Revivalism

Revivalism unquestionably shaped the American religious landscape. The emergence of the “Holiness Movement” is often seen as a response to the ideas and values of revivalism. Unlike forms of Protestantism that emphasized the defense of doctrinal orthodoxy, the Holiness movement was much more oriented towards morality and the spiritual life. It tended to raise ethics to the status that later fundamentalists have accorded doctrine. This emphasis upon “holy living” came to be linked with support for the abolition of slavery in the antebellum period. Oberlin College, Ohio – where Finney later served as professor of theology – became a stronghold of abolitionism, even advocating “civil disobedience” in the face of the fugitive slave laws.

The “Holiness” tradition’s emphasis on issues of Christian living was not limited to an attempt to end slavery. Oberlin College became the center of some serious attempts to erase racial and gender barriers within both the antebellum church and society at large. Its pioneering moves towards coeducation led to its graduating some of the most vigorous and radical feminists of the era. Antoinette Brown, the first woman to be ordained in an American church, was a graduate of Oberlin. At her ordination in 1853, Wesleyan Methodist minister Luther Lee preached on “Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel.”