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Revivalism and Social Reform

Timothy Lawrence Smith

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Mar 18, 2008 Werner rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

During the mid-1980s, I started reading this book in the library of the college where I worked at the time, and I found the information and insights in it intellectually stimulating; but I didn't actually check it out back then, and so couldn't remember if I'd had a chance to read it all the way through. So, I recently decided that if I wanted to list it on my shelf, I ought to re-read it and review it on that basis!

History has always fascinated me (I majored in it as a college student), partly During the mid-1980s, I started reading this book in the library of the college where I worked at the time, and I found the information and insights in it intellectually stimulating; but I didn't actually check it out back then, and so couldn't remember if I'd had a chance to read it all the way through. So, I recently decided that if I wanted to list it on my shelf, I ought to re-read it and review it on that basis!

History has always fascinated me (I majored in it as a college student), partly because it's always seemed to me indispensable for understanding the present --we got where we are somehow, after all, and that long and complicated "somehow" has to be taken into account to figure out (and hopefully steer) where we're going. That's no less true of the history of the church than of society as a whole; but unfortunately historical amnesia abounds today in both settings, and people believe a lot of fallacies as a result.

One major, commonly-believed fallacy that Nazarene historian Smith demolishes here is the notion that, for Christians, taking spiritual matters seriously has always gone hand in hand with ignoring social problems and issues. On the contrary, he demonstrates, from an exhaustive study of hitherto largely ignored primary sources, mid-19th century evangelical and revivalist faith in the U.S. was characterized by intense social concern; men and women of this persuasion wanted to bring every aspect of their behavior into line with God's will, and wanted no less to shape a society under the kingship of Christ. Among the areas he explores are the pervasive influence of revivalism in this period (far from being a wholly frontier phenomenon, it was strongest in the urban North, and was a significant force even in denominations like the Episcopal and Unitarian churches); the strong role of both an Arminian doctrine of free will and a concern with "holiness," "perfectionism" or "entire sanctification," variously understood, in shaping this movement; and the enormous significance of the issue of slavery as a touchstone of Christian social responsibility. (The South was both the stronghold of "Christian" defense of slavery and the most resistant area to revivalism and its theology.) He also deals with the important role of post- millennial theology in inspiring Christian social action in this period.

An academic historian, Smith documents his text with copious footnotes, and appends a ten-and-a half page review of the scholarly literature of the field (both of which most readers will probably happily ignore!). And some readers will most likely be bored by his extensive use of examples, often with quotations, to illustrate and support his points. But his style is commendably jargon-free; the average intelligent lay reader could easily understand the book --and hopefully may be motivated by it, not just to understand the socially- engaged revivalists of that day, but to emulate them today. The main complaint I have with the book is that it doesn't have another four or five volumes to bring the story up to the present! ...more

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