View source for Third Great Awakening

{{Short description|Period of religious activism in American history in the 19th and early 20th centuries}}
{{Page numbers needed|date=December 2023}}
{{Great awakenings|image= The salvation of Boston 1877.jpg|imagesize=275px|caption = ''The Salvation of Boston'' (1877). Featuring a cartoon of evangelist [[Dwight Lyman Moody]] preaching}}
The '''Third Great Awakening''' refers to a historical period proposed by [[William G. McLoughlin]] that was marked by religious activism in American history and spans the late 1850s to the early 20th century.{{sfn|McLoughlin|1980}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}} It influenced [[pietistic]] [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[List_of_Christian_denominations#Protestant|denominations]] and had a strong element of social activism.{{sfn|Noll|1992|pp=286–310}} It gathered strength from the [[Postmillennialism|postmillennial]] belief that the [[Second Coming]] of Christ would occur after mankind had reformed the entire Earth. It was affiliated with the [[Social Gospel]] movement, which applied [[Christianity]] to social issues and gained its force from the awakening, as did the worldwide [[missionary]] movement. New groupings emerged, such as the [[Holiness movement]] and [[Church of the Nazarene|Nazarene]] and [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] movements, and also [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualism]], [[Theosophy]], [[Thelema]], and [[Christian Science]].{{sfn|Fogel|2000}} The era saw the adoption of a number of moral causes, such as the [[abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]] and [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]].

==Overview==
This article focuses on the [[Christian revival|awakening]] that took place during the 19th century in America and Korea. A similar awakening [[1859 Ulster revival|took place in Britain]], identified by [[J. Edwin Orr]] as starting in 1859 with its influence continuing through to the end of the 19th century, impacting church growth, overseas mission, and social action.{{sfn|Orr|1952}} Significant names include [[Dwight L. Moody]], [[Ira D. Sankey]], [[William Booth]] and [[Catherine Booth]] (founders of [[The Salvation Army]]), [[Charles Spurgeon]] and [[James Caughey]]. [[Hudson Taylor]] began the [[OMF International|China Inland Mission]], and [[Thomas John Barnardo]] founded his famous orphanages.

The American Protestant [[Mainline Protestant|mainline churches]] were growing rapidly in numbers, wealth and educational levels, throwing off their [[American frontier|frontier]] beginnings and becoming centered in towns and cities. Intellectuals and writers such as [[Josiah Strong]] advocated a [[muscular Christianity]] with systematic outreach to the [[unchurched]] in America and around the globe. Others built colleges and universities to train the next generation. Each denomination supported active [[List_of_Protestant_missionary_societies#Missionary_societies_in_the_United_States_and_Canada|missionary societies]] and made the role of missionary one of high prestige.{{sfn|Ahlstrom|1972|pp=731–872}}

The great majority of [[Pietism|pietistic]] mainline Protestants (in the North) supported the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] and urged it to [[Third Party System|endorse prohibition and social reforms]].{{sfnm |1a1=Kleppner |1y=2009 |2a1=Jensen |2y=1971}} The [[Jeremiah_Lanphier#Revival_of_1857–59|awakening in numerous cities in 1858]] was interrupted by the [[American Civil War]]. In the [[Southern United States|South]], on the other hand, the Civil War stimulated revivals, especially the [[Confederate States Army revival]] in General [[Robert E. Lee]]'s army.{{sfn|Miller|Stout|Reagan|1998}} After the war, Moody made revivalism the centerpiece of his activities in [[Chicago]] and founded the [[Moody Bible Institute]]. The [[hymn|hymns]] of [[Ira D. Sankey|Ira Sankey]] were especially influential.{{sfn|Findlay|2007}}

Across the nation, [[Teetotalism|drys]] crusaded in the name of religion for the [[prohibition in the United States|prohibition]] of alcohol. The [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] mobilized Protestant women for social crusades against liquor, pornography and prostitution, and sparked the demand for [[women's suffrage]].{{sfn|Bordin|1981}} The [[Gilded Age]] [[plutocracy]] came under sharp attack from [[Social Gospel]] [[Preacher|preachers]] and [[Reform movement|reformers]] in the [[Progressive Era]]. The historian [[Robert Fogel]] identifies numerous reforms, especially the battles involving [[Child labor in the United States|child labor]], compulsory [[Primary education|elementary education]], and the protection of women from exploitation in factories.{{sfn|Fogel|2000|p=108}} 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 Social Gospel.{{sfn|Knight|2010}}

