From Classroom discussion, the textbook, and research, discuss the Great Awakening, its causes, key players, and impact on American history.
             The Great Awakening was a major event in the life of American people. The Awakening is known as a religious movement among American colonial protestants in the 1730s and 1740s. The Awakening transformed the life of many and transformed the religious life of land. The Great Awakening was not just one continuous revival. It was several revivals in a variety of different locations.
             In a few towns the spread of revival followed closely on serious illness, especially the "throat distemper" (diphtheria) which carried away large numbers of New Englanders in the 1730s. Also, economic problems had been a troubling source of tensions. Some historians have speculated that the shift from rural and agricultural to urban and commercial styles of life may have led some people to feel guilty for leaving the old ways behind. All of these causes prepared the colonial population to embrace a spiritual message.
             Some of the most important people of the Great Awakening was Jonathan Edwards. Edwards received a lot of bad mouthing for his "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." In that sermon he used the image of a spider dangling by a web over a hot fire to describe hell to the people. Meaning, that at any moment, our hold on life could break and we would go straight into the fires of hell. In his sermons he did speak, reasonably and logically. Some people saw Edwards as a dry and boring preacher. The people listened to Edwards because he spoke about a matter they actually cared about, they were interested in heaven and hell. Edwards was a Calvinistic preacher. What he said he his sermons was pure Calvinism. He referred to God's power to save whoever he pleases. Edwards wanted to make the point that salvation was in the hands of God. The people viewed it as an invitation to seek aft
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