The Role of Revival in American Renewal
In recent years, and perhaps from time immemorial, there has been ongoing discourse and debate around whether politics is downstream from culture or the other way around. If culture can truly be defined as “religion externalized”, I hope to demonstrate that although there is rather more of a circular than linear dynamic at play, there is a clear though ultimately unfalsifiable advantage on the spiritual side of the equation. This is brought into greater relief when studying the great revivals of the religion in America’s past and their impact on the nation.
Religion and law inevitably go hand in hand. Law is inherently religious, pedagogical, and both up and downstream from culture. The question of whether mass conversions to Christ or the righteous wielding power in politics is the more important part of national renewal can indeed appear as a classic chicken-or-egg scenario. However, to scramble metaphors, though truth has two wings, there is only one bird, and one can know with some degree of confidence from both revelation and history that the chicken comes first.
An overemphasis on the priority of religious conversion in civic engagement for various reasons throughout much of the 20th century, especially in the wake of (and in reaction to) the Religious Right/Moral Majority movement of the ‘80s, has led to a kind of political paralysis in the broader evangelical church. A much-needed correction has been in order. However, downplaying the spiritual dimension of national reform runs the risk of any explicitly political movement on the Right, especially one led by professing Christians, to quickly become hollow and superficial, exhausting itself in the civic arena.
One of the observations regarding the differences between politics in Christian and post-Christian populaces made by Doug Wilson, which prompted some excellent back and forth is especially salient:
“The first American religious settlement grew out of a Christian populace, a widespread Christian consensus, and reimposing that settlement on a pagan populace would be quite a challenge—like feeding greasy fried onions to a man with a bad case of the flu. If God gives us our reformation, then the men who want to rule like Christians will have a much more fruitful time of it.”
Early American politics were downstream from reformation and revival because the Christian people populating early America were downstream from reformation and revival.
Colonial America
In the big picture, America as a country has been an interplay between our rich spiritual, distinctly majority Anglo-Protestant heritage and the cultural and political realities it has fostered, with the latter then impacting the former, with the resulting cultural Christianity in turn becoming the ready tinder for later conversions and revivals. In terms of the early history of America’s religious and political life, both the jeremiad against cultural decline and the fervent prayer for spiritual renewal have been twin, time-honored American traditions, along with revival itself.
Take for example these excerpts from Israel Loring’s 1737 election sermon entitled “The duty of an apostatizing people to remember from whence they are fallen, and repent, and do their first works”, which seems like a fairly typical specimen of the times, from which some gems can be gleaned regarding the then-common views about the relationship between the spiritual and civil realms:
“This [church] Government is spiritual, in Contradistinction to that which is civil & worldly. And as the one is absolutely necessary to the well-being of the State; so the other, is as absolutely necessary to the Well-being of the Church. Where Church-Discipline and Government is not supported and practised, Confusion and every evil Thing is like to follow.”
And,
“In recovering, and maintaining the Interest of Religion among us, we shall lay a Foundation for temporal, as well as spiritual and eternal Blessings. Besides the natural tendency which our excellent Religion has to promote the outward Good and Prosperity of a People; it has a moral, federal tendency to do it.”
Although libraries have been and could further be written about the American revivals known as the Great Awakenings, along with later ones, a brief survey would help put into perspective the uniqueness of American political and civic life in the wake of such powerful and influential “works of grace”.
The First Great Awakening
Preceded by a series of more localized revivals around New England, it would be hard to overestimate the importance of the First Great Awakening’s role in shaping colonial America, leading up to the Revolution and Founding only a few decades later. Though many historians deny a direct, causal relationship, it seems improbable that things would develop as they did without both its disruptive and unifying effects up and down the eastern seaboard of the thirteen colonies. Because of this influence, it would not be unreasonable to consider Jonathan Edwards, along with George Whitefield, a kind of spiritual, proto-Founding Father.
For example, in terms of the unique level of religious (that is, Christian) liberty which America had enjoyed for its time, itself likely a prerequisite for the formation of the United States, political theorist Glenn Moots has keenly observed that:
“Americans seeking revivals were willing to weaken their establishments to enable itinerant preaching, though they were hardly unified on the question. But what is notable about the Awakening is the patriotic character of some of its itinerants, notably George Whitefield, who preached a doctrine of Protestant existential struggle against Catholic powers. If anything tilled the soil for greater religious liberty in America, it would be the ecumenical and enthusiastic fighting spirit of Whitefield whose reach to thousands of eyes, ears, and hearts far exceeded what few minds were reached by comparatively highbrow rationalistic theism of Jefferson or Madison.”
