Fifty
years ago, historian Richard Bushman wrote that twentieth-century inhabitants,
if they ever even heard about it, misunderstood the nature of what historians
call, “The Great Awakening.” This was a
period of religious “revival” that ran through the middle third or so of the
eighteenth century. The Lennon and McCartney
of the Great Awakening were Jonathan Edwards of Connecticut and George
Whitefield of England. The fervour of
the original sixteenth and seventeenth century Puritans – the ones who had made
their way to Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower
– believed themselves to be creating a “City on the Hill” to welcome the
imminent return of Christ the Messiah, ushering in a thousand-year reign known
as the Millennium. These colonists were
Calvinists, meaning that they embraced not only millennialism, but a doctrine
known as “pre-destination” – it had already been determined who was going to
Heaven and who was going to Hell in the eternal realm of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. But how could one know if one
was pre-destined for Heaven or not? One
could know by having a “second birth” of the spirit – a profound psychological
experience that would leave a lasting mark on one’s psyche making it quite
clear that one had been “Chosen.” The
relief from the experience or dread from not having it could, and usually was,
profound. Today, we hear of people being
“Born Again” in charismatic Christian churches (and elsewhere), but most people
consider this to be either fake or the ramblings of the mildly insane. So, when one mentions this business of a “second
birth” now, most people simply ignore it and carry on with their lives. They don’t understand the implications for
those having the experience during the eighteenth century’s Great
Awakening. This is what Bushman was
saying.[1]
As they established themselves in
the New World, rescued by the Native Americans and with additional aid and warm
bodies from the Old Country, the Puritans’ religious fervour became somewhat
subdued. They retained strict obedience to
the Sabbath and condemned their Native American rescuers for licentiousness and
over-indulgence in “frolicks.” As English
power waxed in this region, they even condemned to death those who resisted
conversion and acculturation. Indeed, war
was made against the natives by the followers of the so-called “Prince of Peace,”
and successfully, with the might of the burgeoning British Empire behind
them. But as the church hierarchy became
the political hierarchy, these Puritans strayed away from the whole business of
the “second birth,” creating what amounted to Protestant socio-religious clubs
not unlike the Anglicans or the Freemasons or of your typical Sunday service
today.
A century or so after the landing at
Plymouth Rock, this situation began to rub some members the wrong way, leaving them
with an uneasy feeling that they had all strayed from the path of righteousness. The “primitivist” return to the early church,
the rock upon which their forefathers had attempted to “purify” their Christian
beliefs, was forgotten, it seemed. GewGaws
and Baubles (accumulation of wealth) had become the order of the day and the
inner life was neglected. Young people
were resembling the natives in their “frolicksome” ways and there was a clear
need, some felt, to reverse this course which surely led to HELL.
Jonathan Edwards was one of the
early proponents of formulating sermons pointing this out. His famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” has often been put forward as an example of this kind of jeremiad. Subtitled “Sermon on the Danger of the Unconverted”
and delivered at Enfield, CT in July of 1741, it represents a well-refined
example of the condemnatory sermon which Edwards and others had been practicing
for some years at this point. The
function of the sermon was to induce a sublime terror that would propel the
reprobate (one who had not experienced the second birth) into a cataclysmic
psychological transformation.
Think of it, modern reader. Your world has informed you that the only way
to avoid HELL, which is to say being condemned to burn in a lake of fire for
all eternity – what could possibly be worse!!! – is to have this second birth, for
which you’ve been hoping and praying, indeed, begging the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Then, you find your way to one
of these meetings where a revivalist preacher will deliver his sermon. The fall into damnation, Edwards’s
well-rehearsed sermon tells us, could come literally at any time. Both Deuteronomy and Psalms say that no push
is needed to fall into everlasting flames, the accidental slip of one’s foot could
initiate the Final Descent. Indeed, the
only reason one has not fallen yet is due to the Mercy and Grace of the Divine
Creator. The all-powerful God the
Creator can let the slip happen – He did not stop it from happening because
YOU, SINNER, DESERVE condemnation and punishment. In fact, you know well that your slip and fall
into HELL is inevitable and may have already begun!. Think of the things that have brought you to
this realization – all the slights, the petty lies, the misdeeds, and maybe
even some sins of the flesh and other major missteps. You DESERVE HELL, and God the All-Seeing
KNOWS IT.