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. All the major denominations sponsored growing missionary activities, both inside the United States and around the world.{{sfnm |1a1=Shenk |1y=2004 |2a1=Varg |2y=1954}} Colleges associated with churches rapidly expanded in number, size and quality of curriculum. The promotion of "muscular Christianity" became popular among young men on campus and in urban [[YMCA]]s, as well as in such denominational youth groups such as the [[Epworth League]] for [[Methodism|Methodists]] and the [[C. F. W. Walther|Walther League]] for [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]].{{sfn|Setran|2005}} Professional baseball player [[Billy Sunday]] converted as a young man in the 1880s, became an [[Evangelism|evangelist]], and is widely considered America's most influential evangelist of the first two decades in the 20th century. In 1891, basketball was invented at the [[Springfield_College#History|International Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Training School]] in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]].

==New religions==
In 1879 [[Mary Baker Eddy]] founded the [[Church of Christ, Scientist]], which gained a national following.{{sfn|Gottschalk|1973|p=ix}} The [[Ethical movement|Society for Ethical Culture]] was established in New York in 1876 by [[Felix Adler (professor)|Felix Adler]] and attracted a Reform Jewish clientele. [[Charles Taze Russell]] founded the [[Bible Student movement]]. In July 1879, Russell began publishing a monthly religious journal, ''Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence''. He and his group of fellow students first identified themselves as The People's Pulpit Association, then in 1910 as The International Bible Students Association. In 1931, after schisms within the Bible Students and gaining control of the legal entity Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Joseph Franklin Rutherford along with former members of the Bible Student movement would go on to adopt the name [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]. The [[New Thought]] movement, which began in the 1830s, expanded as [[Unity Church|Unity]] and [[Church of Divine Science]] were founded.

==Holiness and Pentecostal movements==
The goal of the [[Holiness movement]] in the Methodist church was to move beyond the one-time conversion experience that the revivals produced and reach [[Christian perfection|entire sanctification]].{{sfn|Jones|1974}} The [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostals]] went one step further, seeking what they called a "baptism in the spirit" or "baptism of the Holy Ghost" that enabled those with this special gift to heal the sick, perform miracles, prophesy, and [[Speaking in tongues|speak in tongues]].{{sfn|Cerillo|1999}}

The re-discovered Pentecostal movement can be traced to the Ocoee mountains of [[East Tennessee]] in the upper [[Tennessee River]] valley, when a group led by Methodist minister [[R. G. Spurling|Richard Spurling]] met in 1886-1896 and called for holy living. At that time they experienced what is known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, empowering Christians to live in holiness. Little is known of this movement because it happened in the mountains, compared to the [[Azusa Street Revival]] which happened in Los Angeles, California. However, the organization born from that group led by Spurling has grown to an international presence in over 200 countries around the world with a church membership of over 7 million Christians; it is known as the [[Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)|Church of God]], with headquarters in [[Cleveland, Tennessee]]. The organization owns [[Lee University]] and [[Pentecostal Theological Seminary]].

[[Charles Fox Parham|Charles Parham]] in [[Topeka, Kansas]], who was a Methodist minister, resigned his ordination as a minister and began preaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. During a service on December 31, 1899, Parham laid hands on a woman named [[Agnes Ozman]]; she is supposed to have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to have begun speaking in tongues and prophesying. This is the root of the better known "[[Azusa Street Revival]]" in [[Los Angeles|Los Angeles, California]] (1906) led by [[William J. Seymour]], an [[African Americans|African American]] student of Parham's.

