Common Factors and Subversions of Frontier (and all?) Revivals

One of the factors that sets the stage of religious thought and movement is expansion. Expansion can be both internal, like evangelism bringing new people into a certain school of religious thought, and external like the shift from the coast to the “west” in the late 18th and early 19th century. Similarly, expansion in the form of globalization in the late 20th century brought about the “revival” of the moral majority and the religious right. In a similar manner, expansion mixed with the uncertainties of frontier life created an atmosphere for revivals in the early 19th century. These revivals also have the common thread of controversy to them. This is a similar parallel to the revivals of religion in 20th century America. Controversy joins hands with the uncertainties of any particular social situation as well as an ever-expanding world, (in the 19th century it was the frontier, today the frontier is both the internet and outer space.), and invents a platform for religious fervor. 

This religious fervor becomes its’ own cultural context, and soon revivals are almost commonplace to the contemporary viewer. 

In some ways revivals, specifically like the one at Cane Ridge, also subvert the overall cultural context. As an example, the “masculinity” expected of even religious men, in this time and place was not at all similar to the emotional happenings of revivals. Some earlier preachers, like Thomas Rankin, had put a stop to these emotional happenings, even going so far as to compliment a crowd for staying quiet during his sermon. However, even the most masculine and strong “Crockett” characters that there were also submitted and found something from these shout revivals. In this subversion of culture, new ideas are formulated. It is interesting to see the ways in which we are still daily impacted by revivals of religion that have happened over time. Their impact would not be so great if they were not so culturally important at the time of their occurrence.