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Scholars' speaker describes 18th-century revivals

March 9, 2004

By Wes Spencer, reporter

America experienced a time of revelation and rejoicing during the 1760s.

American militias and the British army were winning the Seven Years' War against the Catholic French and Indians in the Seven Years' War and colonists were discovering their religious identity.

As a part of Baylor Scholars' Day, Dr. Thomas Kidd, an assistant history professor, spoke Monday about what he calls the often-overlooked decade of the 1760s, saying the time period was an important link between the First Great Awakening of the 1740s and the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century.

Kidd said the evangelical revivals of the 1760s were an extension of the First Great Awakening. Leaders of the 1760s revivals like John Cleaveland, Samuel Buell and Isaac Backus learned many of their messages, sermons and techniques from men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, who Kidd said were responsible for the mass conversions to evangelical faiths, such as Baptist and Methodist, during the First Great Awakening.

The reason the 1760s are overlooked by historians, Kidd said, is because the advertising and advanced public relations for which George Whitefield is famous were not used during this period. Many colonists were not aware of the revivals the way they were during the 1740s.

'Media has an important role in telling its readers and listeners what matters,' Kidd said. 'Churches like Highland [Baptist Church] and Antioch [Baptist Church] inherited this evangelical tradition, but they fly under the radar screen, because of their absence in modern media.'

Ethan Sanders, an Aurora, Colo., junior, who said he attended the event because of his interest in American colonial history, said he enjoyed Kidd's lecture.

'I learned form this lecture that although the revivals of the 1760s were not publicized in the fashion of those during the 1740s, they were still important to the larger picture of evangelical history of the 18th century,' Sanders said.

One important belief of evangelicals during this period was the second coming of Christ. Many ministers of the 1760s saw the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 and the defeat of the French as the end to the Anti-Christ.

Apocalyptic visions and talks of the fulfillment of the book of Revelations were characteristics of this time.

The daughter of Jacob Johnson, a Connecticut minister, for example, claimed she saw Jesus in person when she locked herself away in her room one day. Johnson thought this was a sign of the last days and began sharing his daughter's experience with others. While some more moderate ministers dismissed Johnson's claim as irrational, others claimed they had encountered similar experiences.

A result of the 1760s revivals, Kidd said, was the separation of religion from politics.

'The 1760s start to see a divergence of religion and politics in the public sphere,' Kidd said. 'Personal religious beliefs were becoming less relevant in politics.'

Politicians such as John Adams were inclined to keep their religious beliefs to themselves.

According to Kidd, the theory of separatism, the power to find churches outside the political order, was argued widely by Baptists and other evangelical ministers, and helped lead to the establishment clause in the Constitution about 20 years later.

Kidd also said the Baptists began to earn the respect of the other faiths during this time. Although Cleaveland and Bulle were not Baptists themselves, they were willing to preach the evangelical gospel of the Baptists.

This tolerance was not found during the First Great Awakening, despite being the similar Calvinist message.

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