ABSTRACT
In the middle of the twentieth century, religious resurgence often was characterized by recommitment to tradition, to the recovery of valued ideas and practices that long had served faith communities by giving those communities focus and identity. Reform sometimes followed from religious resurgence and typically sought bold changes and pursued sweeping initiatives. By 1950, it was evident that the United States was in the midst of a religious revival. The consolidation of Protestant cooperation was taken in 1950 when these several agencies came together to form the National Council of Churches. The Protestant phase of the "religious revival" sometimes was dismissed as an expression of mere surface religiosity—a booming, surging, culture religion, which was utilized to lend divine sanction to "the American way of life." There also was the fostering of social reform through the efforts of religious groups. Most important of those efforts was the struggle for social justice during the civil rights movement in the 1950s.