==Impact on Korea==
{{see also|Manchurian revival}}
Chun Beh Im compared the evangelistic method and results of the Third Great Awakening in America with the Korean revivals of 1884–1910. Many techniques of the Second and Third Great Awakenings were transposed from America to Korea, including the circuit-riding system of the Methodists, the Baptist farmer preachers, the campus revivals of the eastern seaboard, the camp meetings in the West, the new measures of [[Charles Grandison Finney|Charles G. Finney]], the Layman's Prayer Revival, urban mass revivalism of Moody, and the [[Student Volunteer Movement]]. Im discovered four areas of influence from a comparison and analysis of the two countries' revivals: the establishment of tradition, the adoption of similar emphases, the incorporation of evangelistic methodologies, and the observation of the results of the revivals. The American revivals had a major influence on the Korean revivals, and the American revival tradition and enthusiasm toward missions helped Korean Christians develop their own religious experience and tradition. This tradition has influenced Korean churches even into the 21st century.{{sfn|Im|2000}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity|Evangelical Christianity|United States}}
* [[Christianity in the 19th century]]
* [[Ethnocultural politics in the United States]]
* [[Temperance movement]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|22em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book
|last=Ahlstrom
|first=Sydney E.
|author-link=Sydney E. Ahlstrom
|year=1972
|title=A Religious History of the American People
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|publisher=Yale University Press
|title-link=A Religious History of the American People
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Bordin
|first=Ruth
|year=1981
|title=Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873–1900
|url=https://archive.org/details/womantemperanceq0000bord
|url-access=registration
|location=Philadelphia
|publisher=Temple University Press
|isbn=978-0-87722-157-9
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Cerillo
|first=Augustus
|year=1999
|chapter=The Beginnings of American Pentecostalism: A Historiographical Overview
|editor1-last=Blumhofer
|editor1-first=Edith L.
|editor2-last=Spittler
|editor2-first=Russell P.
|editor3-last=Wacker
|editor3-first=Grant A.
|editor3-link=Grant Wacker
|title=Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism
|location=Urbana, Illinois
|publisher=University of Illinois Press
|pages=229–260
|isbn=978-0-252-06756-3
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Findlay
|first=James F.
|year=2007
|orig-year=1969
|title=Dwight L. Moody: American Evangelist, 1837–1899
|location=Eugene, Oregon
|publisher=Wipf and Stock
|isbn=978-1-55635-623-0
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Fogel
|first=Robert William
|author-link=Robert Fogel
|year=2000
|title=The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|isbn=978-0-226-25662-7
|url=https://archive.org/details/fourthgreatawake00foge
|url-access=registration
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Gottschalk
|first=Stephen
|author-link=Stephen Gottschalk
|year=1973
|title=Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life
|url=https://archive.org/details/emergenceofchris00step
|url-access=registration
|location=Berkeley, California
|publisher=University of California Press
|publication-date=1978
|isbn=978-0-520-03718-2
}}
* {{cite thesis
|last=Im
|first=Chun Beh
|year=2000
|title=A Critical Investigation of the Influence of the Second Great Awakening and Nineteenth-Century Revival on Revivals in Korea (1884–1910)
|type=PhD thesis
|location=New Orleans, Louisiana
|publisher=New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
|oclc=47028152
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Jensen
|first=Richard
|author-link=Richard J. Jensen
|year=1971
|title=The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896
|isbn=978-0-226-39825-9
|url=https://archive.org/details/winningofmidwest0000jens
|url-access=registration
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Jones
|first=Charles Edwin
|year=1974
|title=Perfectionist Persuasion: The Holiness Movement and American Methodism, 1867–1936
|publisher=Scarecrow Press
|isbn=978-0-8108-0747-1
|url=https://archive.org/details/perfectionistper0000jone
|url-access=registration
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kleppner
|first=Paul
|year=2009
|orig-year=1979
|title=The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures
|location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina
|publisher=University of North Carolina Press
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Knight
|first=Louise W.
|year=2010
|title=Jane Addams: Spirit in Action
|location=New York
|publisher=W.&nbsp;W. Norton & Company
|isbn=978-0-393-07165-8
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Latourette
|first=Kenneth Scott
|author-link=Kenneth Scott Latourette
|year=1945
|title=A History of the Expansion of Christianity
|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.236564
}}
* {{cite book
|last=McLoughlin
