According to him, educational ideals of the revivalists were much broader than we suppose. They embraced common currency of

43 David M’Clure and Elijah Parish, Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D.D., 23. 44 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 227. 45 Ibid., 43. 46 Ibid. 84 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 eighteenth century educational ideals and practices.47 The educational atmosphere of the eighteenth century was reflected in the pamphlet used by Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Davies for their fund-raising efforts in Great Britain in 1752-54 for the infant college in New Jersey.

It will suffice to say, that the two principle objects the trustees had in view, were SCIENCE and RELIGION. Their first concern was, to cultivate the minds of the pupils in all those branches of erudition which are generally taught in the universities abroad;…48

The first priority of fund was the money for scientific equipment.49 Sloan argues that the empirical, pragmatic strain in revivalism and its vision of a revitalized human community on earth led them to support the new empirical and utilitarian science of the day.50 Many of able students in smaller academies were preparing for other professions besides the ministry and were led to careers in science and medicine even though these schools were under the direction of a single minister- teacher.51 The following paragraph well represents the broadened educational vision as well:

The core of the curriculum in the revivalist academies and the College of New Jersey was, of course, that common to all eighteenth-century institutions of higher education: the classical languages and the liberal arts and sciences. There were the subjects considered essential for the development of a truly educated man and basic preparation for all the learned professions—the ministry, law, and medicine.52

47 Ibid. 48 Ibid., 183. 49 Ibid., 45. 50 Ibid., 46. 51 Ibid., 44. 52 Ibid. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 85

VI. FEATURES OF THE EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING

The impact of the Great Awakening on American higher education has several features. The main factors which brought the successful establishment of the new educational institutions consist of four main features: dialectical reaction, Trans-Atlantic support, Scottish influence, and popularization of education.

1. Dialectical Reaction: Action vs. Counter-Action

The Great Awakening brought about an American version of denomination, i.e., revivalism. During the Awakening, revivalism split churches. The Congregational churches were split into the New Lights and the Old. The Presbyterian churches were divided into the New Side and the Old. The ministers of New Lights and New Side favored revivalism. Old Lights and Old Side disfavored revivalism. These main divisions are typically American and can be called the Great Awakening denominations or factions. Yet, paradoxically, these divisions played a decisive role in stimulating the movement of establishing new colleges. The development of the colleges was stimulated by the interactive responses between the revivalists and anti-revivalists. The action of the revivalists brought about the counter-action of the anti-revivalists.

The ejection of revivalist students from Yale and Harvard led to attempts on the part of the revivalists to found institutions of their own. In the middle colonies the success of the revivalist schools and academies spurred anti-revivalists to renew their educational efforts in turn. In the process many of the newer institutions became channels for the latest intellectual and pedagogical currents of the time.53

Interestingly, the influence of the Log College can be fully recognized when we see the reaction of the Old Side to counter the influence of the

53 Ibid., 128. 86 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

New Side Log College. The Old Side of the Philadelphia synod set up its own school in 1744. They put an academy that was already undertaken by Francis Alison in New London, Pennsylvania under their official care in 1744. It was a kind of a counter-Log College. Anyway, the Log College played an important role in educational awakening as a germ, directly and indirectly, and positively and negatively. In New England, expulsion from Yale and Harvard prompted the New Lights to found the schools to provide education for their ministerial candidates, one of which was the Shepherds’ Tent at New London, Connecticut. This institution, however, had to meet severe oppositions both by the Old Light clergy and by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and existed for only few months.54 In “An Act Relating To, and For the better Regulating Schools of Learning” it states:

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no person that has not been educated or graduated in Yale College, or Harvard College in Cambridge, or some other allowed foreign protestant college or university, shall take the benefit of the laws of this government respecting the settlement and support of ministers.55

2. Trans-Atlantic Connection

One very important feature of the Great Awakening was its trans- Atlantic connection. The Great Awakening in the New World was inextricably connected with the Old World, especially England and her Evangelical Awakening. The inter-relational character of the Awakening was one of the main causes to the successful installation of the school. The ecumenical and evangelical network is described by Bainton:

The Great Awakening not only stimulated missions, but likewise served to obliterate barriers between Christian confessions by drawing into fellowship the quickening spirits of diverse confessions and lands. A close

