awakening

Rousing from sleep, in a natural or a figurative sense; rousing into activity; exciting; as, the awakening city; an awakening discourse; the awakening dawn. -- A·wak·en·ing·ly, adv.

A·wak·en·ing
n.

The act of awaking, or ceasing to sleep. Specifically: A revival of religion, or more general attention to religious matters than usual.

Definition: making conscious or alert
Antonyms: sleep, sleeping

In the winter of 1734-35, the mild-mannered Reverend Jonathan Edwards, minister of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts, was astounded. People actually were listening to his sermons and following his advice. We are all sinners, he had said; our works will not justify us; God alone is the source of salvation. These words ended the "carnal security" of his congregation. Their talk turned to nothing but religion, and they began living godly lives. Even "the vainest and loosest"! Even young people! And this behavior was spreading from Northampton to other towns up and down the Connecticut River Valley.

In a famous letter published in 1736, Edwards called this a "general awakening." He used the term awakening because it involves awakening the conscience to the individual's state of sin and need for God's grace. There was, for example, "a young woman that had been one of the greatest company-keepers in the whole town, in whom there appeared evident a glorious work of God's infinite power and sovereign grace; a new and truly broken, sanctified heart." Edwards observed, "God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town."

As it turned out, this awakening of Connecticut Valley communities was just a prelude to what would be called the Great Awakening, which began in 1740. Stimulated by itinerant preachers, the Great Awakening swept back and forth through the colonies from New England to the South for many years. These awakenings set a pattern for American religious experience that continues to the present day, but the word we now use is Revival (1799). In modern times, awakening usually refers to secular experiences, as in the book titles The Awakening, Kate Chopin's 1899 novel about a woman's growing self-awareness, and Awakenings, Oliver Sacks's 1973 account of victims of Parkinsonism who are energized by a miracle drug.