The Great Awakening: Journal Article by Robert D. Rossel

Religious and Social Climate

The Great Awakening occurred between 1730 and 1745 in Puritan New England, marked by intense religious revivalism. It emerged during a time of growing social and political tensions, including shifts toward individualism and democracy. This revival served as a catalyst that challenged and transformed traditional religious and political institutions, clearing ideological barriers to new social orders. The revival reflected the functional incompatibility between the established religious-political order and evolving economic and social structures.

Revivalism as Social Transformation

Robert D. Rossel analyzes the Great Awakening as a significant social change agent, not just a spiritual movement. The revival reflected and accelerated growing individualism, voluntarism, and democratic ideals. It helped prepare society for an emergent social order by dismantling institutional constraints. Large, emotional, outdoor revival meetings empowered individuals to experience personal religious conversions, fostering a new collective conscience. Scholars describe the revival as both a response to social tensions and a mechanism easing the transition to a more differentiated social structure. This period also succeeded a series of natural disasters that intensified social and religious pressures, increasing the movement's urgency and impact.

Historical and Intellectual Influences

The Great Awakening drew on Puritan religious traditions but marked a departure through its emphasis on personal religious experience and direct emotional connection to faith, rejecting rationalistic salvation methods. It reflected broader intellectual shifts toward individualism and democratic participation. The sermons, notably Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” underscored human helplessness and the need for grace, shaping colonial identity through shared spiritual awakening. Rossel situates the revival within a larger historical framework of societal change, where religion intertwined with political and social transformations in early America.

Key themes

• The Great Awakening as a catalyst for social transformation in colonial America.
• Tensions between traditional religious-political structures and emerging individualism.
• Revivalism’s role in promoting voluntarism and democratic ideals.
• Religious revival as a reflection of broader shifts in social and economic organization.
• The Great Awakening clearing ideological barriers to social change.
• Interaction between environmental hardship and religious belief during the revival.

Motifs & problems

Rossel identifies recurring images of intense religious revival that symbolize a collective crisis and self-examination in New England society. The revival serves as a motif of renewal and transformation, exposing the clash between old institutional orders and new economic and social realities. A key interpretive ambiguity lies in whether the Awakening is a symptom of social strain or an active agent forcing change, highlighting the complex relationship between ideology, religion, and social structure during periods of upheaval.

Study questions

• How did the Great Awakening challenge established religious and political authorities?
• In what ways did individualism emerge through revivalist movements?
• What role did environmental hardships play in shaping the Great Awakening?
• How does Rossel link religious revival to broader social and economic changes?
• Can the Great Awakening be seen primarily as a cause or effect of social transformation?
• What ideological barriers did the revival dismantle, according to Rossel?
• How do voluntarism and democracy manifest in the impulses behind the Awakening?
• What is the significance of “New Birth” in the context of Rossel’s analysis?

Critical approaches & debates

Scholars interpret Rossel’s The Great Awakening: An Historical Analysis through various lenses including Marxist, focusing on socioeconomic underpinnings; feminist, critiquing gender roles and agency in revival movements; and formalist, analyzing narrative structure and rhetoric. Postcolonial readings examine cultural conflicts and indigenous perspectives often underrepresented in Rossel’s account. Debates center on whether Rossel sufficiently addresses political implications versus purely religious motivations, and whether his analysis overrides the complexity of grassroots versus elite influences. Some argue Rossel’s focus is too narrow on ideological purity, while others emphasize his contribution to understanding the socio-religious transformation in colonial America.

Key passages

Rossel’s analysis highlights the Puritans' self-perception as a "City on the Hill," a metaphor for a divinely ordained society. This passage uses covenant theology to explain their migration as a sacred mission, linking biblical symbolism with political identity. It matters because it frames the Awakening not only as a spiritual revival but as a foundational American myth, influencing subsequent narratives of identity and purpose.

Bibliography

Rossel, Robert D. “The Great Awakening: An Historical Analysis.” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 75, no. 6, May 1970, pp. 907–925. Primary texts on colonial Puritanism and revivalism. Recent scholarship includes Joseph Conforti’s The Invention of the Great Awakening, 1795-1842 (2006), offering critical historiographical updates on the movement’s interpretation.