It’s doubtful that many contemporary American Christians have a full appreciation of what some of these revivals (which had all been of Protestant origin) were really like, unless they have read many of the eyewitness, first-person accounts. Knees buckling under the weight of the glory of the thick, immanent presence of God, people crying out uncontrollably in conviction of sin and views of the terrors of hell, along with saints being transported into raptures of joy are things so remote and foreign to us here in the 21st century that when we hear the word “revival”, many other, often less glorious phenomena come to mind instead.
The Second Great Awakening
Just on the other side of the Revolutionary War and the Founding, during a widely acknowledged time of moral and spiritual declension came another period of renewal, which went on in varying degrees among various groups for roughly four decades. About ten states gained their statehood during this period.
Understandably, with the “new measures” from the likes of Charles Finney and his disciples, the increased emotional manipulation, and the spiritual chaos associated with the Second Great Awakening, it often gets dismissed as a net negative, especially when compared with the more Calvinistic and (relatively) orderly First Great Awakening. However, by not properly sorting the wheat from the chaff, we run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater in making an overall assessment of those times.
As the early Christian pioneers, abiding by the Northwest Ordinance and fulfilling Manifest Destiny, went westward, such as those “following the advice of Daniel Boone”, so the influence of revival spread with them. Circuit riders and settled ministers did their utmost to ensure a continuation a conversionary Christianity in the new settlements of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana, which were considered the very frontier of America at the time. Imagining the scenes of the Cane Ridge Revival, for instance, is striking, especially considering that this was at the very beginning of Western civilization, and Christendom with it, being carved out of the vast wilderness in that region.
Laymen’s Revival of 1857-58
The Laymen’s or Businessmen’s Revival, also known as the Prayer Revival, was encompassed by a broader and more diffuse period of revivals and movements some have called the “Third Great Awakening” which led to the beginning of many more Christian civic institutions (much of them aligned with the rising Social Gospel movement mirroring the Progressive Era) and unfortunately also some cults (think the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Science). That being said, a still young and expanding America of around 30 million was once again renewed in vital Christianity on the eve of the Civil War. As one historian reflected later in the 19th century:
“As the immediate result of the revival of 1857-58 it has been estimated that one million of members were added to the fellowship of the churches. But the ulterior result was greater. This revival was the introduction to a new era of the nation’s spiritual life. It was the training-school for a force of lay evangelists for future work, eminent among whom is the name of Dwight Moody. And, like the Great Awakening of 1740, it was the providential preparation of the American church for an immediately impending peril the gravity of which there were none at the time far-sighted enough to predict. Looking backward, it is instructive for us to raise the question how the church would have passed through the decade of the [eighteen-]sixties without the spiritual reinforcement that came to it amid the pentecostal scenes of 1857 and 1858.”
It is undeniable that this powerful revival, much like the two Great Awakenings before it, shaped the religious and cultural landscape of America well into the 20th century. About fifteen more states came into statehood during the broader period of the so-called Third Great Awakening, from the latter half of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
Modern Revivals
At the tail end of this period, the influence of the Welsh Revival, which began in 1904, reached America by 1905. This revival sparked more disparate, localized movements around the country, often in larger cities. Though this was recognized as a significant revival at the time, it seems to have been a harbinger of the more tepid, organized, and managed kinds of “revivals” which characterized the large evangelistic campaigns, a more appropriate term for them, throughout the 20th century.
Perhaps the most defining revival for the modern era, the Pentecostal movement, starting with the Azusa Street revival of 1905-06, also dovetailed with the Welsh Revival’s impact in America. The Jesus People Movement or Jesus Revolution of the late ’60s and early ‘70s is also classified by many as a revival. The charismatic renewal movement within the Catholic church in the ‘70s, perhaps the closest thing to a non-Protestant revival in American history, dressed Pentecostal revival elements in Vatican-sanctioned vestments. The Asbury revivals were even more localized and didn’t nearly have the same kind of impact as the earlier revivals of even the early 20th century.
For us nowadays, “revival” calls to mind something more like religious social engineering rather than a sovereign, God-centered move of the Holy Spirit outside the bounds of all human expectation and control. At best, modern revivals have come to mean highly planned and coordinated mass evangelical events, such as those led by Billy Sunday and Billy Graham, which, though of course not bad in themselves, are a far cry from the decentralized, widespread, and surprising revivals from earlier in American history.
