lawyer who was best known evangelist in the second great awakening

by Ms. Bridgette Hill Jr. Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 4 min read

People & Ideas: Charles Finney. Lawyer, theologian and college president, Charles Grandison Finney was also the most famous revivalist of the Second Great Awakening.

Who was the star preacher of the Second Great Awakening?

Charles Grandison FinneyBornAugust 29, 1792 Warren, Connecticut, U.S.DiedAugust 16, 1875 (aged 82) Oberlin, Ohio, U.S.Spouse(s)Lydia Root Andrews (m. 1824) Elizabeth Ford Atkinson (m. 1848) Rebecca Allen Rayl (m. 1865)ProfessionPresbyterian minister; evangelist; revivalist; author10 more rows

What role did Charles Finney play in the 2nd Great Awakening?

Finney is probably best known for his contribution to the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening during the 1830s. At the heart of this movement was a series of revivals. Finney was an evangelist who spoke at these revivals, using emotional sermons to urge his audiences to devote their lives to God.

What did Charles Finney teach?

Finney's theological views, typically revivalist in their emphasis on common sense and humanity's innate ability to reform itself, were given expression in his Lectures on Revivals (1835) and Lectures on Systematic Theology (1847).

What is George Whitefield known for?

George Whitefield, together with John Wesley and Charles Wesley, founded the Methodist movement. An Anglican evangelist and the leader of Calvinistic Methodists, he was the most popular preacher of the Evangelical Revival in Great Britain and the Great Awakening in America.

What did Lyman Beecher believe in?

Beecher believed that the bright and shining promise of America would be fulfilled in the West. Tamed and guided by religion and morality, its future would be "glorious." But there was one problem: the growing Roman Catholic Church in America.

Was Charles Finney abolitionist?

When events eroded Finney's expectation of an early end to slavery, he revised his strategy and adopted a more militant stance against the slave power. His abolitionist career thus falls into two phases, the first lasting from about 1833 to 1839, and the second continuing through the Civil War.Jan 4, 2012

Why was Finney controversial?

Finney became a controversial figure in the Presbyterian Church. His encouragement of revivals, his emphasis on social action, and his bold and public belief that sin was voluntary were departures from the Presbyterian creed. Calvinist preacher Lyman Beecher strongly objected to Finney's ideas.

Who is Daniel Nash?

Daniel Nash (1775 – June 4, 1831) was an Episcopal priest and missionary to Native Americans and European settlers on the frontier of central New York. Nash was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from Yale University in Connecticut, became a teacher, and studied for ordination as an Episcopal priest.

What is Jonathan Edwards known for?

Jonathan Edwards, (born October 5, 1703, East Windsor, Connecticut [U.S.]—died March 22, 1758, Princeton, New Jersey), greatest theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” and one of the forerunners of the age of Protestant missionary ...Mar 18, 2022

Was George Whitefield married?

Elizabeth JamesGeorge Whitefield / Spouse (m. 1741–1768)

When did Ben Franklin meet the Reverend Whitefield?

In the 1740s, two quite different developments revolutionized Anglo-American life and thought—the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening.

Overview

Slaves and free African Americans

Baptists and Methodists in the South preached to slaveholders and slaves alike. Conversions and congregations started with the First Great Awakening, resulting in Baptist and Methodist preachers being authorized among slaves and free African Americans more than a decade before 1800. "Black Harry" Hosier, an illiterate freedman who drove Francis Asbury on his circuits, proved to be able to memorize large passages of the Bibleverbatim and became a cross-over success, as pop…

Spread of revivals

As the First Great Awakening a half century earlier, the Second Great Awakening in North America reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the supernatural. It rejected the skepticism, deism, Unitarianism, and rationalism left over from the American Enlightenment, about the same time that similar movements flourished in Europe. Pietism was sweeping Germanic c…

Subgroups

The Advent Movement emerged in the 1830s and 1840s in North America, and was preached by ministers such as William Miller, whose followers became known as Millerites. The name refers to belief in the soon Second Advent of Jesus (popularly known as the Second coming) and resulted in several major religious denominations, including Seventh-day Adventists and Advent Christians.
Though its roots are in the First Great Awakening and earlier, a re-emphasis on Wesleyanteachin…

Culture and society

Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the Social Gospel of the late 19th century. Converts were taught that to achieve salvation they needed not just to repent personal sin but also work for the moral perfection of society, which meant eradicating sin in all its forms. Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.

Women

Women, who made up the majority of converts during the Awakening, played a crucial role in its development and focus. It is not clear why women converted in larger numbers than men. Various scholarly theories attribute the discrepancy to a reaction to the perceived sinfulness of youthful frivolity, an inherent greater sense of religiosity in women, a communal reaction to economic insecurity, or an assertion of the self in the face of patriarchal rule. Husbands, especially in the S…

Prominent figures

• Richard Allen, founder, African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Francis Asbury, Methodist, circuit rider and founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church
• Henry Ward Beecher, Congregationalist, son of Lyman Beecher

Political implications

Revivals and perfectionist hopes of improving individuals and society continued to increase from 1840 to 1865 across all major denominations, especially in urban areas. Evangelists often directly addressed issues such as slavery, greed, and poverty, laying the groundwork for later reform movements. The influence of the Awakening continued in the form of more secular movements. In the midst of shifts in theology and church polity, American Christians began progressive move…