The Age of Reason and Revival (1648 A.D. – 1789 A.D.)
• Evaluate Rationalism as a threat to Orthodox Christianity and how Christians dealt with the threat in terms of Pascal and the Pietists, Wesley and Methodism, and the Great Awakening.
• Discuss how and why Noll (2000) views the conversion of the Wesleys as a turning point in church history.
Module 6: Assignments
Great Awakening Essay
1) Write a 1,000-word essay in which you examine the importance of the Great Awakening and its impact on the church.
2) Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines
Objectives
• Evaluate Rationalism as a threat to Orthodox Christianity and how Christians dealt with the threat in terms of Pascal and the Pietists, Wesley and Methodism, and the Great Awakening.
• Discuss how and why Noll (2000) views the conversion of the Wesleys as a turning point in church history.
The Age of Reason and Revival (1648 A.D. – 1789 A.D.)
LECTURE Six
READINGS
• Read chapters 10 and 11 in Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity.
• Read chapters 32, 33, 34, and 35 in Church History in Plain Language.
• Read Comerford, P. (2009). Church History 4: Reason, Revival and Revolution at http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com/2009/02/church-history-4-reason-revival-and.html
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Zachary Tackett of Southeastern University is a professor of historical theology and an expert in the charismatic and Pentecostal movement. In this two-part series, we will explore this interesting aspect of the church.
Tackett Interview
Michael Young: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Can you give us some information about your background?
Zack Tackett: My name’s Zack Tackett. I am assistant professor of historical theology at Southeastern University. I’ve spent approximately 19 or 20 years in various pastoral roles, primarily in various assistant roles at different churches. This is my second year working at Southeastern.
My dissertation looks at the role of Pentecostalism, particularly how its theological shifts have followed the cultural dynamics in America, looking particularly at American Pentecostalism.
Young: We didn’t talk too much ahead of time about what we were going to talk about today, because I wanted to let you have the curtain on that. But can you give us a summation of where the Pentecostal movement is currently?
Tackett: If you look at it today, Pentecostalism is explosive. It is clearly global in nature. American Pentecostalism is very small in comparison to its global nature. When I use the word “Pentecostalism” here, I’m using its broader context rather than the very exclusive terminology used within America Pentecostalism.
Young: Would that be then the Charismatic movement?
Tackett: Yeah. I think you would need to look at the Charismatic movement as a whole and at the very strong emphasis on the role of Spirit that is expressed through the various charismata, the gifting of the Spirit as a whole. One of the misconceptions is that Pentecostalism is a tongues movement. While certainly the issue of glossolalia – speaking in tongues – is a very expressive, dynamic part of Pentecostalism, it is not fair to the movement as a whole to see it within that perspective, because it’s looking primarily at what the role of the eschaton is. My perspective is to look at the role of the eschaton breaking into the present and its future for humanity as a whole. That perspective has been greatly enhanced by William Faupel, who was at Asbury and is now at Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C.
Young: Can you give a short definition of the Charismatic movement?
Tackett: No, I can’t give a short definition (laughs). It’s almost impossible.
Young: If a student didn’t understand what “Charismatic” refers to, how would you describe that?
Tackett: Undoubtedly the 1960s is when classical Pentecostalism met mainstream Christianity. You had this terminology that broke out, “charismatic,” evolving from the word “charismata.” There was a very strong emphasis upon Spirit and the role of the Spirit in the church, which was brought through classical Pentecostalism, a strong emphasis on the healing movement which had been in classical Pentecostalism. Now you see these movements within global Pentecostalism that place emphasis on the Spirit. And part of the reason you see this emphasis is that the Spirit is seen as bringing to the present the eschatological dynamic, the kingdom to come, expressed in parts of the present.
So you see these movements across the board, everything from very fundamentalist-oriented classical Pentecostals to middle-of-the-road classical Pentecostals to mainline churches across the board from Baptist-oriented churches to Roman Catholic and Episcopal. So it’s broad-based, looking upon the role of the Spirit. It has its source within Classical Pentecostalism.
