In the development of an American consciousness, which do you think played the greater role - ?

Question

1. The Great Awakening ?
or
2. the Enlightenment ?

And Why?

Answer 1

You're kidding aren't you..A trick question ?
"Consciousness "........We are the most self serving, self centered unenlightened Nation on the planet.
If there is not a financial interest or our National pride isn't offended, who gives a rip?
What book did you get that stuff from ?

Answer 2

Ultimately the Enlightenment filled a great role. While the Great Awakening became the cement that held the colonies together and allowed a sense of people choosing their fates (religiously, by choosing heaven or hell, politically, a democratic ideal), it was the Enlightenment that provided the fodder, the food, the motivation behind the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and also the Constitution and the idea of one-man/one vote (although it didn't really work until the 1920s).