Book Review: Jim Wallis, The Great Awakening

Book Review: Jim Wallis. The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America. (Harper One, 2008).

In this most recent book from Sojourners founder, Jim Wallis, there is a foundational thesis, reflected in his title The Great Awakening, which church leaders today should ponder seriously. Wallis argues that we are beginning a time of sweeping religious renewal and transformation in America. In the Foreward to the book, President Jimmy Carter prepares the way for Wallis’ thesis by arguing that “there is an almost unprecedented serious and persistent division among us – with faith and politics intertwined as never before in creating disharmony.” (page x). In some ways Carter may be accurately describing the Presbyterian Church with our persistent disharmony around issues of polity. And so Carter sets the stage for Wallis to ask if we are poised to move from a time of disharmony to a new revival. Wallis then begins his book with an introduction titled, “Something is Happening.” “Something is happening. Faith is being applied to social justice in ways that we might have never imagined just a few short years ago. Spiritual power is being harnessed to address the greatest social challenges that we face today.” (page 1).
As a student of American Christian history, I picked up Wallis’ book because of the title, The Great Awakening. In American Church history the phrase Great Awakening is used to refer to two different eras which experienced significant religious renewal and a lot of turmoil. This is old American history which we commonly do not pay much attention to today. These eras of Great Awakening in the American history were also very traumatic times for the Presbyterian Church. Our church had major theological battles in response to these influential renewal movements. Actually these historic, theological battles in the Presbyterian Church were much more divisive, bitter and destructive than the polity battles we are fighting today. The Old School versus New School conflicts, and the New Light versus Old Light conflicts in Presbyterian history were nasty theological traumas for our church.
Although not specifically referring to the Presbyterians, it is the long history of Great Awakening that Wallis wants to connect his thesis into. He argues that what is happening today in Christian America is the latest expression of Great Awakening. His thesis is very compelling and we need to ponder the implications of living through an era of Great Awakening. Is Wallis correct?
Indeed, Wallis begins his book by embedding his thesis in the history of spiritual renewal in America. “There have been other periods in history when faith tangibly changed things. Often called “Great Awakenings”, they are times when the revival of faith alters societies.” (page 2). Wallis then goes on quickly to outline the American religious history of great awakenings. The First Great Awakening was in the 1730s and 1740s and involved huge personalities like Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent, George Whitefield and John Wesley. This religious movement shook the young America colonies. The Second Great Awakening was a century later in the 1830s. This religious movement was intertwined with serious social issues including abolition, women’s rights and all the complex issues which fed into the Civil War. Wallis then goes on to claim the Social Gospel movement of the early 19th century as another expression of great awakening. Although in academic theology the Social Gospel movement is not usually named a Great Awakening, Wallis is correct to see it within the long historical flow of powerful spiritual movements in America. Interestingly, Wallis moves forward in American history and considers the “black church’s leadership of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s as another great awakening of faith.” (page 2).
Wallis briefly outlines this American history in the first pages on his book in order to ask whether we are now poised for a new great awakening. It is a very important question. Of course, I may sarcastically reply that every era wants to believe that their particular era is of utmost importance and power. Before moving forward through Wallis’ book to consider his litany of social issues which people of faith should respond to with a new authenticity, it would be good to stop and ask this foundational question: Are we living into a new era of great awakening? Are we living into a unique period in history when people of faith step up in a special way to rally the resources of our spiritual lives and our faith communities to respond to the pressing problems of our world? May it be so for our Presbyterian Church.