54 Ibid., 138. 55 Ibid., 141. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 87

affiliation developed between the Great Awakening in New England, the Methodist revival in Old England, and the Pietist movement in Germany.56

This trans-Atlantic connection supported the American education in threefold way: people, fund, and training. First, the Old World supplied both immigrants and key leaders. They were the people with religious zeal and ideal in their new settlement. The Scots-Irish was a good example. As for the leaders, one of the most influential figures was George Whitefield. Other examples were William Tennent of the Log College and Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, the Dutch Reformed pastor and a graduate of Halle. The Old Side leader Francis Alison, a graduate of Edinburgh, greatly contributed to the development of the College of Philadelphia. William Smith, also a Scottish university graduate, developed the most comprehensive and modern college curricula in America at that time.57 Secondly, mother-country in Europe supplied funds. Clear examples are shown in such case of fund-raising for the establishment of the new schools. Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Davies sailed to Britain in 1753 to raise money for the College of New Jersey. They were warmly welcomed in Great Britain, particularly in Scotland. They gathered more than three thousands two hundreds pounds in that trip.58 Wheelock’s academy at Lebanon (later Dartmouth) was another example. Wheelock ventured the large-scale fund-raising efforts in the British Isles. His pupils, one of whom was Samson Occom, one of Wheelock’s most famous Indian students, gathered over twelve thousand pounds through the fund- raising trip to Great Britain between 1766 and 1768. Wheelock and Whitefield corresponded to each other in the matter of fund-raising. The following excerpts from the letters reveal their close ties:

56 Roland H. Bainton, Yale and Ministry, 29. 57 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 46. 58 Ibid., 177. 88 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

From the Rev. George Whitefield London, Aug. 30, 1760. My very dear Friend, I shall shew your letter to some members of the Scotch Society, for promoting the gospel, and see if some annual allowance cannot be procured towards your charitable design. I humbly hope, it will take place in time…59

From the Rev. George Whitefield. London, Dec. 12, 1760. My very dear Mr. Wheelock, I have but just time to inform you, that upon mentioning, and a little enforcing your Indian affair, the Lord of all Lords put it into the heart of the Marquis of Lothian to put into my hands fifty pounds sterling…60

Thirdly, the Old World provided training for the New World. Students from the colonies went to Scotland and vice versa. Such an example was Benjamin Rush. After graduation from the College of New Jersey, he sailed for Europe. He received a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1768. When he returned, he became the first professor of chemistry.

3. Scottish Influence

During the Great Awakening, American higher education was at large influenced by the Scots. First of all, there was huge influx of Scotch-Irish immigrants. Especially, the middle colonies where the Log College and other successive institutions were burgeoning were the place of the large Scotch-Irish populations. Sloan argues that one of the main causes to the fruit of American higher education is Scottish impact:

59 David M’Clure and Elijah Parish, Memoirs of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, D.D., 223. 60 Ibid., 225. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 89

Beginning as a trickle in the seventeenth century, immigration to the American colonies from Scotland and the Great Plantation of Ulster in Northern Ireland grew to a stream of sizable proportions by the outbreak of the War of Independence. There were in actuality two streams, clearly distinct, one Scottish and the other “Scotch-Irish,” as the Ulster immigrants were called.61

An energetic, aggressive people, the Scotch-Irish were well suited for the task of settling and taming the frontiers, but most were unlettered and their numbers included few professional men. Had they not brought with them their Presbyterian ministers, the contributions of the Scotch-Irish to American higher education in the colonial period would doubtless have been slight.62

The traditional Presbyterian concern for education was carried out by those ministers most of whom were graduates of Scottish universities. The first Presbyterian academies were founded by these Scottish men. For example, William Tennent of the Log College was such a case; Francis Alison, who conducted an academy at New London, Pennsylvania, was another alumnus of Edinburgh; so were Samuel Blair, the founder of Fagg’s Manor in Pennsylvania, and Samuel Finley, who established an academy at Nottingham, Maryland. Between 1727 to 1802, more than sixty five academies are known to have been maintained by Presbyterian ministers.63 Among all the examples, the place of the College of the New Jersey in colonial education demands a special attention. After the mid-eighteenth centuries, most of the academies were established by graduates from the College of New Jersey and the pattern was repeated. The Scottish impact on college education was more concretized after the Great Awakening. After the intermittent periods of short-lived leaderships, the College of New Jersey found the sixth president of

