Revival

Photo courtesy of www.um-insight.net

A few months ago I read a book, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey, which discussed the concept of truth and how the perception of absolute truth has morphed throughout the centuries, from premodern through postmodern times.  Several chapters of the book were dedicated to exploring the First and Second Great Awakenings in America, and I must say that they were riveting.  They discussed and clarified several aspects of evangelical Protestantism that I have always wrestled with--that is, the focus on the individual, emotionalism, and celebrity-style leadership to name a few.  It was a great historical read and offered up a lot of food for thought for my own faith journey, as well.

It was interesting to me when just a few days ago I came across this excerpt from a book by fundamentalist-turned-Catholic David B. Currie.  It also speaks about the revival phenomenon which happened in our country, and is very pertinent to the topic I discussed yesterday about our need as Christ followers to lock arms with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to serve and spread the Gospel.

Currie writes, "Dr. Lovelace is an evangelical at Gordon Conwell Seminary who has studied past American revivals (awakenings).  He writes that 'unity and renewal go hand in hand' and 'every awakening brought a convergence of the Catholic and Protestant traditions.' Many evangelicals do desire a revival for America in our generation.  Perhaps if evangelicals buried the hatchet with their Catholic brethren, we would all be one step closer to experiencing another awakening."

Of course, it goes both ways, and I would add to that Catholics, too, must bury their hatchet with Protestants in the name of unity of the Christian faith.

Especially in a tumultuous time like this, with global terrorism on the rise and political uncertainty/divisive partisianism in this country, we must come together as followers of Christ and pray and repent so that our nation can be healed.  Only when we come together, dear friend, will we be able to experience another great revival in our nation!