Third Great Awakening

Third Great Awakening
Name	Third Great Awakening
Settlement type	Religious revival
Established title	Period
Established date	c. 1857–early 20th century

Third Great Awakening

The Third Great Awakening was a broad Protestant revival phenomenon in the United States and parts of the English-speaking world centered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that connected evangelical renewal with social reform, institutional expansion, and missionary activity. It intersected with movements such as temperance, abolitionist aftermaths, urban missions, and the Social Gospel, shaping denominational growth, higher education, and foreign missions. The era saw prominent clergy, lay leaders, colleges, and organizations mobilize around revival meetings, settlement houses, and political campaigns, leaving a mixed legacy in American religious and public life.

Background and Origins

The origins trace to antecedents including the Second Great Awakening, the revivals at Cane Ridge, and the antebellum evangelical networks formed by figures linked to the Second Great Awakening, such as Charles Grandison Finney, Lyman Beecher, and institutions like Princeton Theological Seminary and Andover Theological Seminary. Post‑Civil War conditions—urbanization in New York City, Chicago, and Boston—industrialization in regions like Pittsburgh and Cleveland, immigration waves through Ellis Island, and concerns after the Spanish–American War created a context for renewed evangelical outreach. The rise of mass media including newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and publishing houses like Harper & Brothers aided dissemination, while revivalist innovators drew on revival techniques developed by earlier itinerants in the American frontier and camp meeting tradition.

Key Figures and Movements

Leading personalities encompassed revivalists, theologians, and social reformers. Revival preachers included Dwight L. Moody, whose work linked to the founding of the Moody Bible Institute and evangelistic campaigns in London and Chicago; Billy Sunday, former Major League Baseball player turned evangelist; and Charles G. Finney’s heirs in style and method. Theologically influential clergy and academics featured Walter Rauschenbusch of the Social Gospel, B. B. Warfield at Princeton University, and J. Gresham Machen later reacting against liberal trends. Denominational leaders included officials from the Methodist Episcopal Church, Northern Baptist Convention, Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and Episcopal Church. Movements and organizations such as the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the Salvation Army were central institutional expressions. Lay leaders like Frances Willard and philanthropists including John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie funded colleges, mission boards, and settlement work.

Theology and Social Impact

The period featured theological tensions among proponents of the Social Gospel, proponents of fundamentalism emerging in reaction to modernist theology, and advocates of evangelism emphasizing personal conversion. Social Gospel proponents like Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden argued for Christianity applied to urban poverty, labor conditions in Pullman and factory districts, and public health in municipal centers such as Cincinnati. Fundamentalist leaders, including later figures associated with the Scopes Trial controversy, contested theological liberalism advanced at seminaries like Union Theological Seminary and the rise of higher criticism associated with scholars at German universities and Oxford. The movement influenced public debates over prohibition culminating in the Eighteenth Amendment, temperance advocacy led by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and campaigns for child labor laws and labor reforms promoted alongside activists in Hull House and settlement house networks.

Revival Methods and Events

Revival methods blended revivalist itinerancy, mass rallies, urban missions, and printed tracts. Itinerant evangelists employed music leaders, altar calls, and testimonial campaigns exemplified by Dwight L. Moody and S. D. Gordon; large urban revivals occurred in venues like Madison Square Garden and railroad excursions brought crowds to camp meetings reminiscent of Cane Ridge. Revival events included Moody’s campaigns, Sunday school expansions connected to the International Sunday School Association, and Billy Sunday’s theatrical crusades. Institutional innovations included Bible institutes such as the Moody Bible Institute and correspondence courses distributed by publishers like Scribner that fostered lay evangelism. Missionary conferences at locations like Edinburgh and boards in Boston and New York City coordinated foreign missions to regions including China, Africa, and the Philippines after the Spanish–American War.

Influence on American Reform Movements

The awakening intersected with Progressive Era reforms, informing temperance, abolitionist legacies, suffrage advocacy, and urban social work. Reformers such as Frances Willard and Jane Addams worked across networks linking the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and settlement houses like Hull House in Chicago. Evangelical pressure shaped legislation from local Sunday closing laws to national prohibition via alliances in state capitals and with organizations like the Anti-Saloon League. Missionary zeal translated into overseas development and American imperial debates involving actors around the Philippine–American War, while faith‑based philanthropy funded universities including Boston University, University of Chicago, and denominational colleges across the Midwest.

Global and Long-term Legacy

Globally, the era intensified Protestant missionary expansion tied to organizations such as the China Inland Mission and networks convened at the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. Theologically, it precipitated the fundamentalist–modernist controversies that shaped 20th‑century seminaries, denominational schisms, and the founding of institutions like Westminster Theological Seminary and the rise of radio evangelism later associated with figures in the interwar period. Culturally, it left legacies in philanthropy, temperance laws, university curricula, and popular piety that influenced mid‑20th century evangelical resurgence and movements such as the Billy Graham crusades. The mixed heritage includes institutional growth, social reform contributions, and enduring debates over religion’s role in public life.

Category:History of Christianity in the United States Category:Religious revivals