Abstract

The article discusses the religious polemic of the “New Lights” and “Old Lights” of the First Great Awakening era and the foundation of the College of New Jersey (present-day Princeton). The First Great Awakening swept all the British colonies in North America in the 1730–1750s and evolved concurrently with the Enlightenment movement. It had a significant impact on all the aspects of the life of the colonies — religion, politics, ideology, education. For the first time, the inhabitants of the colonies, who held various religious views, experienced general spiritual uplift, the strongest emotional shock. The colonies had not yet seen anything like the Great Awakening in the scale and degree of its influence on the society. It became the first movement in American history that had a truly intercolonial character and contributed to the formation of a single religious and ideological space in British America. The first American colleges were established exclusively as institutions for the preparation of priests, and therefore it is no coincidence that the theological debates between the “Old” and “New Lights” affected teachers and students at Harvard and Yale colleges. The sermons of the “New Lights” received a special response from the colonial youth. It is not surprising that many Harvard and Yale students were active participants in mass gatherings of thousands of the believers in the open. The spirit of rivalry, religious diversity and tolerance generated by the Great Awakening led to the establishment of a new type of colleges. Unlike Harvard and Yale, supported by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of the colonies, none of the new colleges under the new conditions of religious pluralism received financial support from the colonial government. Secular principles in teaching intensified towards the end of the colonial period, while the link of colleges with any particular denomination weakened. Complete religious uniformity gave way to a more liberal spiritual policy, even at Harvard and Yale. Established in 1746, the College of New Jersey was a compromise between the supporters and opponents of the Great Awakening, various denominations, and ideas of religious and secular education.