US History

U.S. History Study Guide

As the revival spread, it became more uniform with an emphasis on personal salvation, an emotional response to God’s grace thereby triggering an individualistic faith. Women took a major part in the movement. Blacks were also heavily involved. The individualistic emphasis created unrest among the religious ranks, particularly in the slave holding south. The revival produced strong nationalistic overtones and the Protestant ideas of a “Called Nation” were to flourish later in parts of the Manifest Destiny doctrines of expansionism. The social overtones of this religious renewal were to spark the great reform movements of the 1830’s and 1840’s. Protestant Revivalism Protestant Revivalism was a powerful force for the improvement of society. Evangelist Charles G. Finney, through his “social gospel,” offered salvation to all. A strong sectarian spirit split the Protestant Movement into many groups, such as the Cumberland Presbyterians. There was a strong anti-Catholic element, which was strengthened by the new waves of immigration from Catholic Ireland and Southern Germany after 1830. Transcendentalism and Literature Along with the Second Great Awakening, other religious reform movements arose in the nineteenth century to challenge rationalism. One such movement was transcendentalism, which emerged during the 1830’s. Transcendentalists argued that knowledge did not come exclusively through the intellect, but also through the senses, intuition, and sudden insight. They believed that concepts such as God, freedom, and absolute truth were inborn and could be accessed through inner reflection and emotional openness. Two prominent transcendentalists were the authors Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, whose works emphasized spontaneous and vivid expression of emotion rather than logic and analysis. In his essays, Nature and Self-Reliance , Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that all people were capable of seeing the truth if they relied on their inner selves and trusted their hearts. In Walden , Henry David Thoreau recounted his two years spent living in a cabin in the woods away from civilization andmaterialism and the profound change he sawwithin himself. He advocated living a simple life according to one’s conscience, not according to society’s repressive codes. Mormonism and the Mormon Migration The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as Mormonism, was the most controversial challenge to traditional religion. Its founder, Joseph Smith, claimed that God and Jesus Christ appeared to him and directed him to a buried book of revelation. The Book of Mormon, similar in form and style to the Bible, tells of the descendants of a prophet whose family founded a civilization in South America. Violent religious persecution forced the Mormons to move westward in search of land to establish a perfect spiritual community. After Smith’s murder in Illinois, a new leader, Brigham Young, led the Mormons to present day Utah. Young founded the Mormon Republic of Deseret and where he openly preached and practiced polygamy.

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