During the Great Awakening, new denominations emerged that were established and challenged established religions and governmental order. Which two were these denominations?

• A. Methodists and Baptists
• B. Anglicans and Quakers
• C. Catholics and Lutherans
• D. Presbyterians and Congregationalists

Answer: (A)

During the Great Awakening, revivalist preaching and emotional faith experiences encouraged people to form faith communities outside the traditional colonial churches, and two groups that grew rapidly and challenged established religious and civil order were Methodists and Baptists.

Methodists organized a vast network of itinerant preachers and circuit riders who spread revivalist zeal across frontier areas, building new congregations beyond the old, established parishes. Their emphasis on personal conversion, disciplined groups, and accessible worship undermined the dominance of state-supported or long-established churches and promoted a more flexible, voluntary form of religious life that often stood in tension with official church authorities.

Baptists stressed believer’s baptism, congregational autonomy, and, crucially, religious liberty—the idea that church life should not be dictated by civil establishment. This stance often clashed with tax-supported or state-backed churches in many colonies and contributed to broader debates about the relationship between church and state, further challenging the old order.

Other options include groups that were either already established or grew in ways that didn’t mirror the same broad, revival-driven challenge to both church structures and governmental establishment during the era.