61 Douglas Sloan, The Scottish Enlightenment and the American College Ideal (Tea­ chers College Press, Columbia University, 1971), 36. 62 Ibid., 37. 63 Ibid., 38. 90 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4 the College, John Witherspoon. He was a descendent of John Knox, a graduate from the University of Edinburgh, a brilliant scholar, and an able minister from Scotland. His coming to America implies several shifts in education. He brought Scottish Philosophy, common sense realism which gradually eclipsed the Edwardsean New Divinity. Religious experience is more or less abated. In political realm, he contributed to the formation of a General Assembly.64 He brought the Enlightenment from Scotland to the College of New Jersey and gave it an evangelical baptism. Both piety and civility were merged in Witherspoon. He shifted the focus of the church’s mission away from revivalism toward education.

4. Popularization of Education

During the Great Awakening, all parties soon recognized that control of educational institutions was vital for the success for their cause. The underlying motive was to prepare students for the gospel ministry. The new schools were established by the rivalry of the religious sects. The colonial institutions as a whole were the products of religious activism and for the most part controlled by church bodies: Harvard and Yale by the Congregationalists; the College of New Jersey by the Presbyterians; the College of Philadelphia, King’s College, and the College of William and Mary by Anglicans; Queen’s College by the Dutch Reformed Church; the College of Rhode Island by the Baptist. They were established by denominational bodies. Therefore, like the European universities, churches played an important role in the quickening period. Churches established the college, raised funds, and supplied the leadership such as presidents. Even though these colleges were under the patronage of denomi­ national bodies, they claimed no institutional or denominational limitation in admitting the students with broader toleration. The re­ vivalist colleges explicitly expressed religious freedom in the college

64 Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 275. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 91 charters:

Each of their charters stated explicitly that the colleges were intended to serve Protestants of all denominations and forbade religious tests for admissions. Various reasons have been advanced to explain this clear movement in the direction of religious tolerance.65

This implies that the newly established colleges ushered American education into another avenue for the future. D’Amico in his article indicates that the implicit educational philosophy of revivalists during the Great Awakening was social egalitarianism in which the Gospel was for everyone.66

It was a people’s movement led by charismatic leaders. The elite of colonial society did not escape either condemnation nor responsibility for deciding for Christ. These elements combined to produce a new philosophy about the place and purposes of education. Instead of concentrating its efforts towards the privileged classes the revival led to the popularization of education.67

This popularization of education corresponded to the popular character of the Great Awakening. One particular example of the po­ pular movement during the Awakening was “reading revivals” which occurred in Hanover County, Virginia.68 Peculiar characteristic of this movement was its spontaneous aspect. It was not led by any ordained clergy member. Laymen took the initiative. It was after their meeting was under way that they received the pastor from outside. Sloan indicates that this event fully revealed popular and educational dimensions of the Awakening.

65 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 28. 66 David F. D’Amico, “Piety and Intellect: Baptist Education Efforts After the Great Awakening” in The Lord’s Free People in a Free Land. Ed. William R. Estep (Fort Worth: Evans Press, 1976), 42. 67 Ibid. 68 See Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 222-26. 92 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Moreover, the Awakening was at bottom a mass movement which drew its main energy and strength from popular support inside and outside of established institutions. Thus, inner logic and popular pressure combined to produce profoundly new views of the place and purposes of education in American society.69

VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

American higher education was, in its origin, a child of religious influence. The Great Awakening really impacted the American higher education. In conclusion, the Great Awakening can be called the ‘educational awakening’ in several aspects. First, the Great Awakening brought not only the growth of church membership, but also the growth of the colleges along with many smaller academies. During the first hundred years of the colonies, there were only three, but during the first half of the eighteenth century no fewer than twelve colleges were established. America experienced an explosion of higher education. Secondly, the Great Awakening stimulated the significance of education. Sloan argues that when seen from the revivalistic character of the Awakening, the disagreements erupted in the Great Awakening among different groups naturally urged a necessity of education in their own premises. The Awakening gathered momentum and became a creating force of new educational institutions.70 The dynamism of the revivalism supplied energy to educational undertakings.71 Thirdly, the Great Awakening made the revivalists put the high value on learning and education. The revivalists were constantly charged that they were anti-intellectuals and emotional enthusiasts. Jonathan Edwards was a staunch apologist against this charge. Furthermore, educational emphasis moved from the church to the community.

