Religious Reform in the 1820’s to 1840’s

By: Chase Carmichael, Nd Ubezonu, and Amanda Smart

What were the causes and effects of the religious reform?

• “…articles of faith, must be very carefully distinguished from the accessories connected with them. Religions are obliged to hold fast to the former, whatever be the peculiar spirit of the age; but they should take good care not to bind themselves in the same manner to the latter, at a time when everything is in transition, and when the mind, accustomed to the moving pageant of human affairs, reluctantly allows itself to be fixed on any point. The fixity of eternal and secondary things can afford a chance of duration only when civil society is itself fixed; under any other circumstances, I hold it to be perilous.”

-Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America

Causes of Religious Reform Continued

• Democratization among politics and religion• The Second Great Awakening

-preaching directed now towards ordinary people

-eliminated belief that God had already selected people for Heaven and Hell and instead allowed them to be in charge of their own future

• Camp meetings

-massive meetings where members of different denominations came together to hear revivalists preach about the ensuing Second Coming of Jesus and encourage immediate repentance

• Revivals also led my ordinary people

Who were the influential people in the Eastern revivals?

• In 1820s, Second Great Awakening moved back towards East• Charles G. Finney- “father of modern revivalism”

-became Presbyterian minister after conversion in 1821

-Rochester Revival was most significanto All denominations participated in city wide revival- wanted unity between

Protestant denominationso Created ways for quicker conversions

-revivals were human made

-did not believe it was natural instinct to sin

-continued belief that people were in control of destiny

-appealed to lawyers, merchants, and small manufacturers

-realized great importance of women

How did the Mormons and Shakers attempt to reform religion?

– Mormonism• Joseph Smith• New revelation,

polygamy• Separation from society

– Shakers• Mother Ann Lee• Ban on marriage,

against materialism• Separation from society

How did camp meetings in the Second Great Awakening affect the

reform?• Camp Meetings• Cane Ridge,

Kentucky• August 1801• Great Kentucky

Revival 1800-1801

How did the Methodist affect religion in the West?

A first hand account from the Cane Ridge Revival: “A vast crowd, supposed by some to have amounted to twenty-five thousand, was collected together. The noise was like the roar of niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm… Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents, while others were shouting most vociferously. While witnessing these scenes, a peculiarly-strange sensation, such as I had never felt before, came over me. My heart beat tumultuously, my knees trembled, my lip quivered, and I felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of mind there collected. I became so weak and powerless that I found it necessary to sit down.”- Rev. James Finley

How did the Unitarians affect reform?

First Unitarian meeting house

Unitarian symbol