First Great Awakening

A wave of revivals in Britain’s American colonies and in Great Britain, peaking around 1734–1745, that crossed denominational lines. Its emphasis on personal conversion is one of the roots of modern evangelicalism.

Whitefield and John Wesley, fellow preachers, parted ways in 1740–1741 over predestination: Whitefield was a Calvinist and Wesley an Arminian, a split still visible in the evangelical world.

• Jonathan Edwards1703–1758
• George Whitefield1714–1770
• Gilbert Tennent1703–1764

• A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (Edwards)1737
• Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (Edwards)1741
• A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (Edwards)1746

• Puritanism
• Pietism