The Great Revival

Download or read book The Great Revival written by John B. Boles and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing upon the religious writings of southern evangelicals, John Boles asserts that the extraordinary crowds and miraculous transformations that distinguished the South's First Great Awakening were not simply instances of emotional excess but the expression of widespread and complex attitudes toward God. Converted southerners were starkly individualistic, interested more in gaining personal salvation in a hopelessly evil world than in improving society. As Boles shows in this landmark study, the effect of the Revival was to throw over the region a conservative cast that remains dominant in contemporary southern thought and life.