Theology and Reading
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 52, No. 2 – Spring 2010
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Edited by Michael McClymond. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 2007. 2 vols, 514 + xxxi pages, 663 + xx pages. Hardcover, $225.00.
“Religious revivals are as American as baseball, blues music, and the stars and stripes.” So writes Michael McClymond, editor of this fine two-volume encyclopedia (vol. 1, xvii), a work that is the first academic reference publication devoted entirely to phenomena of religious revivals in North America. Revivals are indeed an integral part of the American religious landscape. Only in the last generation have scholars turned away from writing them off as products of ignorant enthusiastic religiosity and begun to give them serious scholarly attention. This encyclopedia will serve as a wonderful resource for church libraries and pastors and other Christians who are eager to learn about the great diversity present in American revivalism.
The encyclopedia is divided into two sizable volumes, the first containing 227 short articles on persons, events, themes, denominations, and practices that were all part of the American revival tradition. Written by 118 scholars most of whom have published before in the areas associated with their entries, the work attempts to achieve the objectivity characteristic of the academy and attempts to avoid the potential biases of the denominational and pro-revival participant. Having said this, however, it should be noted that many of the contributors, while trained as academic historians, have strong ties with one of the many evangelical revival traditions found in North America and thus they approach their individual entries with a healthy mix of criticism and appreciation. Contained in its pages are entries on people ( Jonathan Edwards, D.L. Moody, J. Wilbur Chapman, Billy Graham, and many lesser known figures), revival practices (the Altar Call, Bodily Manifestations in Revivals, Prayer and Revivals, Preaching and Revivals, Serpent and Fire-Handling Believers), movements associated with revivals (the Holiness Movement of the Nineteenth Century, the Temperance Movement and Revivals, and Hymns, Hymnody and Christian Music in Revivals), as well as well-known instances of revival in American history (the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Revival of 1857–1858, the Azusa Street Revival, and more recently the Pensacola Revival and the Toronto Blessing).
The second volume contains a collection of 106 primary source documents written by pastors, laymen, and observers of revivals, many of which present us with eye-witness accounts of revivals stretching as far back as the early colonial period. This volume is a gold mine of testimonies of salvation and sanctification (both personal and corporate), some warm-hearted tales of personal salvation, and other accounts relaying fantastic experiences that border on heterodoxy. Sections of well-known works line its pages, such as selections from Whitefield’s Journal, Edwards’s Faithful Narrative, and Finney’s Lectures on Revivals of Religion. Most of this volume, however, is filled with writings that have not achieved “classic” status: letters, memoirs, journals, biographies, and newspaper articles concerned with revivals or revivalists. Thus we find eye-witness accounts of Methodist Camp Meetings, Baptist revivals, Pentecostal revivals, and college revivals (such as the well-known Asbury College revival of 1970); sections from the writings of lesser-known revivalists (i.e. Francisco Olazabal, Charles H. Mason, and Aimee Semple McPherson); and even writings critical of revival (such as a critique by a nineteenth-century Unitarian, an argument against altar calls by a “high church” Reformed theologian, and a newspaper article detailing the “Weird Babel of Tongues” taking place during the Azusa Street Revival of 1906). The selections are wide ranging, demonstrating the great diversity of North America’s revivalistic traditions. For the researcher, this volume ends with a gigantic bibliography (more than 200 pages, and 5600 entries!) on revivals and revivalism in North America and beyond.
The greatest strength of the work lies in the diversity of revivalist traditions represented. One can learn much about the traditions, practices, and leaders of other evangelical revivalist traditions by dipping into this work at one point, and reading all the cross-referenced articles associated with that entry. For instance, a Baptist, who may know much of her own tradition yet know very little of the evangelical world beyond, will find a wealth of information about the Methodist, Presbyterian, Holiness, African-American, and Pentecostal revival traditions simply by beginning with an entry, say, on “Methodist Revivals” and working through its associated entries. The work thus attempts to move beyond the denominational mindset and treat revivals from a “merely evangelical” perspective, not from a Pentecostal, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Baptist one.
This strength may also be its greatest weakness from the perspective of some who may find the denominational plurality represented too inclusive. A cessationist Christian or a Reformed Christian may not consider many of the Pentecostal and/or Arminian revivals represented as legitimate revivals. In light of this, one must keep in mind that this is an academic work written for the academy where the theological particularities of various denominations do not factor prominently. If one understands this about the Encyclopedia, then I could see that this set would indeed be a fine addition to a church library and benefit the church at large. I fully expect the Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America to be a fundamental starting point for the study of revivals in both the church and academy for years to come.
