Revivalism
*Editor’s Note: In light of the pending celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, this is the second installment of three on the founding influences of Christianity in America. You can read the first installment on Puritanism HERE.
To understand the history of Christianity in America, you must understand the Puritans and all that they unleashed. America really was wildly different from anything in Europe—no state church, no government oversight or regulation; think free-market entrepreneurialism meets religion.
Next, to understand Christianity in America, you must understand revivalism—particularly the Great Awakenings and then, later, camp meetings.
Twice in North American history, there have been what can truly be called national revivals. The first began in 1729 when a small band of young men at Oxford University met to pray, fast, and study the Word. From this came what is known as the Evangelical Awakening in America or the First Great Awakening, led by such luminaries as John Wesley (who spearheaded the Methodist movement) and George Whitefield.
The American colonial counterpart to the Methodist revival in the British Isles under Wesley has become known as the Great Awakening. This event was chronicled and led by one of America's most brilliant minds, Jonathan Edwards, but soon spread beyond the confines of his parish ministry.
Appearing first in the 1720s as a series of regional awakenings, under the preaching ministry of George Whitefield (a friend of John Wesley), these regional revivals coalesced into a “great awakening” that arguably lasted until the American Revolution. As Harry S. Stout has noted, these revivals “mark the beginning of popular evangelicalism in the American churches.”
Its dynamic was clear: people apart from God were in trouble, and they were just one prayer away from rescue. Hence, the idea of being “born again.” Obviously, the phrase “born again” was not an invention of 18th-century revivalism. Its introduction dates to Jesus’ words as recorded in the third chapter of the gospel of John in the New Testament. But this is when it broke on the American shores and became part of American Christianity.
The Great Awakening is sometimes called the First Great Awakening, because it was followed in 1806 by the Second Great Awakening, which found its roots in the “Haystack Prayer Meeting” of five collegians at Williams College in Massachusetts. It was given this name because of the momentous night when the Holy Spirit blew through their lives, and they were forced into a barn by a thunderstorm and found themselves praying while huddled under a haystack.
Among that group was Samuel Mills, who became one of the founders of the American Bible Society, and another joined the first team of five missionaries to India. I actually spoke on the campus of Williams College at the invitation of the C.S. Lewis Foundation in honor of the 200th anniversary of the great Haystack Awakening.
These revivals produced unprecedented mass evangelism, groundbreaking missionary activity, and significant social change throughout North America. But Nathan Hatch contends that it was the wave of popular religious movements that broke upon the United States in the half-century after independence that did more to Christianize American society than anything before, or since.
Most to the point, Hatch observes that religious leaders:
“went outside normal... frameworks to develop large followings by the democratic art of persuasion... they were alike in their ability to portray, in compelling terms, the deepest hopes and aspirations of popular constituencies.”
What was introduced by the Puritans – free market religion and religious expression – exploded on the cultural scene.
Which brings us to the camp meetings, rooted in Methodism and championed by Francis Asbury, but initially met with great skepticism by Methodist authorities. They perceived “a manifest subversiveness in the form and structure of the camp meeting itself, which openly defied ecclesiastical standards of time, space, authority, and liturgical form.”
Camp meetings encouraged “uncensored testimonials... the public sharing of private ecstasy; overt physical display and emotional release; ... loud and spontaneous response to preaching; and the use of folk music that would have chilled the marrow of Charles Wesley.”
Yet the camp meetings brought together three to four million Americans annually, an estimated one-third of the total population of the time. It was a phenomenally successful instrument for popular recruitment. Asbury simply referred to them as “fishing with a large net.”
An “audience-centered” approach, writes Hatch, “meant that the church prospered.” This Evangelical call for an immediate and instantaneous conversion to Christ continued throughout the 19th century in camp meetings, revivals, and classrooms all across America.
The leadership of such Evangelicals as Timothy Dwight (president of Yale), revivalist Charles Finney at Oberlin, and circuit-riding preacher Peter Cartwright helped to install Evangelical Christianity as the dominant faith in America before the Civil War.
William McLoughlin went so far as to say that the story of American Evangelicalism during the 19th century is the story of America itself. He contends that Evangelical religion lay behind the concept of rugged individualism in business enterprise, laissez-faire in economic theory, constitutional democracy in political thought, the Protestant ethic in morality, and the millennial hope in the manifest destiny of America to lead the world to its latter-day glory.
But there is another story to tell that runs parallel to that of the Awakenings and the camp meetings. In fact, it was largely developed and ignited by those very revivals.
And that story has to do with the religion of slaves.
Sources
Jonathan Edwards, “A Faithful Narrative” (1737), “Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God” (1741), and “Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival” (1742).
Perry Miller and Alan Heimert, editors, The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences.
Edwin S. Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England.
Perry Miller, Jonathan Edwards.
George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards.
Harry S. Stout, “Great Awakening,” Dictionary of Christianity in America.
Bruce L. Shelley, “Evangelicalism,” Dictionary of Christianity in America.
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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.
Originally published June 11, 2026.
