Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) Volume 3 Issue 1 Syracuse Scholar Spring 1982 Article 2 1982 The Great Awakening Amanda Porterfield Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar Recommended Citation Porterfield, Amanda (1982) "The Great Awakening," Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991): Vol. 3 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://surface.syr.edu/suscholar/vol3/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Syracuse Scholar (1979-1991) by an authorized editor of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 4--SYRAGJSE ~OIAR Porterfield: The Great Awakening The Great Awakening Amanda Porterfield he Great Awakening has been described as a "flood" of religious T enthusiasm. In the early 1740s, religious emotion washed up and down the colonial seaboard, passing from person to person and through community after community. In the extraordinary activity of what many colonists believed to be the spirit of God abroad on the land, the Great Awakening was the first large-scale intercolonial event in America-an event that, by the seeming force of God, united the interests and experiences of colonists as they had never before been united. It has been argued that this collective experience of religious enthusiasm set the stage for the patriotic fervor of the American Revolution. 1 The name given to the event indicates the kind of experience it was Amanda Porterfield is an Associate for those who participated in it. During the Great Awakening, many Professor in the Department of Religion and the Undergraduate Director of colonists claimed-and exclaimed-that they woke up to God.