Faith in an Age of Reason: Pietism, Methodism and the Great Awakening

The 18th century was not only an age of reason; it was also an age of powerful religious revival. In the German lands, Pietism, centered at Halle under August Hermann Francke, emphasized personal conversion, Bible study and charity, founding a famous orphanage in 1698. In England, John Wesley described his heart as 'strangely warmed' at a meeting in London in May 1738, and he and his brother Charles led the Methodist movement, preaching outdoors to large crowds of working people.

In the American colonies, the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, led by preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, drew enormous audiences. These movements stressed emotion and personal experience over formal reasoning, yet they shared some features with the Enlightenment: an appeal to individual experience, practical reform, education and the use of print and organization. Historians increasingly describe religion and Enlightenment as intertwined, rather than simply opposed, in the 18th century.