U.S. Church History Blog

It is a bit uncomfortable to write about a historic time that I have lived through. The Jesus People Movement might one day be called the Fourth Great Awakening. I still remember the day I was at my uncle's house and saw the cover of Time Magazine. It said "Is God is dead?" It was April of 1966, and the scientific method was moving the United States into an ever increasing secular society and the bible was becoming demythologized. Many people took offense at that cover. It was the first time a magazine cover included only text with no images. I was 11 years old at the time and attending Catholic school in the 6th grade. I gazed at the magazine and tried to understand what that cover was trying to say. Surely God was not dead. I still went to church every Sunday, and was an altar boy. The priests and nuns were all still there. What do they mean, "Is God Dead"? Seminaries at the time were exploring the demythologization of the Bible. Rudolph Boltman introduce...

The Third Great Awakening The rise of the Social Gospel and protestants seeking a different theological path.  Have you walked "In His Steps"? This popular book was written by Charles Sheldon in 1896. The book is about following Jesus Christ's example and then applying Jesus Christ's example to practical social outcomes. If the Second Great Awakening was about reconciling emotional revival meetings with a reasonable faith, then the Third Great Awakening ushered in the idea of the social gospel.  The social gospel was a call to social reform, and not just a personal faith. In this, The Third Great Awakening emotionalism become institutionalized into groups like the Relief Society of the Mormon church, The Salvation Army, the Y.M.C.A, N.A.A.C.P., The American Protective Association, and The  National  Woman  Suffrage Association . Some of these organizations were uncomfortably nativist and anti-catholic, but all of them had a goal to reform social prob...

The Second Great Awakening happened in the new American republic around 1790 and reached its height in the 1840s. The first great awakening was about reconciling the reason of the enlightenment with the faith of the established church in the colonies. In the Second Great Awakening there was tremendous growth in the Methodist and Baptist denominations. If the First Great Awakening had created a diversity of protestant beliefs, such as the  separation of church and state , congregational sects based upon a democratic church government, and individual revelation, then the Second Great awakening represented an expansion of the congregational revivalist movement most represented by the these denominations. Rather than faith being reconciled with enlightened reason, emotion and personal revelation was being reconciled with a newly contextualized faith. The Methodist circuit riders used the worn paths of canal routes to spread their message of holiness to the unchurched. The Presbyte...