<P> Church buildings in 18th - century America varied greatly, from the plain, modest buildings in newly settled rural areas to elegant edifices in the prosperous cities on the eastern seaboard . Churches reflected the customs and traditions as well as the wealth and social status of the denominations that built them . German churches contained features unknown in English ones . </P> <P> Deism is a loosely used term that describes the views of certain English and continental thinkers . These views gained some adherents in America in the late 18th century . Deism of that era "accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind ." A form of deism, Christian deism, stressed morality and rejected the orthodox Christian view of the divinity of Christ, often viewing him as a sublime, but entirely human, teacher of morality . The most prominent Deist was Thomas Paine, but many other founders reflected Deist language in their writings . </P> <P> In the American colonies the First Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm among Protestants that swept the American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, leaving a permanent impact on American Christianity . It resulted from powerful preaching that deeply affected listeners (already church members) with a deep sense of personal guilt and salvation by Christ . Pulling away from ritual and ceremony, the Great Awakening made relationship with God intensely personal to the average person by creating a deep sense of spiritual guilt, forgiveness, redemption and peace . Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom sees it as part of a "great international Protestant upheaval" that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival and Methodism in England . It brought Christianity to the slaves and was an apocalyptic event in New England that challenged established church authority . It resulted in division between the new revivalists and the old traditionalists who insisted on ritual and doctrine . The new style of sermons and the way people practiced their faith breathed new life into Christian faith in America . People became passionately and emotionally involved in their relationship with God, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner . Ministers who used this new style of preaching were generally called "new lights", while the preachers of old were called "old lights". People began to study the Bible at home, which effectively decentralized the means of informing the public on religious manners and was akin to the individualistic trends present in Europe during the Protestant Reformation . </P> <P> The fundamental premise of evangelicalism is the conversion of individuals from a state of sin to a "new birth" through preaching of the Bible leading to faith . The First Great Awakening led to changes in American colonial society . In New England, the Great Awakening was influential among many Congregationalists . In the Middle and Southern colonies, especially in the "Backcountry" regions, the Awakening was influential among Presbyterians . In the South Baptist and Methodist preachers converted both whites and enslaved blacks . </P>

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