The Great Awakening Influence

The Great Awakening refers to a wave of religious revivals starting in the early 1700's and lasting to the late 1800's. Though it had a major effect on religion, redemption and revival, its humble beginnings started in England and the Church of England.
King Henry VIII, desperate to put away Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, broke away from the Catholic Church to form the Church of England. The Anglican church was an instrument used to keep the pious within certain constraints; those with power tended to abuse their authority through bribes, obedience to the King, and an indifference to spiritual and/or moral authority.
As the nation began to wax cold in its devotion to God, the common people began to adhere to Anglican doctrine;yet their hearts did not experience regeneration. Others were going through the motion of serving God with …show more content…
He also chose heplers, and other clergy to co-labor with him. These were hand-picked men of Wesley's choosing, not ordained by the Anglican church. Yet they carried out the work of the ministry, preaching with as much passion and zeal as Wesley, which was one reason the Methodism denomination flourished.
The driving force behind Wesley's preaching was that he had a desire that no one should perish. In turn, colonists in America accepted his message and rested in the assurance that their sin and guilt had been forgiven. On a larger scale, the Great Revival or the Great Awakening changed American culture and the way people lived for generations to come.
In the late 1780's, John Wesley allowed "Amercian Methodists to ordain their own ministers" (Kidd, page 322). This caused a split from the Anglican church. By doing this, the Wesleyan Methodists continued to grow throughout the colonies. By 1860, Methodism had become the largest Protestant denomination, with members numbering 20,000 souls. Evangelical revivals had taken a firm root in the United

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