The Second Awakening drove determined evangelical mobilization toward equality despite imperfect methods

Evidence

From a remove of a couple of centuries, it’s tempting to retroject twenty-first-century sensibilities onto these evangelical reformers, and in so doing some of their attitudes and approaches come off as paternalistic and overweening, even colonialist. Nineteenth-century evangelicals didn’t always get it right. But it is also true that the Second Awakening energized an extraordinary mobilization of evangelicals on behalf of those Jesus called “the least of these.” Animated by their desire to bring about the kingdom of God on earth, they sought to alleviate suffering and work toward equality—crudely and imperfectly at times, to be sure, but determinedly. Theirs was not an abstract faith. Antebellum evangelicals understood that, in Finney’s words, “God loves both piety and humanity.” — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 48

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Civil War casualties shattered evangelical postmillennial optimism — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 51; The Second Great Awakening rivaled the Civil War in reshaping American history — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 41; Early evangelicals championed women’s rights until reactionary fundamentalism displaced egalitarianism — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 64 (+1 more)

Related

• The Second Great Awakening rivaled the Civil War in reshaping American history (similarity 0.88)
• Early evangelicals championed women’s rights until reactionary fundamentalism displaced egalitarianism (similarity 0.82)
• Civil War casualties shattered evangelical postmillennial optimism (similarity 0.81)
• Antebellum evangelicals pursued education, prison reform, women’s rights, and even gun control (similarity 0.80)
• Antebellum evangelicals campaigned for causes the modern Religious Right opposes (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Early evangelicals championed women’s rights until reactionary fundamentalism displaced egalitarianism #corroborates (0.80) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 64