Question

In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as [a traveling] preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. The multitudes of all [members of different religious groups] that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation to me to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admired and respected him. It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street. -Benjamin Franklin, "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" The preaching described in the excerpt is an example of which of the following developments in the 1700s?

(a)- the expansion of Protestant evangelism
(b)- the non- expansion of Protestant evangelism
(c)- the expansion of non- Protestant evangelism
(d)- None of these

Answer 1

The correct answer is A) the expansion of Protestant evangelism.

The preaching described in the excerpt is an example of the expansion of Protestant evangelism.

One of the former fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, wrote his memoirs of biography from 1771 to 1790. The book is divided into four parts where he describes moments of his life and the creation of America in such difficult moments. Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 and could never end his autobiography. In the excerpt above, Franklin describes the way preaching was done in the 1700s, in which people closely followed religious teachings that were commented everywhere.