"Examines the causes and results of a great revival which attacked Old World traditions as out of place in eighteenth-century America. According to the revivalists, if the New World were to fulfill its promise as a land where God worked intimately with a chosen people, then stifling, time-worn practices must be reshaped into appropriate instruments for a vital, experimental religion. Eighteenth-century Americans were well aware of religious enthusiasm by the time of the Great Awakening in the 1740s. The churches, based on Old World institutions and customs, had played a central role in their colonial life. The proponents of the Awakening provoked a debate which not only had far-reaching effects but split most American colonists into two camps over its fundamental issue. Was the Revival a genuine outpouring of the spirit of God or was it rather a first-rate example of hot-headed enthusiasm traditionally considered false and presumptuous? Advocates of the Awakening were impatient with the confines of theology and church discipline and sought a more direct, intense, and personal relationship with God. Its leaders recognized the increasing influence of Enlightenment thought and the serious decline in religious practice in the Colonies. They urged a more active, personal, and emotional part in the spread of God's grace and warned of the consequences if religious complacency and disinterest continued to increase. In describing the sharp contention that took place during the Great Awakening and after, Professor Lovejoy has explored a major conflict in early American history whose legacy endures today. To many, the Awakening posed a threat to both religion and to the political and social stability of American society. Was the Great Awakening a burst of enthusiasm to be exposed and condemned as evil, or was it the beginning of a new religious spirit and technique that the New World experience demanded?"--Jacket.