The Urban Awakening

Time flies, conditions change. The frontier moved westward, but much of the religious fervor moved eastward. There is no simple explanation. A dividing line between Cycle Two and Cycle Three is hypothetical; no one knows just when and where to draw it. ¹ The platitude usually used is “when revival fervor moved from the frontier to the city”; but this was merely changing frontiers. There were as many challenges and pitfalls on the city streets as on the mountain trails. Both frontiers were vital and vibrant. Was it the leadership that shifted? Just as rural preachers had dominated the first half of the century, so did city preachers dominate the second half. Evangelism may have reached its summit in the last half of the nineteenth century with the Social Gospel. ² Having moved around the nation, it went overseas. Missionaries had their great day. Their aim was to “civilize” the heathen, rather than to spiritualize him. Instead of the church evangelizing the world, the world secularized the church.