Causes of the Second Great Awakening
What cultural value influenced religion during the early 1800s, emphasizing individual choice and participation?
Democracy / Democratic ideals
Who was the Yale president who helped start early campus revivals?
Timothy Dwight
What were large outdoor religious gatherings called?
Camp meetings
Who founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church)?
Joseph Smith
True or False: The Second Great Awakening inspired movements to end slavery and promote temperance.
True
Which of the following best describes a cause of the Second Great Awakening?
A) Reaction against emotional worship
B) Reaction against rational religions like Deism and Unitarianism
C) Increase in church authority
D) The fall of the Puritans
B) Reaction against rational religions like Deism and Unitarianism
Which preacher was famous for his emotional sermons and revivals in New York’s “burned-over district”?
Charles Grandison Finney
What was the main message of revival preachers?
A) Predestination
B) Rational faith
C) Salvation through faith and good works
D) Separation of church and state
C) Salvation through faith and good works
After Joseph Smith’s death, who led the Mormons to Utah?
Brigham Young
Which reform was most directly influenced by religious revivalism?
A) Temperance
B) Industrialization
C) Expansion
D) Urbanization
A) Temperance
Explain how the Market Revolution helped spark the Second Great Awakening.
People feared that industrialization and greed were leading to moral decline, so they turned to religion for stability and values.
Circuit preachers like Peter Cartwright were associated with which two denominations?
Baptists and Methodists
Explain what the term “burned-over district” refers to.
An area in western New York known for frequent and intense revival activity.
What was the Millerites’ key belief?
That the world would soon end with the Second Coming of Jesus.
How did revivalist ideas about human improvement shape reform movements?
They encouraged the belief that individuals and society could be perfected through moral action and faith.
Name two major social or economic changes in the U.S. that made Americans more open to revival movements.
rowing industrialization and urbanization, westward expansion, and the spread of democratic or individualistic values.
How did Charles Finney’s preaching style reflect the democratic spirit of the time?
He used simple, emotional language and focused on salvation for all people, not just the educated or elite.
Describe how revival meetings differed from earlier colonial religious services.
They were more emotional, participatory, and accessible to ordinary people, rather than formal and intellectual.
Explain why the Mormon community faced persecution in the East.
Their distinct beliefs and practices, especially polygamy, clashed with mainstream Christian and social norms.
Charles Finney believed Christians could not stay neutral on which major issue dividing the nation?
Slavery