Great Awakening

American  

noun

1. the series of religious revivals among Protestants in the American colonies, especially in New England, lasting from about 1725 to 1770.

---

Etymology

Origin of Great Awakening

An Americanism dating back to 1730–40

Example Sentences

In their recent Bulwark essay “We Need a New Great Awakening,” Minister Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and leading pro-democracy advocate Ian Bassin wrote of the “Great Awakenings” that have resulted when America has faced moral trials in the past — “moments in which we collectively re-find our purpose, conscience and responsibility to one another in response to a feeling of having lost those things.”

From Salon

In the 19th century, after the Second Great Awakening, few traveled to the Holy Land.

From The Wall Street Journal

“There was a sense there’s a third Great Awakening”—referring to the series of seismic religious revivals in U.S. history—“that’s bursting upon us.”

From Slate

They claimed that this moment would eventually bring about a “Great Awakening,” a reference to the religious revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries.

From Salon

The original Great Awakening was a series of 18th- and 19th-century religious revivals that swept through the American colonies and states, establishing evangelical Christianity as an enduring and powerful force in the country.

From Slate