|first=William G.
|author-link=William G. McLoughlin
|year=1980
|title=Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform
}}
* {{cite book
|year=1998
|editor1-last=Miller
|editor1-first=Randall M.
|editor2-last=Stout
|editor2-first=Harry S.
|editor2-link=Harry Stout
|editor3-last=Reagan
|editor3-first=Charles
|title=Religion and the American Civil War
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Noll
|first=Mark A.
|author-link=Mark Noll
|year=1992
|title=A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Orr
|first=J. Edwin
|author-link=J. Edwin Orr
|year=1952
|title=The Second Evangelical Awakening in Britain
|url=https://archive.org/details/secondevangelica00orrj
|url-access=limited
|location=London
|publisher=Marshall, Morgan & Scott
|access-date=August 7, 2018
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Setran
|first=David P.
|year=2005
|title=Following the Broad-Shouldered Jesus: The College YMCA and the Culture of Muscular Christianity in American Campus Life, 1890–1914
|journal=American Educational History Journal
|volume=32
|issue=1
|pages=59–66
|issn=1535-0584
}}
* {{cite book
|year=2004
|editor-last=Shenk
|editor-first=Wilbert R.
|title=North American Foreign Missions, 1810–1914: Theology, Theory, and Policy
|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan
|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
|isbn=978-0-8028-2485-1
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Varg
|first=Paul A.
|author-link=Paul A. Varg
|year=1954
|title=Motives in Protestant Missions, 1890–1917
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|doi=10.2307/3161183
|issn=0009-6407
|jstor=3161183
|s2cid=162113541
}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book
|last=Abell
|first=Aaron Ignatius
|year=1943
|title=The Urban Impact on American Protestantism, 1865–1900
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=Harvard University Press
|oclc=2085203
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Carroll
|first=H.&nbsp;K.
|year=1912
|title=The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified and Described: Returns for 1900 and 1910 Compared with the Government Census of 1890: Condition and Characteristics of Christianity in the United States
|url=https://archive.org/details/religiousforceso00carr
|location=New York
|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons
|access-date=August 7, 2018
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Curtis
|first=Susan
|year=1991
|title=A Consuming Faith: The Social Gospel and Modern American Culture
|location=Baltimore, Maryland
|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press
|isbn=978-0-8018-4167-5
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Dieter
|first=Melvin Easterday
|year=1980
|title=The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century
|location=Metuchen, New Jersey
|publisher=Scarecrow Press
|isbn=978-0-8108-1328-1
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Dorsett
|first=Lyle W.
|year=1991
|title=Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America
|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan
|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
|isbn=978-0-8028-0151-7
|url=https://archive.org/details/billysundayredem00dors
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Dorsett
|first=Lyle W.
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1997
|title=A Passion for Souls: The Life of D.&nbsp;L. Moody
|location=Chicago
|publisher=Moody Press
|isbn=978-0-8024-5194-1
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Edwards
|first1=Wendy J. Deichmann
|last2=Gifford
|first2=Carolyn De Swarte
|year=2003
|title=Gender and the Social Gospel
|location=Urbana, Illinois
|publisher=University of Illinois Press
|isbn=978-0-252-02795-6
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Evensen
|first=Bruce J.
|year=2003
|title=God's Man for the Gilded Age: D.L. Moody and the Rise of Modern Mass Evangelism
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-516244-8
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Finke
|first1=Roger
|author1-link=Roger Finke
|last2=Stark
|first2=Rodney
|author2-link=Rodney Stark
|year=1992
|title=The Churching of America, 1776–1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy
|url=https://archive.org/details/churchingofameri00roge
|url-access=registration
|location=New Brunswick, New Jersey
|publisher=Rutgers University Press
|isbn=978-0-8135-1838-1
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Fishwick
|first=Marshall W.
|author-link=Marshall Fishwick
|year=1995
|title=Great Awakenings: Popular Religion and Popular Culture
|location=New York
|publisher=Haworth Press
|isbn=978-1-56024-864-4
|url=https://archive.org/details/greatawakeningsp0000fish
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Giggie
|first=John M.
|year=2005
|title=The Third Great Awakening: Religion and the Civil Rights Movement
|journal=Reviews in American History
|volume=33
|issue=2
|pages=254–262
|doi=10.1353/rah.2005.0030
|issn=0048-7511
|jstor=30031470
|s2cid=145779702
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Hutchison
|first=William R.
|year=1987
