Unit name | Revivals and Revivalism Past and Present |
---|---|
Unit code | THRSM0047 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
Unit director | Professor. Liveley |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Religion and Theology |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
College Code: C42004 College Unit Director: Nigel Scotland
The unit aims to:
1. enable students to understand the nature of religious revivals;
2. create awareness of the psychological and auto-suggestive techniques used by some revivalists;
3. critically evaluate religious phenomena associated with revivalism;
4. assess the impact of revivals and revivalism on American and British history, society and culture.
The unit examines a recurring theme in religion, that of Revival and Revivalism. There is a particular focus on its historical origins in America, but the module will also consider the phenomenon more widely. It begins with an examination of the ways in which historians have sought to identify and define revival. This is followed by a consideration of the Great Awakening at Northampton, Massachusetts under Jonathan Edwards.
Subsequent sessions cover itinerant revivalists such as George Whitefield and William Tennent, and the rise of professional evangelism under Charles Finney and Dwight L Moody. This leads into a discussion of the emergence of Pentecostalism and the development of mass evangelism under Billy Graham, televangelism and militant fundamentalism.
Throughout attention will be paid to the techniques employed by revivalists including the use of music, public decision, rhetoric and other methods of persuasion.
On completion of the unit students should be able to:
Nine two-hour lectures and one two-hour seminar over a ten-week period
Formative assessment will be through preparation for, and participation in, class discussions and seminars.
Summative assessment will be through one essay of 6000 words (100%).
Carwardine, R, Trans-Atlantic Revivalism: Popular Evangelism in Britain and America, (London, Greenwood Press, 1978; New Ed. Carlisle: Paternoster, 2008)
Edwards, J., On Revival, (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991)
Kaye, W.K., Apostolic Networks in Britain (Milton Keynes, Paternoster, 2007)
Murray, I.H., Revival and Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1850, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1994)
Noll, M., The Old Religion in a New World, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002)
Scotland N.A.D., Apostles of the Spirit and Fire (Milton Keynes, Paternoster, 2009)