Young: Can you give a date as kind of where you see the movement or the theological perspective come into the church history?
Tackett: Within classical Pentecostalism, I think the 1960s probably is a very good date, because it is there that you see developments that are happening with the interaction of classical Pentecostalism and mainline Christianity.
As far as classical Pentecostalism, most locate the founding of it either at Topeka in 1911 when you had Charles Parham advocating the relationship of tongues to Spirit baptism. In 1906, William Seymour emphasized the relationship of Spirit baptism to speaking in tongues as an expression of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God at Azusa Street.
Young: That would be the date for America. Is there a different worldwide date?
Tackett: Probably not. My area is not global Pentecostalism, but most of those who have emphasized Pentecostalism see those same pockets taking place globally. You see early expressions of it in the early 20th century, and you see expressions of it in the mid-20th century. But as far as the explosion worldwide, 1975, 1980, you start seeing it just infiltrating like crazy everywhere.
Young: Can you tell us a little bit about what happened at Azusa Street, and the other events that you mentioned?
Tackett: Sure. At Azusa Street, you see people from various perspectives meeting initially in a storefront church. William Seymour was a son of African-American slaves. He had engaged in various communities that were either interracial or had interracial intersections, particularly in Cincinnati.
Young: And Azusa Street is actually located where?
Tackett: It’s in Los Angeles. Seymour moved to Houston where he came into contact with William Parham. He was doing evangelist crusades. Seymour went to a small school there for a few weeks, and he was called to be a pastor or possibly associate pastor of a small storefront church out in Los Angeles.
He came there. On the first Sunday he spoke of the relationship of speaking in tongues to Spirit baptism. The outgoing pastor, she wasn’t too thrilled about that, and the story goes that she locked the doors on him, after which they moved the meeting to local homes. The local homes lasted for a couple of months, and then they rented a facility in downtown Los Angeles in a very poor area on what is known as Azusa Street.
Young: I’m thinking of 1960s Los Angeles. What’s happening there is the counter-culture. Do you see any tie there with that explosion taking off? Is it just a totally separate cultural thing?
Tackett: Los Angeles certainly provides the mix of all sorts of stuff going on. Los Angeles is a changing community at this time. It had a predominantly white grouping, but there were African-Americans that were moving there. You have Hispanics that were obviously in a very traditional Hispanic area, and you also had Asians that were moving to the area. You had this multicultural mix that was ripe. It was also not as engaged with as many of the Jim Crow laws as you had, say, in the South. You also had a mix of people from across the United States. “Melting pot” is kind of an overused term, but you had a combination of people from all over the place. You had Eastern Europeans there. You had this large group of people with different perspectives converging in the Los Angeles area. That was the turn of the century. During this time period travel was done primarily through the light rail, so you had access to what was becoming a sprawling suburb. The development of the suburbs was already beginning in Los Angeles, so there was easy access up and down the seaboard, which made it easy for revivalism to take place.
Young: God is certainly sovereign. He put things together: this eclectic mix, a true reflection of the melting pot in America coming together in a relatively young city. This is ripe for a spiritual unveiling.
Tackett: During the late 1800s, you had a radical shift within evangelicalism that kind of moved in a couple of different directions. Some were moved by theological liberalism, some were influenced by dispensationalism, which fostered a shift in theological perspective. You had this dichotomy that was developed among Pentecostals, though this theological gap wasn’t a big issue for them.
What was at issue was what they considered the dryness of American Christianity. They would use terms like the church being dead. They wanted to bring all people together, true believers in God together that would work together and spearhead a counter-cultural perspective, although they wouldn’t use that term.
Certainly a counter-cultural perspective would encounter the “masses,” to use the language of the times. You would see very strong pacifists, arguing that war was a venue of the very rich. You would see them ordaining women, which was not radically new among Holiness communities but was not recognized within mainline churches. During that time period there was a call to what one might call the prophetic order of God. The call for all people participating in the church as the kingdom of God was being brought in among them.