|title=Errand to the World: American Protestant Thought and Foreign Missions
|location=Chicago
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|isbn=978-0-226-36309-7
}}
* {{cite book
|year=2006
|editor1-last=Keller
|editor1-first=Rosemary Skinner
|editor2-last=Ruether
|editor2-first=Rosemary Radford
|editor2-link=Rosemary Radford Ruether
|title=Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America
|location=Bloomington, Indiana
|publisher=Indiana University Press
|isbn=978-0-253-34685-8
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Long
|first=Kathryn Teresa
|year=1998
|title=The Revival of 1857–58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-511293-1
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Luker
|first=Ralph E.
|author-link=Ralph Luker
|year=1991
|title=The Social Gospel in Black and White American Racial Reform, 1885–1912
|location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina
|publisher=University of North Carolina Press
|isbn=978-0-8078-1978-4
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Luker
|first=Ralph E.
|author-link=Ralph Luker
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1981
|title=Liberal Theology and Social Conservatism: A Southern Tradition, 1840–1920
|journal=Church History
|volume=50
|issue=2
|pages=193–204
|doi=10.2307/3166883
|issn=1755-2613
|jstor=3166883
|s2cid=144817302
}}
* {{cite book
|year=2007
|editor-last=McClymond
|editor-first=Michael
|title=Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America
|location=Westport, Connecticut
|publisher=Greenwood Press
|isbn=978-0-313-32828-2
}}
* {{cite book
|last=McLoughlin
|first=William G.
|author-link=William G. McLoughlin
|year=1959
|title=Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham
|url=https://archive.org/details/modernrevivalism00mclo
|url-access=limited
|location=New York
|publisher=Ronald Press
|lccn=58012959
|access-date=August 7, 2018
}}
* {{cite book
|year=1976
|orig-year=1968
|editor-last=McLoughlin
|editor-first=William G.
|editor-link=William G. McLoughlin
|editor-mask={{long dash}}
|title=The American Evangelicals, 1800–1900: An Anthology
|location=Gloucester, Massachusetts
|publisher=Peter Smith
|isbn=978-0-8446-0793-1
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Marty
|first=Martin E.
|author-link=Martin E. Marty
|year=1986
|title=Modern American Religion. Volume 1: The Irony of It All, 1893–1919
|location=Chicago
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|isbn=978-0-226-50893-1
|url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanre00mart_1
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Marty
|first=Martin E.
|author-link=Martin E. Marty
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1991
|title=Modern American Religion. Volume 2: The Noise of Conflict, 1919–1941
|location=Chicago
|publisher=University of Chicago Press
|isbn=978-0-226-50895-5
|url=https://archive.org/details/modernamericanre00mart_0
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Marsden
|first=George M.
|author-link=George Marsden
|year=2006
|title=Fundamentalism and American Culture
|edition=2nd
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=978-0-19-530047-5
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Sizer
|first=Sandra
|year=1978
|title=Gospel Hymns and Social Religion: The Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century Revivalism
|location=Philadelphia
|publisher=Temple University Press
|isbn=978-0-87722-142-5
|url=https://archive.org/details/gospelhymnssocia00fran
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Smith
|first=Timothy L.
|author-link=Timothy L. Smith
|year=1962
|title=Called unto Holiness: The Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years
|location=Kansas City, Missouri
|publisher=Nazarene Publishing House
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Smith
|first=Timothy L.
|author-link=Timothy L. Smith
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1980
|orig-year=1957
|title=Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War
|location=Baltimore, Maryland
|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Ward
|first=W.&nbsp;R.
|author-link=W. R. Ward
|year=1992
|title=The Protestant Evangelical Awakening
|url=https://archive.org/details/protestantevange0000ward
|url-access=registration
|location=Cambridge, England
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511661075
|isbn=978-0-511-66107-5
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Weisberger
|first=Bernard A.
|author-link=Bernard Weisberger
|year=1958
|title=They Gathered at the River: The Story of the Great Revivalists and Their Impact upon Religion in America
|publisher=Little, Brown And Company
|url=https://archive.org/details/theygatheredatth009996mbp
}}
{{refend}}

{{History of Christianity}}
{{Evangelical Protestantism in the United States}}


[[Category:19th-century Protestantism]]
[[Category:20th-century Protestantism]]
[[Category:19th century in the United States]]
[[Category:20th century in the United States]]
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Great Awakenings]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:History of Christianity in the United States]]