Robert Fogel's Four Great Awakenings

Robert Fogel's book "the fourth great awakening and the future of Egalitarianism" is on my too read list, but here is a pretty good summary of the four phases of great awakenings in western religious history  

Phases of the Four Great Awakenings
	Phase of Religious Revival	Phase of Rising Political Effect	Phase of Increasing Challenge to Dominance of the Political Program
First Great Awakening, 1730-1830	1730-60: Weakening of predestination doctrine; recognition that many sinners may be predestined for salvation; introduction of revival meetings emphasizing spiritual rebirth; rise of ethic of benevolence.	1760-90: Attack on British corruption; American Revolution; belief in equality of opportunity (the principle that accepted the inequality of income and other circumstances of life as natural, but held that persons of low social rank could raise themselves up—by industry, perseverance, talent, and righteous behavior—to the top of the economic and social order); establishment of egalitarianism as national ethic.	1790-1830: Breakup of revolutionary coalition.
Second Great Awakening, 1800-1920	1800-1840: Rise of belief that anyone can achieve saving grace through inner and outer struggle against sin; introduction of camp meetings and intensified levels of revivals; widespread adoption of ethic of benevolence; upsurge of millennialism.	1840-1879: Rise of single issue reform movements, each intending to contribute to making America fit for the Second Coming of Christ (these included the nativist movement, the temperance movement which was successful in prohibiting the sale of alcoholic drinks in 13 states, and the abolitionist movement that culminated in the formation of the republican party); sweeping reform agendas aimed at eliminating all barriers to equal opportunity; antislavery; attack on corruption of the South; Civil War; women's suffrage; continuation of belief in equality of opportunity.	1870-1920: Replacement of prewar evangelical leaders; Darwinian crisis; urban crisis.
Third Great Awakening, 1890-?	1890-1930: Shift from emphasis on personal to social sin; rise in belief that poverty is not a personal failure ("the wages of sin") but a societal failure that can be addressed by the state; shift to more secular interpretation of the Bible and creed.	1930-1970: Attack on corruption of big business and the right; labor reforms; civil rights and women's rights movements; belief in equality of condition (principle that equality is to be achieved primarily by government programs aimed at raising wages and transferring income from rich to poor through income taxes and finance welfare programs); rise in belief that poverty is not a personal failure but a societal failure; expansion of secondary and higher education; attack on religious and racial barriers to equal opportunity (leading to later attacks on gender-based assumptions of behavior and discrimination based on sexual orientation).	1970-?: Attack on liberal reforms; defeat of Equal Rights Amendment; rise of tax revolt; rise of Christian Coalition and other political groups of the religious Right.
Fourth, and Current, Great Awakening, 1960-?	1960-?: Return to sensuous religion and reassertion of experiential content of the Bible; rapid growth of the enthusiastic religions (including fundamentalist, Pentacostal, and Protestant charismatic denominations, "born-again" Catholics, Mormons); reassertion of concept of personal sin; stress on an ethic of individual responsibility, hard work, a simple life, and dedication to family.	1990-?: Attack on materialist corruption; rise of pro-life, pro-family, and media reform movements; campaign for more value-oriented school curriculum; expansion of tax revolt; attack on entitlements; return to a belief in equality of opportunity.	?:

Read The Fathers

Here is a great find on the inter webs, http://readthefathers.org, a blog that has put together a reading plan of the church fathers. It is a 7-year plan through the patristics while reading 7 pages a day at most, it started with Clement of Rome and over three years has gotten to Jerome.

I signed up for the daily email on the blog and am really enjoying getting an email from them everyday with a link to the reading for that day. They also do a few things other than the daily reading, like blogs on different figures in the church.

Anyways, check it out, its a really great resource.

History of Interpreting the Bible

While I was in Bangladesh for the past two weeks I watched this video by Walt Russell from Biola University on the "the history of interpretation". It is a good basic run through of the history of hermeneutics and how it affects us as readers of the Bible today.


You can go the youtube page for the teaching and find the whole course that it is a part of on there as well.

Weekly Talk: The Uncertain Future of Protestantism

I found this talk on First Things Website, a website that has recently become a regular favorite of mine, about the future of protestantism. It is a long two hour talk that features opening 10-15 minute introductions by three speakers (peter leithart, fred sanders and carl trueman) and then a 1 1/2 hour conversation between the three of them and the moderator. If you don't have time to watch all of it, I at least recommend watching the opening introduction presentations. Below is a summary from the first things website about the talk: (find the talk and whole summary here)

"Peter Leithart, an ecumenically-oriented apostle of “Reformational catholicism” faced down Fred Sanders of Biola, a spokesman for the “unwashed masses of low-church evangelicals” and Carl Trueman of Westminster Seminary, an unapologetic representative of Calvinistic confessionalism. Those hoping for a hard-hitting debate, or a quick and full resolution of the questions, were bound to be disappointed: the three interlocutors were much too patient, irenic, and thoughtful for that. No, it was a conversation, and like almost all good conversations, inconclusive, an invitation to further conversation."

Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

I have recently been searching through the "dictionary of early christian biography" and found it really useful....the content and great and probably one of the best things about it is that is free and easily accessible on the web and several bible programs. You can download the pdf version or more easily search it through studylight.


This dictionary covers early church history up till the 600's. It is full of names, doctrines, councils and literature of this time period. Fascinating time period and awesome tool to help dig through it.