So, there you are, your life has not
gone as you had hoped, or perhaps you’re too young to have had much experience
one way or another. The shame-based
culture that relies on making you feel bad about yourself in order to control
you has set you up for vulnerability to this message. That you have failed to follow the path God
set you on has brought you to the precipice of eternal suffering beyond belief
with NO HOPE of escape. NO HOPE of
averting the flames that will keep you in agony without end. The bottomless pit of hopelessness and agony
looms. Your fate is far worse than death
– O! come sweet Death if it means averting this horrid fate!! But no, your luck, like your hope, has flown,
forever.
You remain in this state of despair
for . . . minutes? Hours? Days?
Who can tell with certainty and, anyway, what does it matter. And yet, here you sit, not in flames, still
breathing the clear air of earth. Your
heart is beating; your loved ones are still with you. Could it be . . . COULD IT BE??? that you,
dare you even think it??? that you are NOT going to HELL. What is this?!?! – a light appears in your
consciousness – a bright, white, pure light.
You feel as though water is being poured over you. It’s as if you’ve entered – Praise God it’s
the Second Birth!! I’M NOT GOING TO HELL!!! The relief is beyond description. A cool wind blows through your soul expelling
all impurities and revealing to you your own immortality – the world of the
atoms and of deathless energy swirls through you. That is YOU and you will live with this
blissful state FOREVER – IF you don’t stray from the path God has laid out for
you. You now know that horrible fate
that awaits if you don’t seek out God’s will for you on a daily basis. This is what you will do – no more taking
chances, rolling the dice with your eternal soul as a bargaining chip. You have become, and will remain, one of the
Chosen.
This is not an unusual psychological
journey for humans on Planet Earth. The
context can vary; the agency can vary.
Bushman implies it in his essay when he compares the Great Awakening to
the ‘60s Civil Rights and anti-war movements.
Such experiences can be induced almost routinely by psychotropic
substances like LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote cactus buttons, etc. Getting one’s life back on track, getting
society back on track, having a sense of mission for changing the world – these
are the results of such profound psychological experiences. It doesn’t happen for everyone, but it happened
to a significant percentage – Bushman estimated up to twenty or thirty percent
of a town could be converted to the “New Lights” in one pass by George
Whitefield. In the 1960s, the Vietnam
War was the largest source of discontent, along with civil rights for
minorities and women. In the 1740s, it
was the coercive religious policies of the Crown as well as the profound enigma
of what was generally viewed as the American Wilderness and its “savage” inhabitants
whose worldview was beyond the ken of nearly all Anglo-Americans. Both of these represented psychological
problems for inhabitants of the colonies – and some in Britain, as well – and the
Great Awakening provided solid footing and direction in a world that was
difficult to understand, much less navigate.
Now, in the twenty-first century, we
have the reality of Climate Disruption and cataclysmic change staring us in the
face. We have been denying this for
decades if not generations. The “slippery
slope” that Jonathan Edwards used to induce the transformative “second birth”
is no longer metaphorical. We are
sliding. “God,” i.e., “Reality” cannot
be denied. He/It is all-powerful and the
only one who can “save” us – from ourselves.
This awakening will likely be the last unless profound change is undertaken
as soon as possible. We’re too late to
prevent much of the cataclysmic disruptions to come which we have done to our
Mother in the name of profit and convenience.
But we can still mitigate some of it.
We still have some agency, but it is slipping away daily. This is the Last Great Awakening. Its beginning can be traced back generations,
but its appearance into the public consciousness still hasn’t even happened in
some quarters. Let us hope that we can
retain some of our agency and turn things around or at least slow the slide
down the slope. It’s not just humanity
that is sliding, it’s the entire planetary ecological network as well as future
generations. This is the REAL DEAL, and
everyone is responsible now.
©Douglas
Harvey 2019
[1] Richard Bushman, ed., The Great Awakening: Documents on the
Revival of Religion, 1740-1745 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1989; originally published New York: Athenaeum, 1970), xiv.