69 Douglas Sloan, ed., The Great Awakening and American Education, 37. 70 Ibid., 11. 71 Ibid., 20. The Great Awakening: Its Impact on American Higher Education 93

In its inception, the simple ideal of the Puritan education was that every man should be able to read and write. The purpose was merely on literacy education for the sake of reading, teaching, and applying the Scripture. The Great Awakening, however, embraced broader purposes in education. Its aim extended beyond producing pastors. Educational ideals developed from clerical elitism to mass movement. The ecclesiastical denominations became non-denominational in educational realm for the common goal: learning. Community leaders participated in establishing a new college with the local support. College was to be benefit to the entire community.72 Lastly, the Great Awakening ushered the American education into another avenue for the future. Sloan argues that the revivalist theology had an educational importance. For the revivalists, Christianity is “experimental religion.”73 The revivalist colleges introduced a general liberal arts curriculum that aimed not simply at the preparation of ministers but of other professional men as well.74 Its curriculum has never neglected the scientific and utilitarian matter:75 “The revivalists’ rejection of mere speculative or ‘notional’ knowledge in religion pushed them toward an appreciation of the experiential and pragmatic in other matters as well.”76 This empirical and pragmatic emphasis, thus, ushered the American higher education into the modern sense of education.

72 Ibid., 27. 73 Ibid., 36. 74 Ibid., 27. 75 Ibid., 37. 76 Ibid. 94 KOREA PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY Vol. 52 No. 4

Bibliography

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한글 초록

대각성운동(The Great Awakening)이 미국고등교육에 미친 영향

박형진 횃불트리니티신학대학원대학교 부교수, 선교역사

신앙의 자유를 위해 청교도적 이상을 품고 건너간 미대륙의 신앙역사에 있어서 1720 년대에 일기 시작한 미국의 대각성운동(The Great Awakening)은 회개와 중생의 메시지 로 영적으로 무기력해진 교회에 대한 일깨움으로 작용하였다. 대각성운동은 부흥운동이 라 할 수 있는데 이는 교회의 각성이라는 긍정적인 측면과 더불어 부흥운동에 대해 찬반 의 입장이 갈린 교회적 분열 또한 야기하였다. 당시 존재하였던 두 개의 주요 대학가운데 청교도적 이상으로 시작된 하버드(Harvard, 1636년 설립)는 이미 자유주의 신학의 영향 을 받아 삼위일체의 정통신학의 입장을 저버리고 유니테리안적(Unitarian) 입장으로 전 환되고 있었고, 이에 대한 반작용으로 시작한 예일(Yale, 1701년 설립)은 부흥운동을 지지 하는 학생들을 퇴학시키면서까지 부흥운동의 기류를 반대하고 있었다. 신앙부흥이라는 시대적 영적 조류와 이에 부응하는 목회자 양성의 요청으로 신대 륙에는 부흥의 기류를 반대하는 기존의 학교들이 이러한 기대를 충족시키기 어렵다는 생각에 뜻있는 목회자들의 주도로 학교들이 생겨나기 시작했다. 그 대표적인 예로 장로 교 목사인 윌리엄 테넌트(William Tennent)에 의해 설립된 소위 ‘통나무대학’(The Log College)을 들 수 있는데 이는 현재 프린스턴대학(당시 The College of New Jersey)의 태 동에 큰 기여를 하였다. 이는 다른 유사한 동기로 여러 학교들의 설립을 낳게 한 원동력과 기폭제로 작용하였다. 비록 대각성운동의 조류 속에서 시작된 미국의 대학설립은 그 일차적인 목적이 목회 자 양성이라는 전형적인 동기를 갖고 있었지만, 교육의 범위는 단순히 목회자만을 위한 신학교의 범주를 넘어 과학의 발전과 맞물리는 근대 학문적 사조 또한 배제하고 있지 않기 에 근대교육의 산실이 되기도 하였다. 이러한 맥락에서 미국의 대각성운동은 한 마디로 ‘교육 각성운동’이라고 부를 수도 있다.

주제어

미국, 대각성운동, 부흥운동, 통나무대학, 미국고등교육

Date submitted: August 30, 2020; date evaluated: October 4 , 2020; date confirmed: October 106, 2020 .