What does the term Great Awakening refer to?

• A. Great Awakening
• B. Reformation
• C. Enlightenment
• D. Civil War

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is recognizing the Great Awakening as a sweeping religious revival in the American colonies during the 1730s and 1740s. It featured passionate preaching, emotional conversion experiences, and itinerant leaders like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield who stressed personal faith over formal church routines. This movement energized existing churches, helped form new denominations such as Baptists and Methodists, and broadened participation in religion across different groups. It’s not about reforming churches in Europe, an 18th-century emphasis on reason, or a 19th-century civil conflict. Those are the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the Civil War, respectively. Therefore, the term refers to the colonial American religious revival.