Revivals don’t happen in a vacuum, and God uses means, so they seem to take on certain characteristics of the surrounding culture of the time, examples being the managerialism blossoming out of the Gilded Age of the late 19th century and the hippy culture of the Jesus People movement in the 1960s. It is unknown what kind of shape a revival comparable to those in the 18th and 19th centuries would take in our day, though one could speculate. Perhaps America will just have its own kind of Quiet Revival, mostly among Gen Z and younger Millennial men, with a cumulatively large influence comparable to past once-in-a-generation revivals. However, this would also require yet another redefinition of the term “revival”.
Reformation or Revival
To our modern ears, the terms reformation and revival sound like related, though quite separate things. However, they are often identified together by older writers. For example, in An Humble Attempt, Jonathan Edwards, writing almost 300 years ago and much closer to the event in question than we are today, refers to the Reformation as a great revival:
“The Church of God, in the Time of Luther and other Reformers, on a Sudden, in a wonderful Manner revives, when such an Event was least expected, (to the Surprize and Amazement of their antichristian Enemies) and appears in such Strength, that the Reformed are able to stand on their own Legs, and to withstand all the Power and Rage of the Church of Rome. Presently after this Revival, the People of God are set on high, having the Civil Magistrate in many Countries on their Side, and henceforward have the Power of many potent Princes engaged for their Protection…”
If the heart of the Reformation was a recovery of an obscured gospel, it would only make sense that there were more conversions in the preaching of it than had occurred for a long time beforehand. Though in one way it makes much sense to keep the two terms of “reform” and “revival” distinct, usually at the expense of valuing the reformational effects of the latter, keeping the two terms more closely associated is appropriate. They, much like spiritual and institutional renewal in general, often go hand in hand. A merely civic reformation is a separate category from a distinctly spiritual, churchly renewal, but as we’ve already seen above, they are often so intertwined that it is difficult, if not ultimately impossible, to parse them out, at least from a human perspective, especially here in America.
Partial Political Solutions
Even one of the most shining contemporary examples of the political superseding the influence of any obvious spiritual awakening or widespread conversion among the people, Bukele’s defeat of the gangs in El Salvador, had its genesis in the spiritual dimension through prayer. Another consideration regarding political versus religious reform is the unknown number of people who had been praying for an unknown amount of time before God in his providence had placed a righteous ruler in a position of authority, who then, in turn, coerces conditions favorable to gospel ministry and the church at large.
America was originally settled and founded with many households and cultural institutions, not to mention all the various levels of government, being led by actual, regenerate Christian men. If we are truly to have a new American Golden Age, as President Trump has often prophesied recently, it will need to be founded on a renewed, Protestant, evangelical Christian spirituality. As political theorist Joshua Mitchell has put it, because we are actually dealing with a competing false religion, “there will be no healthy politics in America without the religious renewal of America”. While we shouldn’t wait for revival to act politically, neither should we not fervently hope and pray for it.
America was miraculously founded as a Christian nation, inhabited by a high concentration of Christian people, many of whom were elites in the leading institutions of the time. It will continue to need God’s grace in order to endure into its 5th century as a country, though even that isn’t necessary. God doesn’t need America; America needs God. Like Peter, stepping out of the boat in faith then crying out for help once he had wavered, floundering in the storm and needing the Lord to get him back on his feet, so America, which by God’s grace settled the wilderness, fought and won the Revolutionary War, expanded West, survived the Civil War, and endured the 20th century will only continue if the Lord again lifts us up. We must both pray for mercy and grace, and act with wisdom and courage.
Conclusion and Exhortations
American politicians, constrained by the system of government we have, for better or worse, are not in the position of magisterial Protestants in Reformation Europe or the Old Testament Kings of Judah to singlehandedly reform the spiritual ministry. Admittedly, “decrees [from the magistrate] are necessary but insufficient for true restoration and renewal”, and though such decrees “do not follow from revival, but rather instigate renewal”, and that, “we should consider them the ordinary means of renewal upon which we should rely rather than banking on extraordinary occurrences”, our past is filled with extraordinary occurrences. We are not to despise the day of small things or the ordinary means of grace, and there is a lot that could be done in the political realm, a lot of which is being done at present by the current Administration. And although throughout American history, calls to prayer from the highest offices in the land have been commonplace, almost an ordinary means of grace in themselves, we rarely have even those kinds of inducements coming from the top anymore. However, we can look to our past for inspiration.
