6 - The American Way: The Second Great Awakening

•Read LoH pg 132 (Chapter 16) through pg 135 (Halfway down).
•Practice narrating the process of development for religion in American democracy, giving names of key people, places, events, ideas, practices, and movements.
•Discuss:
-How did these new forms of religious belief/practice differ from the earlier Puritan/Calvinistic traditions? How was Deism different from revivalism?
-Might the same democratic spirit that shaped politics and society also have begun to shape religion?
-How might the ideas of freedom and equality have influenced both people’s faith and their approach to worship?
-Which do you think better fits the spirit of a new nation built on liberty—rational religion that trusts human reason, or revival religion that stirs human emotion?
-What might each approach say about what Americans valued most during this time?
•Watch the YouTube video on the 2nd Great Awakening and Charles G. Finney