Revival

Revivalism is a form of activism; involvement in a movement producing conversions not in ones and twos but en masse. Revival, a term commonly used to refer to renewal and intensification of spiritual life in an existing religious congregation, denomination, region, or country, without implying a doctrinal or organizational change or a basic reform.

The period in American history stretching from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century was marked by many dramatic bursts of revivalism. Revivalism is a movement within modern Christianity, particularly but not exclusively Protestantism, that calls on individuals to repent of their sin, believe the Gospel, and enter a proper relationship with God. Revivals are generally experienced communally, but they stress, by rhetoric and ritual, the individual's spiritual standing. Revivals shaped the lives of countless Americans and deeply affected the character of colonial and early national religion and society. Revivalists challenged the conventional hierarchies of religious culture, and they advanced an egalitarian, voluntaristic, and inclusive social order that was often international in scope.

In the nineteenth century revivalism was more widespread in America than in Britain. The pulse of mass revival felt in America in 1857вЂ"58 nevertheless extended, via Ulster, to Britain in 1859вЂ"60. There was created a network of zealous Christian’s eager for a fast spiritual tempo. With these British believers the young D.L. Moody made contact, traveling across the Atlantic to visit them in 1867 and again in 1872. Returning in the following year, his campaigns made a major impact on several cities.

As a distinct form of modern religious experience, revivals, as explained by the historian Russell Richey, can be identified by the following ten traits: a firm grounding in the Pietist tradition, a proselytizing tendency, a soteriology of crisis (that is, the conversion experience), the assumption of religious declension, the presence of crowds, an emphasis on voluntarism, a dramatic ritual form, charismatic leadership, confidence among participants in the fact of God's presence, and a strong communication network. As Richey points out, one or two of these factors may be absent and people may still wish to call something a revival.