An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church

Revival

Christian worship characterized by intense and personal emotional experiences, fervent preaching, and extemporaneous prayer. It has served as a primary technique for evangelism in much of American Protestant Christianity. Several periods of revivalism swept through the American churches, beginning with the Great Awakening in the eighteenth century. Revival spread through the denominations under the leadership of Theodore Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Reformed pastor; William and Gilbert Tennent, Presbyterian pastors; and Jonathan Edwards, a Congregationalist. Church of England authorities viewed the Great Awakening with suspicion because of its Calvinist doctrine, religious enthusiasm, and emotionalism. John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield, clergy of the Church of England, supported and participated in the revival during the Great Awakening. The majority of Church of England clergy in the colonial period did not support revivalism. The Church of England suffered significant numerical losses when the Methodists withdrew from the Church of England. Some nineteenth-century evangelical Episcopalians used and supported the revival method.

Glossary definitions provided courtesy of Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, NY,(All Rights reserved) from “An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, A User Friendly Reference for Episcopalians,” Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, editors.