Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform (Chicago History of American Religion)

Rating:
Summary: Lots of good information, misprojection at end.
Review: I ordered this because I wanted to know more about the dynamics of earlier revival moments - the First and Second Great Awakenings, and the Social Gospel movement of the early 20th century. I definitely got that, as McLoughlin traced how these bursts of faith reflected changes in the underlying society. A bonus was McLoughlin's discussion of how slavery affected religious perspectives in the American South.

McLoughlin's bias throughout the book seems pretty clearly toward social reform rather than "inward and personal holiness". As the book continues, it becomes clearer and clearer that he prefers reformers who want to apply Christ's teachings more broadly. At the end of the book, after an interesting look at how beatniks and hippies fit into American religious patterns, this leads him into a serious misprojection of where the "Fourth Great Awakening" he sees starting after World War II will lead the country. He forecasts change further away from the fundamentalist perspective, and political change to match, but the world seems to have gone the opposite way.