ENLIGHTENMENT AND GREAT AWAKENING: TWO WAYS CONVERGE Sun Youzhong(109) Enlightenment and Great Awakening were two movements of thought that were of far reaching significance during the American revolutionary period in the 18th century. The former appeared in a secular cloak and the latter upheld the banner of rejuvenating Christianity. However, the two converged in terms of internal spirit and external consequence. First of all, they both stressed sacred and inviolable personal dignity and right. This gave rise, religiously, to the disintegration of the spiritual ties between the colony and the colonial power. Secondly, both emphasized perfection of society and life through knowledge, thus ostering the tradition of building America by means of science.