Talk:Fourth Great Awakening
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Well, Ungtss, I asked for a balancing pov, and I got one!
Some notes for later work (It's after midnight, so I'm not going to do it right now.):
Might be good to establish some sort of chronology. Here's how I picture it:
Contents |
[edit] Chronology
[edit] 1945 to ~1965
Trace the "death" of the Third Great Awakening (henceforth known in this talk page as "3GA"). Sects and factions that will explode once the 4GA hits are developing but are still embryonic. Ossification of the 3GA synthesis causes some liberal factions to radicalize. Red Scare. Fair Deal splits Democrats, but not passed into law. Remember a recent American Heritage article - civil rights activists in Mississippi start a voting drive and have a seperate primary, in opposition to the offical Democratic one. Their delegates aren't recognized at the convention. This causes the activists to radicalize. Remember SDS involved. Maybe also MLK, Black Panthers? I'll have to re-read it. Some continuity between 3GA and 4GA liberalism. Catch-22. Vonnegut.
I think the only thing that can be attributed to this period is the rise of modern fundamentalism and growth in the pentecostal movement. Change much was impeded by effort that the World wars took to fight. This period after them is hardly an awakening. After failure of Prohibition, the Great Depression, the world wars; Postmodernism arises and becomes a common world view. Secularism is established as the governing order. The previous Puritan values become practically non-existant circa 1930 (likely due to the world events that followed that tore apart social structures.) when compared to the 1800s. In this respect it is definately Anti-christian change as a whole.
[edit] =~1965 to 1969
The 4GA proper begins. Exact date fuzzy and arbitrary. I personally pick the Kennedy assaination and the Beatles retreating to the studio as epoch-marking events. Also Vietnam heats up about that point. 4GA sects expand, but are still fringe. Note: Although the causes and effects of GAs are social, they are religous events. Need to focus on sects, cults, ect., not just political factions. However, some overlap. 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Baby boomers hit the borderline of adulthood, Vietnam, pretty much determine when the 4GA actually broke. Would have happened sometime (AFAIK, no demographic bulge with other GAs) but these deteremined exact timing.
[edit] 1969 to 1980
1969, the Summer of Love, Woodstock, marks the point where the 4GA goes mainstream. 4GA sects gain popularity. Conservatives counterattack. Probably that rise Evangelical Christianity is an example of this.
[edit] 80s
Original 4GA activists go inactive, get straight carrers. Moral Majority. All quiet on the Western Front.
[edit] 90s
Rise of the "echo boomers", raised on 4GA ideals. Conservative counterattack looses steam.
[edit] 4GA Themes
Civil rights not only major issue - not even the big one, to the original 4GAers. Need also to focus on other issues. Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Pacifisim. No doubt others.
crazyeddie 07:01, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)
[edit] This is NOT an awakening!!
how can you call this a Great Awakening? this movement is entirely anti- christian and involves practices of witchcraft and athiesm! This should NOT be considered for the Lord at all. If anything it should be entitled the Anti- Awakening! I have very strong opinions for this awakening and the third. In fact after reading about these Great Awakenings I must say that only the first seems truly God-centered. the second is entirely about breaking up the church and the 3rd is about putting so called "science" into Christianity. Not only that, but it acts as if communism is of God, as is Athiesm! The 3rd only talks more about breaking up into "sects" such as WICCAN which is worshiping Satan! The devil is using these "Awakenings" to put more of him into the church!I shame the people who call these "awakenings"
- Wiccans do not worship Satan, nor do New Agers, Neo-Pagans, Buddhists and Hinduis. --sparkit 02:00, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Fourth Great Awakening: Opposing Opinion to this Article
== I'd have to disagree on the entire premise on which Wikipedia seems to be treating the so-called Fourth Awakening. It seems to be treating the hippie/counter-culture/civil rights movement of ~1956 -- ~1977 as being the Fourth "Awakening", in the tradition of the previous three. Firstly, the term "Awakening" might be a misnomer, as these periods are typically and more accurately "Revivals" or "Reformations" of existing religions and sects, rather than some broad and nebulous shift in cultural values.
These periods (at least the 1st thru 3rd) have been characterized by 1). the expansion of existing RELIGIONS (both Jewish, Christian, and non-Denominational) and 2). formation of new RELIGIONS.
