DEC. 13, 2004

BELIEFS & PRACTICES Religion and culture: What's ahead for 2005

Is the "Fourth Great Awakening" afoot?

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Robert E. Coleman is a professor of evangelism and discipleship at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. He is author of The Coming World Revival: Your Part in God's Plan to Reach the World (Crossway, 1995), which addresses the history of revival in America and a possible coming "great revival." Contact via Anne Doll, director of public relations, 978-646-4141 or 978-884-1116 (cell), adoll@gcts.edu.
• The Rev. James W. Fraser is a professor of education at Northeastern University in Boston. He has written about how previous Great Awakenings affected theology and theological education. Contact 617-373-4179, j.fraser@neu.edu.

IN THE EAST
• Darryl Glenn Hart is director of honors programs and faculty development at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Del. His books include That Old-Time Religion in Modern America: Evangelical Protestantism in the Twentieth Century (Ivan R. Dee, 2002). He lives in Philadelphia. Contact 302-652-4600, dhart@isi.org or dghart@earthlink.net.
• Eugene McCarraher is a professor of humanities and Augustinian thought at Villanova University in Villanova, Del. He has taught a course in American religious history that examined the impact of the First and Second Great Awakenings. Contact 610-519-4796, eugene.mccarraher@villanova.edu.
• Gerald De Maio is an associate professor of political science at Baruch College in New York, N.Y. With Louis Bolce, he has written about religion and the culture wars for Public Opinion Quarterly. Their work shows that moderates outnumber religious conservatives, but because activists are the driving force in politics, those with intense viewpoints, such as religious conservatives, are more strident than the "lukewarm" majority. So what is going on is less an awakening than an amplifying of a religious perspective. Contact 646-312-4414, Gerald_Demaio@baruch.cuny.edu.
• Glenn Bucher is a sociologist of American religion at the Boyer Center, a national educational research center at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. The school, where Bucher teaches religion, patriotism and politics, is in the Anabaptist, Pietist and Wesleyan evangelical traditions. He can discuss what might be called the current awakening - he questions the term because he says it's potentially loaded - but is not an authority on other awakenings in American history. Contact 717-796-5079, gbucher@boyercenter.org.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• David Kling is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. He has written about American Great Awakenings. Contact 305-284-4733, dkling@miami.edu.
• Lynn Neal is a visiting assistant professor in the religion department at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. She is an expert in the history of Christianity, evangelical Christianity and pop culture. Contact 336-758-5461, nealls@wfu.edu.

IN THE SOUTH
• David Edwin Harrell is a professor of history at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. He has written extensively about American evangelists and revival, including works on Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson and Billy Graham. He says the current focus on "moral values" has little to do with an awakening and more to do with the conservative, evangelical and fundamentalist coalition becoming powerful enough to make themselves heard. Contact 334-844-4007, harrede@auburn.edu.
• Thom Rainer is a professor of evangelism and church growth and dean of the Billy Graham School of Mission, Evangelism and Church Growth at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Contact trainer@sbts.edu.
• Charles Lippy is a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. He is author of numerous books about American popular religion, evangelicals and religious culture. He says some of the current fixation on "moral values" may be a knee-jerk reaction to increasing American religious diversity - that with so many new religions and cultures coming here from abroad, some people believe that "traditional" values are eroding. He says if there is another Awakening brewing, it is one that will reflect the burgeoning diversity in American religion. Contact 423-425-4340, charles-lippy@utc.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Frank Lambert is author of Inventing the "Great Awakening" (Princeton University Press, 2001), in which he argues that the First Great Awakening was "invented" by a few evangelical preachers. Similarly, he says, after 9/11, certain evangelicals called for a religious revival, which led to special preaching services and prayer meetings that, if widespread enough and widely proclaimed, could then lead religious leaders to declare a Great Awakening. He is a professor of colonial and revolutionary American history at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Contact 765-494-5811, flambert@sla.purdue.edu.
• Daniel Olson is a professor of sociology and anthropology at Indiana University in South Bend. He writes frequently about the culture wars and has written about religious cultural tension in the American public. Contact 574-520-4235, dolson@iusb.edu.
• Robert Royalty is an assistant professor of religion at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., who specializes in the Apocalypse. He can discuss how cultural expressions of millennialism are evoked and played upon by politicians. Contact 765-361-6155, royaltyr@wabash.edu.
• Andrew Walsh is an assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo. He says the recent election may be remembered as part of the movement that restored a religious America under the charismatic leadership of figures such as the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Franklin Graham - but only by people sympathetic to the New Christian Right and only if the New Christian Right continues to transform American society. Contact 573-288-6376, awalsh@culver.edu.
• Thomas Helm is director of the Centennial Honors College at Western Illinois University in Macomb and a professor of philosophy and religious studies. He says that although there is no clear evidence of a current revival, there are means for a comparison between today's culture wars and the First and Second Great Awakenings. All, he says, are fueled by "moral fervor" and "anti-intellectualism." Contact 309-298-2228, TE-Helm@wui.edu.
• Robert Martin is a professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and author of Hero of the Heartland: Billy Sunday and the Transformation of American Society, 1862-1935 (Indiana University Press, 2002), about one of the major evangelists of the Third Great Awakening. Contact 319-273-2079, robert.martin@uni.edu.
• Kathryn Oberdeck is an assistant professor of history at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She has written about religion and cultural politics. She says we are not on the verge of a Great Awakening, but there are some similarities between current events and previous Great Awakenings, including a sense of lay evangelical agency for "perfecting" the world and politicized movements of evangelical Christians running counter to established denominations. Contact 217-244-2088, kjo@uiuc.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• Barry Hankins is the author of The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists (Greenwood Press, 2004) and a history professor at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is an expert on early American religious revivalism. Contact via Julie Carlson, Julia_Carlson@baylor.edu.
• James Kirby is a professor of church history at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, a United Methodist school in Dallas. He is an expert in religion and American culture and has written about American Methodism, which played a large role in the Second Great Awakening. Contact 214-768-3322, jkirby@smu.edu.
• Meredith McGuire teaches sociology and anthropology at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She has written about revival and renewal in the Pentecostal tradition. Contact 830-980-4390, mcguire@trinity.edu.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• David Davenport is a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, a Churches of Christ school in Malibu, Calif., and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. He sees an increased interest in spirituality and religion these days but thinks it is "a natural swing of the pendulum" more than a reawakening. Contact 310-506-6878, david.davenport@pepperdine.edu.
• John Roth is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. He has written about the tension between private religion and the public self and how that manifests itself in American culture. He is on sabbatical and is best reached via email. Contact john.roth@claremontmckenna.edu.
• Richard Wightman Fox is a cultural historian at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and author of Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession (Harper SanFrancisco, 2004). His book outlines the rise and fall of the popularity of Christ and Christianity in American culture. Contact by email only at rfox@usc.edu.