Whether rooted in fears that worldly concerns were overshadowing spiritual devotion or that growing religious diversity was undermining the power of the church, many Protestant ministers lamented the state of faith in eighteenth-century America. Church leaders in Britain and the rest of Europe shared their fears. Ministers eager to address this crisis of faith—identified in the colonies as New Light clergy—worked together to reenergize the faithful and were initially welcomed, or at least tolerated, by more traditional Old Light clergy. But by the 1740s, fears that the passionate New Light clergy had gone too far led to a backlash.