1st GA (1736-1750)- "Fire and Brimstone"
Founding of Methodism, intellectual dominance of Calvinism [WEAK MOVEMENT]
2nd GA (early 1800-1840's) - "Camp Meetings";
Rise of Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, other congregationalists. Lutheran immigrants.
Decline of Anglican/Episcopalian, Quakers, Orthodox Judaism
Formation of Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Seventh-day Adventists, Jehova's Witnesses,
Restorationalists (Church of God, Church of Christ, Christian Church, etc. etc.), Reform Judaism and
Conservative Judaism emerge; Black religious organization [POWERFUL MOVEMENT]
3rd GA (1880's-1910)- Post-Gilded Era revival/Progressive politics
Rise of transcendentalists, Salvation army, Christian Socialism
Formation of New Thought Movement (Unity Church, Church of Christian Science, Unitarian Universalists,
Divinity School, Scientology); Rise of Pentecostals/Black Spiritualist churches [WEAK MOVEMENT]
The hippie movement itself, though spiritualistic, did not significantly impact the established churches or religions in the United States, beyond forcing reconciliation among those which were still segregated. Besides Eckankar, Hare Krishna, and a few other fringe groups, the hippie movement cannot really claim that it led to the actual formation of any historically substancial new sect or religion, or otherwise ITSELF altered the impact of religion on American politics. The hippie movement, in my mind, was not a "revival" or "awakening" of religiocity, but rather a cultural values movement, the bedrock of post-modernism, disgusted with the development/corruption of liberalism, and a result of a numerous and dissatisfied generation. Cultural and political, not religious.
I believe the TRUE Fourth Awakening was the ACTUAL religious revival which took place IN REACTION TO the post-modernist society which the hippies and Radicals intended (and succeeded) to install. The growth of conservative religion 1978-present, I feel, is probably the most expansive, powerful, and historically significant religious revival in the history of the United States. (I might add, I am NOT a Christian) In the future analysis of American religious revivals, how could a historian ever disregard the current religious revival as not being the proper and historical "Fourth Great Awakening", succeeding the others?
"The term New Religious Right refers to a set of organizations that emerged in the late 1970s,
the Moral Majority (later renamed the Liberty Federation), the Religious Roundtable, and the Christian Voice;
their leaders, including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Ed. McAteer; and the movement that these leaders
and organizations fostered." - Himmelstein
The times also add up better. (Roughly 70-80 years between revivals. 3GA 1908-4GA 1978) Here's how I feel the "4GA" should be described:
4th GA (1978-2010?)- Fundamentalists
Rise of social action groups (Focus on the Family, Moral Majority, CBN, televangelism); emergence of
unified national Baptist movement (Southern Baptist Convention), Rise of non-denominationalism/
restorationalism, Rise of pentacostalists (hundreds of millions of members worldwide), Rise of Youth
Religious Culture Counter-Revival, Rise of Wicca, neo-paganism, New Age, etc.
Culture Wars, politics increasingly reliant on cultural/theological language, decreasingly concerned
with social justice socialism/fiscal conservatism, "New Conservatism"
"Reagan" Years: 1980-1992
New Centrist Coalition: 1992-2000
Bush Era: 2000-? stolid effort to place conservative judges on court seats, abortion issue crucial;
beginning of effective integration efforts between black and white churches, conservative groups reach out
to black communities (2000 Bush w 8% of black vote; 2004 %11 - Washington Post) [POWERFUL MOVEMENT]
I'd like to hear what others think about this revival. It is unique in many ways. Firstly, it is the most overtly political religious revival of them all, and I would think that the decline of the New Conservatives would also hark the decline of the Fourth Great Awakening, (though maybe it is the fall of the later which must predicate the fall of the former) and historical trends seem to indicate that this might happen some time between 2008 and 2010. Also, perhaps BECAUSE of America's influence in the world, this is the first US revival to ever co-incide with a general worldwide revival of religious expression. Catholicism in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Judaism in Israel, Hinduism and Sikhism in India, Buddhism in SouthEast Asia (Lesser extent) and of course, Islam whereever it might be found, have all experienced a resurgence and supplanted former social emphases like socialism, nationalism, secularism, materialism. In fact, in every place except Europe has this global movement been felt.
David Pritchard, Daytona, Florida
- I'm crazyeddie, the one who started this article. First off, let me say that I'm an armchair historian. I am signed up for a undergraduate course in history, but I haven't started classes yet. So don't assume I know what I'm talking about! Secondly, I'll be the first to admit that this article is currently in violation of the "No Original Research" policy. However, this is not intended as a permament situation, I created this article as placeholder, until some real experts could fill in the gaps.
