The First Great Awakening (1730s–1740s)

• Key Figures: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield

• Context: A response to growing religious complacency in the American colonies.

• Features:

• Emphasis on personal conversion and heartfelt religion.

• Emotional preaching and large outdoor revival meetings.

• Denominational growth, especially among Baptists and Methodists.

• Strengthened the idea of religious equality and questioned traditional authority, influencing the spirit of the American Revolution.

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The Second Great Awakening (early 1800s–1830s)

• Key Figures: Charles Grandison Finney, Barton W. Stone, Lyman Beecher

• Context: Post-Revolution, America was expanding westward and experiencing social changes.

• Features:

• Camp meetings and mass conversions.

• Stressed individual responsibility in salvation.

• Major growth in Methodist and Baptist churches.

• Inspired numerous reform movements—abolition, temperance, and women’s rights.

• Strongly influenced American evangelicalism and frontier religion.

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The Businessmen’s Revival (1857–1858)

• Key Figure: Jeremiah Lanphier

• Context: Economic uncertainty and spiritual apathy in urban centers, especially New York.

• Features:

• Daily prayer meetings led by laypeople.

• Spread rapidly through cities by word of mouth and the press.

• Estimated hundreds of thousands converted in a short time.

• Marked by a quiet, orderly spirit of repentance and renewal among the working class and business leaders.

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The Pentecostal Revival / Azusa Street Revival (1906–1909)

• Key Figure: William J. Seymour

• Context: A time of racial tension, denominational rigidity, and spiritual hunger.

• Features:

• Birth of the modern Pentecostal movement.

• Emphasis on the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing, and prophecy.

• Interracial worship and leadership.

• Spawned many Pentecostal denominations and deeply influenced global Christianity.

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The Post-WWII Evangelical Revival (1940s–1950s)

• Key Figures: Billy Graham, Bill Bright

• Context: After World War II, amid Cold War anxiety and a cultural shift.

• Features:

• Mass evangelistic crusades using media.

• Rise of parachurch organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru).

• Emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

• Growth of Evangelical Protestantism in mainstream American life.

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The Jesus Movement (late 1960s–1970s)

• Key Figures: Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee

• Context: In reaction to the countercultural movement, drug use, and disillusionment with institutions.

• Features:

• Spread primarily among youth and former hippies.

• Blended charismatic expressions with a simple Gospel message.

• Birth of contemporary Christian music and Calvary Chapel churches.

• Reached many unchurched populations and had lasting cultural impact.