Editing First Great Awakening (section)

===Aftermath===
Historian John Howard Smith noted that the Great Awakening made [[sectarianism]] an essential characteristic of American Christianity.{{Sfn|Smith|2015|p=8}} While the Awakening divided many Protestant churches between Old and New Lights, it also unleashed a strong impulse towards interdenominational unity among the various Protestant denominations. Evangelicals considered the new birth to be "a bond of fellowship that transcended disagreements on fine points of doctrine and polity", allowing Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and others to cooperate across denominational lines.{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=293}}

While divisions between the Old and New Lights remained, the New Lights became less radical over time, and evangelicalism became more mainstream.{{sfnm |1a1=Smith |1y=2015 |1p=3 |2a1=Winiarski |2y=2005}} By 1758, the Old Side–New Side split in the Presbyterian Church had been healed, and the two factions had reunited. In part, this was due to the growth of the New Side and the numerical decline of the Old Side. In 1741, the pro-revival party had around 22 ministers, but this number had increased to 73 by 1758.{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=273}} While the fervor of the Awakening would fade, the acceptance of revivalism and insistence on personal conversion would remain recurring features in 18th- and 19th-century Presbyterianism.{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=275}}

The Great Awakening inspired the creation of evangelical educational institutions. In 1746, New Side Presbyterians founded what would become [[Princeton University]].{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=273}} In 1754, the efforts of [[Eleazar Wheelock]] led to what would become [[Dartmouth College]], originally established to train Native American boys for missionary work among their own people.{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=289}} While initially resistant, well-established [[Yale University]] came to embrace revivalism and played a leading role in American evangelicalism for the next century.{{Sfn|Ahlstrom|2004|p=290}}