- With those caveats in mind...
- In school, I learned that Great Awakenings are "periods of revival in American religion". Correct as far as it goes, but rather yawn-inducing. In college, I read The Fourth Great Awakening & the Future of Egalitarianism by Robert William Fogel. Unfortunately, Fogel's background is in economic history, so he appeared to be a bit out of his depth when dealing with the underlying theology, etc, of the GAs. But he did work under the assumption that GAs were not just revivals in American religion, but actual revolutions. He also focused on the social and political impacts of the GAs.
- One major flaw I found in his book was that he stated that the Fourth Great Awakening was the Fundamentalist revival, as you say. If you define a Great Awakening as a revolution in American religious thought, then this seems absurd, since it completely ignores the rather noticeable Hippie/Counterculuture movement that immediately preceded it. On the other hand, Fogel mentioned that every Great Awakening had a initial liberal, revolutionary, movement, followed by a conservative backlash, with a moderate synthesis developing out of the conflict. So, it could be that the Hippie/Counterculture movement was the liberal movement, with the Fundamentalist movement being the backlash.
- It seems to me that you are defining Great Awakenings as consisting of these backlash movements - the Third Great Awakening being the backlash response to post-Darwinian atheism, Marxism, etc., and the Fourth being the backlash response to the Hippie/Counterculture movement. This definition might actually have merit.
- I suppose the way to check this out would be to look at the first two GAs, since those are universally agreed to be true Great Awakenings. It does seem plausible to me that the First Great Awakening was a backlash response to the Age of Reason, with its diestic concept of the "clockwork God". From the article on the First Great Awakening, we have this sentence: "People became passionately and emotionally involved in their religion, rather than passively listening to intellectual discourse in a detached manner." In the Baroque Cycle (or was it Cryptonomicon?), Enoch Root mentions that, at one time, preachers were retail philosophers. Enoch was probably refering to the Age of Reason, the setting for the Baroque Cycle. If all of these is true, then one might well imagine that the preaching style of the liberal preachers influnced by the Age of Reason to be a bit on the dry, intellectual side.
- I think I have just demonstrated the need for real experts here, since I'm relying on works of fiction for source material.
- The next question would be "What was the Second Great Awakening a backlash response to?".
- I'm really interested in what scholars think about all of this. I highly suspect the answer is out there in the journals, and hasn't trickled down to the textbooks and popular works yet. As a layman, I don't even know where to begin with this research, which is why I haven't been working on this article much lately. Hopefully, I'll learn how to research effectively while in this history program, and maybe I can piggyback some of this research on some school assignments. crazyeddie 6 July 2005 19:49 (UTC)
On a side note, I think we are coming into the tail end of a period of Republican domination of American politics, and that this period of domination has lasted since Nixon. It also seems to me that the Hippie/Counterculture movement was responsible, in part, for causing the switchover into this period. The previous period was an era of Democratic domination, starting with FDR. By opposing LBJ's Vietnam policy, the Hippie/Counterculture movement split the left, allowing Nixon to successfully win election, running on a platform of "peace with honor".
On the other hand, the Hippie/Counterculture movement and its intellectual inheritors, along with Nixon's bumbling, are responsible with the extraordinary weakness of this era of domination. The Republicans didn't recover from Watergate until Reagan. On second thought, it could be that the stigma associated with Nixon alone is responsible for the Republican's weakness. Who knows? I think that this era of domination will end in 2008, if not 2006, but that could just be wishful thinking on my part. crazyeddie 6 July 2005 20:01 (UTC)
[edit] references
"National Opinion Research Center study determined that among whites, the number who approved neighborhood integration had risen from 42% in 1943 to 72% in 1963"
this should probably have a reference.--Mrebus 18:42, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
I am an American Historian. I have bachelor's degrees in history, political science, and English, masters degrees in American culture and political history. The so called "fourth great awakening is off by at least twenty years. Great Awakenings are responses to religious threats, empathy and a drifting away from traditional religious tenants. The sixties and seventies certainly qualify as a period of challenge to religion and traditional religious values. The real time period for the Fourth Great Awakening is now. Beginning in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency the influence of organized religion in American politics began an upsweep, a demand for traditional values is a demand for a return to religious values. Our current president is the epitome of that demand. jdoherty
