Revivalism

Revivalism is a form of activism; involvement in a movement producing conversions not in ones and twos but en masse. Revival, a term commonly used to refer to renewal and intensification of spiritual life in an existing religious congregation, denomination, region, or country, without implying a doctrinal or organizational change or a basic reform.

The period in American history stretching from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century was marked by many dramatic bursts of revivalism. Revivalism is a movement within modern Christianity, particularly but not exclusively Protestantism, that calls on individuals to repent of their sin, believe the Gospel, and enter a proper relationship with God. Revivals are generally experienced communally, but they stress, by rhetoric and ritual, the individual's spiritual standing. Revivals shaped the lives of countless Americans and deeply affected the character of colonial and early national religion and society. Revivalists challenged the conventional hierarchies of religious culture, and they advanced an egalitarian, voluntaristic, and inclusive social order that was often international in scope.

In the nineteenth century revivalism was more widespread in America than in Britain. The pulse of mass revival felt in America in 1857–58 nevertheless extended, via Ulster, to Britain in 1859–60. There was created a network of