The Great Awakening

What was the Great Awakening, and how did it contribute to the development of separation of Church and state in America?
The Great Awakening was an intense religious movement that occurred in the 1730's and 1740's. It was started in Northampton, Massachusetts, by a pastor named Jonathan Edwards, known for his fiery sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Why did it begin? Puritan churches in the colonies were negatively affected by strict Puritan doctrine and attempts by the church to liberalize the criteria for membership. As the colonies liberalized, people began to have different and often negative views toward the church community. Worshippers complained about droning pastors and lifeless sermons, and pastors in turn feared that parishoners were starting to forget about the doctrines of Calvinism, which strongly influenced Puritanism. People were now believing that predestination was false; that humans were not all damned and could earn eternal life by performing charitable and good works. Ideas from groups such as the Arminians were seen as hertical for denying predestination, and spirituality was being sucked from religious life. Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts pastor, proclaimed the folly of salvation through good works, along with the need for dependence on God's grace. His famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," gave worshippers a mental image of the horrors of hell. In 1738, another pastor named George Whitfield developed a unique style of evangelical preaching by preaching magnificently about human helplessness and the divinity of the omnipotent and omnipresent God. He spoke at revival meetings, where sinners professed their sins and converted, and many became excited and danced and rolled on the ground during his sermons. Future preachers imitated Whitfield and Edwards by using dramatic emotional appeals to their listeners.
How did the Great Awakening contribute to separation of Church and State in America? The Awakening triggered many schisms in various Protestant denominations, such as the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, and this caused an increase in the number of denominations and competition among the different groups. Therefore, the Awakening significantly affected the American people, who now felt that they were united by the same historical experiences, and this would have increased tolerance among different religious sects. Also, because the Awakening made people more spiritual, they believed they could still gain salvation without "help" from church or political leaders, which is different compared to the age of strict religious boundaries such as Calvinism and predestination.