In the already mentioned 1737 election sermon cited above, Israel Loring offered the following exhortations to his hearers:
“Since then, there is such a Necessity of the almighty Power of the Spirit of God, to effect a real and thorough Work of Reformation among us; let us earnestly seek to God by Prayer, to pour him out upon us for that End.”
And,
“Let us beg with the Prophet Habakkuk, Chap iii.2. O Lord, revive thy Work in the midst of the Years, in the midst of the Years make known: in Wrath remember Mercy.”
And also,
“Let me address our honourable civil Rulers, and with a becoming Humility intreat them, to make the Interest of Religion among us their chief Concern. You are under the most solemn Bonds and Obligations thus to do. You are the Ministers of God for Good unto us, for this Good, even to promote Religion among us; and you are favoured with singular Advantages and Opportunities therefor; O see to it, that you improve them! Civil Rulers may do much to prevent Apostacy among a professing People.”
Interestingly, as an aside, even this was coming from one who later opposed George Whitefield’s evangelistic ministry, writing an article entitled, “Testimony against the Reverend George Whitefield and his Conduct”.
Or take this example from Samuel Torrey’s election sermon of 1674, entitled, “An exhortation unto reformation, amplified, by a discourse concerning the parts and progress of that work, according to the word of God”. We can hear, and hopefully be motivated by, some of the earliest American zeal for reform:
“I propose this Exhortation also unto All the People of the Land, who are present; and O that whole New-England might be moved with this word of Exhortation, — Repent, and do the first works. O that the heart of this people might be moved, as the heart of one man, unto the Work of Reformation! It is a general Work, our defection it is general, and therefore our Reformation it must be also general. Of old, the Work of Reformation it was alwayes wrought by all the people, as you may reade (2 Kings 23.3. 2 Chron. 29.36. & 34.30.) the Text saith there, All, small and great: So Ezra 109. Neh. 8.1. — All the the people as one man; every one that is able to do any thing, must bear his part in the Work of Reformation. Every one hath a particular work of Reformation, in and for himself, to Reform himself, his own heart, and his own life; if every one could Reform one, it would be a great and general Reformation. Every one, that hath a Soul to save, or hath any care of his Salvation, is concerned in this Work of Reformation, of what degree, rank or order whatsoever; every one must labour, in his own person, in his proper place, by the utmost improvement of his power, interest and influence, to help forward the work; every one must set his hand and heart unto the Work of Reformation, in Families, Towns, Churches, throughout the Country. The Work of Reformation, it must run through all our hearts and wayes, in every Station and Relation, in every Calling and Imployment, through all matters both Civil and Religious, in all our converse with God and man. There is no one here present in the Congregation, but is concerned in this Work of Reformation.”
And here’s more from Edwards’s Humble Attempt:
“As the present State of Things may well excite earnest Desires after the promised general Revival and Advancement of true Religion, and serve to shew our Dependance on God for it, so there are many Things in Providence, of late, that tend to encourage us in Prayer for such a Mercy. That Infidelity, Heresy and Vice do so prevail, and that Corruption and Wickedness are risen to such an extreme Height, is that which is exceeding deplorable; But yet, I think, considering God’s Promises to his Church, and the ordinary Method of his Dispensations, Hope may justly be gathered from it, that the present State of Things will not last long, but that a happy Change is nigh.”
And also this from the 1712 circular letter by Scottish ministers to encourage concerted efforts of prayer, which inspired the above work along with Edwards’s own lifelong passion for revival:
“We hope this will not be esteemed by serious Protestants, of any Denomination, a needless Step; much less do we fear being censured by any such, as fanciful and melancholy, on Account of such a Proposal. We with them believe a Providence, know and acknowledge that our God is a God hearing Prayer. Scripture recordeth, and our Age is not barren of Instances of God’s working marvellous Deliverances for his People in Answer to humble, believing and importunate Prayer; especially when Prayer and Reformation go together; which is what we desire. —Let this Counsel be acceptable to us, in this Day of the Churches Calamity, and our common Fears. Let us seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Let us humble ourselves under the mighty Hand of God. Let us go and pray unto our God, and he will hearken unto us. We shall seek him and find him, when we search for him with all our Hearts.”
And again here is Edwards, to whom I will fittingly give the last word:
“’Tis a great Fault in us to limit a sovereign all-wise GOD, whose Judgments are a great Deep, and his Ways past finding out, where he has not limited himself, and in Things, concerning which, he has not told us what his Way shall be.”
