In the 18th and 19th centuries, two spiritual “great awakenings” shook up much of our young nation. Ministers stopped reading their sermons—and started preaching directly to the masses via what we now call revivals. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz notes that in the aftermath of our Revolution, as few as one in ten Americans were active church members, yet by the 1840s as many as eight in ten were “churched.” Wilentz credits the awakenings with playing a big part in this transformation. 

Church impact has waned; the social media are today’s “influencers” of choice. For a nation that seems to be sleep-walking through its own decline, we could use a new-fangled “Great Awakening.”

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