Martin Henry REV. NEWTON Gabbidon, writing out of New York in a letter to the Editor of The Gleaner, has raised the matter of spiritual revival for social and economic progress. It is amazing how much has been deliberately cast aside, or simply forgotten, about the major influence of Christian revival in the creation of a free, democratic and extra-ordinarily productive Western and then global society. The progressive secularisation of history and of everything else has obscured these basic truths.
This year, UNESCO leads the world in commemoration of the fight against slavery. Only one society in the long, sordid history of bondage has ever repudiated slavery on moral and religious grounds and that is the Christian West, despite its own sins in the matter. Several factors went into the abolition of slavery including Black resistance of which we are everlastingly proud, and the growing economic redundancy of the system as the industrial revolution progressed. But no other factor carries greater weight than the political fight of the Christian abolitionists of whom William Wilberforce is the towering symbol. The industrial revolution itself was heavily influenced by revival.
In the 1730s and 1740s, the churches in Britain and the North American colonies, in parts of continental Europe, were resurrected from the dead by powerful preachers and new movements. There were the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, the founders of Methodism in England. There was George Whitefield who conducted a major trans-Atlantic evangelical ministry. There was Jonathan Edwards in the North American colonies, among many others.
Edwards describes in his book, "A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God", the effects of the revival: "This work of God, as it was carried on, and the number of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the life of the town; so that - the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It was never so full of love, nor joy - There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought unto them."
GREAT AWAKENING
The effects of the Great Awakening, as the movement was called in North America, and of the Evangelical Revival, as it was called in Britain, was not just the revival of the Church but the transformation of society across a broad field.
There was strong support for education from literacy to higher education. Princeton University, for example, was established as a direct result of the Great Awakening and the brilliant Jonathan Edwards, linguist, philosopher and theologian, served briefly as president before dying of smallpox. It is hardly likely that the illustrious Ivy League Princeton has any real memory or concern for its roots in Christian revival.
The methodical organisation of the Wesleyan movement for the instruction of its converts, which of course gave rise to the name Methodism, had a profound impact on the emergence of the British elementary school system, one of the earliest in the world. It is hard to think of anything with a greater transformative impact on any society than universal literacy.
The American Revolution, its Declaration of Independence, its Constitution, and the society that emerged have their tap roots in the Great Awakening. There are those who, untrue to the truth of history, prefer to ascribe greater weight to the influence of secular humanist philosophy with its emphases on the rights of man and the citizen and on liberty, equality and fraternity in the emergence of American Republicanism. But when these theoretically great ideals were pursued in the atheistic French Revolution and its child the pantheistic Haitian Revolution, they broke down into an orgy of bloodshed and social disorder on an unprecedented scale.
The Evangelical Revival grounded, in Britain, the fight against slavery. Just four days before his death, John Wesley wrote to Wilberforce who was leading the abolition campaign in Parliament to say: "Go on, in the name of God, and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it."
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
The new concern for evangelism led to an explosion of missionary societies. The attachment of these to the colonial/imperial enterprise has tarnished their image, especially in the eyes of those who see the enterprise as pure evil. But these missionary societies not only sought to make Christian disciples of all men in the mould of European colonial powers and under their aegis, they generated genuine social reforms. Bible societies placed the transformative scriptures in the hands of peoples in their own language. As African Bible translator Aloo Mojola told us here last September, Bible translation has an enormous impact on codifying oral languages into writing, creating literate societies, and building cultural pride.
The Wesleys pushed for prison reform and organised poor relief, health care, and job creation. The Methodist Benevolent Friend Society was a major provider of social welfare support until the state took over as it did in education. Christians of the Evangelical Revival started a bank for small loans. Others organised legal aid.
John Wesley made a strange observation about the effects of revival: "I fear," he said, "wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any renewal of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger and the love of the world in all its branches."
Kingston and Jamaica could well use a revival, such as Rev. Gabbidon writes about. But men cannot engineer revival to satisfy political, economic or social needs. Revival is the work of the Holy Spirit on ready and receptive human hearts seeking no advantage. Imagine Information Minister and Methodist lay preacher, Burchell Whiteman facing the media microphones after yet another desperate Cabinet retreat to announce on behalf of Government a national revival! Or the President of the Jamaica Council of Churches after a meeting on crime and the economy?
Martin Henry is a communication specialist.
