The Rhetoric of the Revival

Michal Choinski explores the language of the key preachers of the "Great Awakening" of the mid-eighteenth century, and seeks to explain the impact their sermons exerted upon colonial American audiences. The revival of the 1739-43 is recognized as an important event in American colonial history, formative for the shaping of the culture of New England and beyond. Choinski highlights a variety of inventive rhetorical mechanisms employed by these ministers evolved into what came to be called the 'rhetoric of the revival, ' became commonplace for American revivalism, and were fundamental for the persuasive power of Great Awakening preaching and the communicative success of the 'New Light' ministers