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Embodying the Spirit

New Perspectives on North American Revivalism

edited by Michael J. McClymond

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Recent scholars of American religion have shown new interest inevangelicalism and pentecostalism. Of particular interest is the subject of revivalism—an enthusiastic or ecstatic form of religion that has affected American religious institutions, ideas, behavior, and adherents throughout the nation's history. In Embodying the Spirit Michael J. McClymond and his fellow contributors offer a new look at this extensive and often puzzling phenomenon. Going beyond institutional history, they examine a wide range of cases, from colonial to contemporary America. The contributors explore the role of...

Recent scholars of American religion have shown new interest inevangelicalism and pentecostalism. Of particular interest is the subject of revivalism—an enthusiastic or ecstatic form of religion that has affected American religious institutions, ideas, behavior, and adherents throughout the nation's history. In Embodying the Spirit Michael J. McClymond and his fellow contributors offer a new look at this extensive and often puzzling phenomenon. Going beyond institutional history, they examine a wide range of cases, from colonial to contemporary America. The contributors explore the role of gender, church architecture, Latino revivalism, youth groups, radio evangelism, Catholic revivalism, and recent events such as the Toronto Blessing—an outbreak of laughter, crying, and dancing that began at Toronto's Airport Vineyard Church in 1994 and has since spread to other congregations throughout the world.

In a thoughtful afterword, church historian Martin Marty admits that while we cannot know for sure why revivals happen, it matters that they do, and books such as this help us deepen our understanding and appreciation of them. This book will appeal to scholars and students of popular religion as well as to general readers interested in the subject.

Contributors: Fred W. Beuttler, University of Illinois at Chicago; Candy Gunther Brown, Saint Louis University; Finbarr Curtis, University of California, Santa Barbara; Gaston Espinosa, Northwestern University; Philip Goff, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Philip Harrold, University of Findlay; Jeanne Halgren Kilde, Macalester College; Martin E. Marty, University of Chicago; Michael J. McClymond, Saint Louis University; Walter F. Pitts, Louisiana State University; Philip J. Richter, Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme in Salisbury, England; Douglas James Slawson, National University in San Diego.

Reviews

Reviews

The outstanding essays in this collection survey a broad spectrum of revivalism across ethnic, gender, confessional, and disciplinary boundaries.

Brings together a diverse collection to attract attention, invite reflection, and challenge observers to think in new directions.

McClymond and his contributors should be commended for the work's richness and for providing provocative paths for those making this journey.

The quality of the essays is high, and the volume advances the discussions regarding embodiment and religion in the academy.

There is... clearly significant value in the reading of this work.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
368
ISBN
9780801878077
Illustration Description
16 halftones, 3 line drawings
Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1. Issues and Explanations in the Study of North American Revivalism
Chapter 2. Locating the Revival: Jonathan Edwards's Northampton as a Site of Social Theory
Chapter 3. Domestic Nurture

Preface
Chapter 1. Issues and Explanations in the Study of North American Revivalism
Chapter 2. Locating the Revival: Jonathan Edwards's Northampton as a Site of Social Theory
Chapter 3. Domestic Nurture versus Clerical Crisis: The Gender Dimension in Horace Bushnell's and Elizabeth Prentiss's Critiques of Revivalism
Chapter 4. Church Architecture and the Second Great Awakening: Revivalism, Space, and Politics
Chapter 5. "A Transitional Period in Belief": Deconversion and the Decline of Campus Revivals in the 1870s
Chapter 6. Francisco Olazábal and Latino Pentecostal Revivalism in the North American Borderlands
Chapter 7. "We Have Heard the Joyful Sound": Charles E. Fuller's Radio Broadcast and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism
Chapter 8. Revivalism in Suburbia: "Son City" and the Origins of the Willow Creek Community Church, 1972–1980
Chapter 9. Keep the Fire Burnin': Language and Ritual in the Afro-Baptist Church
Chapter 10. Catholic Revivalism: The Vincentian Preaching Apostolate in the United States
Chapter 11. "God Is Not a Gentleman!": The Sociology of the Toronto Blessing
Afterword
Notes
List of Contributors
Index

Author Bio
Featured Contributor

Michael J. McClymond

Michael J. McClymond is the Clarence Louis and Helen Irene Steber Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. He is the author of Encounters with God: An Approach to the Theology of Jonathan Edwards (winner of the American Society of Church History's Brewer Prize), coeditor of The Rivers of Paradise: Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammed as Religious...