Religion in the colonies free essay sample

John Calvin had a major influence on the English colonies in America. Calvin was a Frenchmen who broke from the Catholic Church and developed his own form of Christianity. The first Great Awakening begins in the early around 171 5 up to the American Revolution. It is an emotional religious revival. It began in Calvinist churches. The Great Awakening focuses primarily on the idea of the free will. It has a huge impact on the colonies. It causes splits in several religious denominations. It weakens authority by getting people to essentially question, Is a preacher really needed to lead to salvation? It increases the growth In religious freedom. The Quakers arose at the time as well, with George Fox and William . The Quakers believed In the Inner light and that there Is that of God In every man. There Is a light In every person. They supported gender and racial equality and believed that everyone should be treated equally. We will write a custom essay sample on Religion in the colonies or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They were persecuted everywhere for their beliefs. The main issue in the Quakers persecutions was that there was a strain toward individualism and diversity demands increasing religious toleration as a basic civil right ND the Quakers challenged every notion of the orthodox community by pressing for religious toleration as a basic civil right. 1 Separatists are considered Calvinist whom settled Plymouth and decided to leave the Church of England. The Puritans stay to purify the church. The Quakers had a very positive outlook on life. Everyone was a child of God in their eyes. Most Europeans saw the Native Americans as savages. However, William held the utmost Quaker perspective. He believed that they should be treated as equals and he admired their language, diet, customs, ND manners, and their overall way of life.The Enlightenment period also arose. It was more so Intellectual and . It is among the elite. It began in the 1500 sand peaks by the 1600 smith international (France), and Isaac Newton (England). They all came up with the natural law. They believe that, There must be a natural law for everything. Dont accept anything on faith. It must be proven with logic, math, etc. They believed that the happiness of mankind could be best advanced through the sole use of reason. 2 The Enlightenment had an interesting impact on religion at the time.It helped to begin atheism, agnosticism, and deism. The deist felt that the duties that were developed by Christianity were no longer needed. The Enlightenment had a major impact on the Founders and their government. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams all declared themselves deist at the time. Thomas declared to be an atheist. With this being said, the Divine Right theory was created. It held the argument that the King ruled with divine right because God chose him to. They felt that if one opposes the King, they must oppose God as well.Many people didnt support the Enlightenment idea. John Cotton served as a prime example of those who did not support religious toleration or democracy. To Cotton, the visible church had the task of educating the mass of believers in the spirit of the true religious ideal and the government [shall be] sovereign. 3 He felt that there should be one uniform religion, Puritan, and that God should be the only one to make rules for the Christian people. He believed that a democracy for the church would only make people more inferior to those who were apart of the government. As the colonies began to become less close to their European home front in England and the Church of England, many people began to stray away from the traditional Church of England and Join and even create new dominations. So many changes took place in religion and politics that it emphasizes the fact that, New England was rapidly moving from a state of homogeneous Puritanism to heterogeneous colonialism. 4 The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment played a huge part in the new society and government in the colonies.