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Evangelical revivalism and the Enlightenment have been traditionally viewed as contradictory movements, whose coexistence is considered as one of the great paradoxes of the xviiith century. This study suggests that the two movements, which were varied in their composition, were after all not so opposed. The American evangelical clergy, through its university training, its immersion in moral philosophy, and its ongoing dialogue with like-minded British evangelicals, partook in experimental epistemology. Its messianic hope was also the religious equivalent of the Enlightenment's optimism.