Third Great Awakening

The Third Great Awakening was a period of religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 1900s. It affected pietistic Protestant denominations and had a strong sense of social activism. It gathered strength from the postmillennial theology that the Second Coming of Christ would come after mankind had reformed the entire earth. The Social Gospel Movement gained its force from the Awakening, as did the worldwide missionary movement. New groupings emerged, such as the Holiness movement and Nazarene movements, and Christian Science.

Overview

The awakening in numerous cities in 1858 was interrupted by the American Civil War. In the South, on the other hand, the Civil War stimulated revivals, especially in General Robert E. Lee's army. After the war, Dwight Moody made revivalism the centerpiece of his activities in Chicago by founding the Moody Bible Institute. The hymns of Ira Sankey were especially influential.

The Gilded Age plutocracy came under harsh attack from the Social Gospel preachers and with reformers in the Progressive Era. Historian Robert Fogel identifies numerous reforms, especially the battles involving child labor, compulsory elementary education and the protection of women from exploitation in factories. The most powerful force was a crusadge for the prohibition of alcohol. The major pietistic Protestant denominations all sponsored growing missionary activities inside the United States and around the world. Colleges associated with denominations rapidly expanded in number, size and quality of curriculum. The YMCA became a force in many cities, as did denominational youth groups such as the Epworth League (Methodist) and the Walther League (Lutheran).

New sects

Mary Baker Eddy introduced Christian Science, which gained a national following. In 1880, the Salvation Army denomination arrived in America. Although its theology was based on ideals expressed during the Second Great Awakening, its focus on poverty was of the Third. The Society for Ethical Culture was established in New York in 1876 by Felix Adler attracted a Reform Jewish clientèle.

With Jane Addams's Hull House in Chicago as its center, the settlement house movement and the vocation of social work were deeply influenced by the Tolstoyan reworking of Christian idealism.

References

• Abell, Aaron. The Urban Impact on American Protestantism, 1865-1900 Harvard University Press, 1943.
• Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. Yale University Press, 1972.
• Bordin, Ruth. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900 Temple University Press, 1981.
• Curtis, Susan. A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
• Dieter, Melvin Easterday. The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century Scarecrow Press, 1980.
• Dorsett, Lyle W. Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America Eerdmans, 1991.
• Dorsett, Lyle W. A Passion for Souls: The Life of D. L. Moody. Moody Press, 1997.
• Bruce J. Evensen; God's Man for the Gilded Age: D.L. Moody and the Rise of Modern Mass Evangelism Oxford University Press, 2003
• Findlay, James F. Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist, 1837-1899 University of Chicago Press, 1969.
• Finke, Roger, and Rodney Stark. The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy Rutgers University Press, 1992.
• Fishwick, Marshall W. Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture (1995)
• Robert William Fogel. The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism (2000)
• Giggie, John M. "The Third Great Awakening: Religion and the Civil Rights Movement." Reviews in American History 2005 33(2): 254-262. Issn: 0048-7511 Fulltext: Project Muse
• Hutchison, William R. Errand to the World: American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions. University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)
• Long, Kathryn Teresa. The Revival of 1857-58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening Oxford University Press, 1998 online edition
• William G McLoughlin. Revivals Awakenings and Reform 1980
• Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925 Oxford University Press, 1980.
• McLoughlin, William G. Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham 1959.
• McLoughlin, William G. Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977. University of Chicago Press, 1978.
• McLoughlin, William G. ed. The American Evangelicals, 1800-1900: An Anthology 1976.
• Sizer, Sandra. Gospel Hymns and Social Religion: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Revivalism. Temple University Press, 1978.
• Smith, Timothy L. Called Unto Holiness, the Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years. Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House, 1962.
• Smith, Timothy L. Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War Abingdon Press, 1957.
• Ward, W. R. The Protestant Evangelical Awakening Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Weisberger, Bernard A. They Gathered at the River: The Story of the Great Revivalists and Their Impact upon Religion in America 1958.

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See also

• Second Great Awakening
• Fourth Great Awakening

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