revival

View more Literature & Language videos

noun

1. The act of reviving or condition of being revived: reactivation, rebirth, renaissance, renascence, renewal, resurgence, resurrection, resuscitation, revitalization, revivification. See awareness/unawareness.
2. A continuing after interruption: continuation, renewal, resumption, resurgence. See continue/stop/pause.

n

Definition: rebirth, reawakening
Antonyms: destruction, disappearance, downturn, killing, suppression

Origin: 1799

We Americans not only got religion, we got it again and again. We got it in the 1600s, when the New England colonies were founded for religious reasons. We got it again at the start of the next century, when in 1702 Cotton Mather of Massachusetts remarked on "a notable Revival of Religion." Yet again, in the 1730s, what would become known as the Awakening (1736) of religious spirit began in Northampton, Massachusetts, and for several decades spread throughout the colonies as far north as Maine and as far south as Georgia.

But something more immediate and practical was meant by revival when the word was first used by itself with a religious meaning in 1799. That was when the Presbyterian preacher James McGready took religion out to the wilderness of Kentucky. Instead of going from isolated cabin to cabin, he held revivals that lasted several days and attracted settlers from miles around. McGready would preach, baptize, and marry, while the settlers joined in the praying and singing and caught up on the neighborhood gossip. These gatherings were also called camp meetings because families would camp overnight rather than return to their homes during the days of the revival.

McGready's revivals were a great success and soon imitated throughout the country. The whole nineteenth century became a time of revivals in America, some of them lasting as long as two or three weeks. Even the more secular twentieth century has had its share of revivals.

---

A deceptively simple term which has excited protracted debate in the folklore world, primarily because its meaning shifts with the perspective of each onlooker. In the folk song and dance world, ‘the Revival’ usually refers to one of the two major upsurges of popular interest in those topics, which became national movements.

In other spheres, the term is used to cover both the restarting of a custom after a temporary lapse, and the deliberate introduction of a custom into a different community or social context. Clearly, few if any local customs can prove an unbroken record of performance throughout their history, and folklorists normally accept any revival in this sense as part of the traditional nature of things. Problems of definition start to occur when others start a new series of performances which they have copied from elsewhere, and this is particularly noticeable in genres which have strong regional or local characteristics. The morris dancers of Bampton stopping and restarting, for example, is a different matter from the people of Burnley or Bridgwater starting to perform the Bampton dances. It is clear that the dissemination of traditions in the past must have included precisely this kind of ‘copying’ of others' existing traditions, by communities or individuals, and new performers may thus be seen to be starting a tradition of their own, in time-honoured fashion. This debate brings into the open the further notion of ‘authenticity’, and the question of who ‘owns’ folklore. A common-sense argument that folkloric traditions, as part of our common heritage, belong to everybody and therefore to nobody, often fails to appease those who see their own local customs or traditions appropriated by others, whether for pleasure or for profit. As noted under regional folklore, fierce local pride is often attached to a community's customs and traditions.

It is not only in the geographic sense that the appropriation of others' traditional lore can be seen as contentious. Songs collected from working-class singers by middle-class collectors turn up in different guise in the latter's compositions, on the concert stage sung by professional singers, or on commercial recordings by folk or pop groups, very often with no acknowledgement of their original source, or payment of any sort of ‘royalty’. Even without the moral/legal questions involved, the relationship of these performances to ‘folklore’ is at best ambiguous and open to further debate.

Victorian and Edwardian reformers were expert in the art of ‘revivals’ which, while claiming to be genuinely traditional, were either invented or changed so radically as to retain only a tenuous connection with the original source (see Merrie England), but which helped to create a generalized notion of a ‘national’ traditional culture belonging to all. At the end of the 20th century, the same processes appeared to be still in force.

See also DANCE, FAKELORE, REGIONAL FOLKLORE, SONG REVIVAL, TOURIST LORE.

Resuscitation of any previous style, properly founded on archaeological studies and scholarship, as with the Egyptian, Gothic, or Greek Revivals.

In the law of wills, the act reinstituting a former will (which had been revoked by a latter will) once the latter will is canceled or destroyed.
A few jurisdictions recognize the former will automatically upon the latter will’s cancellation; most require some affirmative act, such as republication, before the former will is effective.

Outbreaks of religious mass enthusiasm, often inspired by a new wave of spiritual fervor and/or in reaction to persecution. They have often been accompanied by a variety of paranormal manifestations, such as luminous phenomena, aerial music, miraculous healing, speaking in tongues, and prophecy.

From June 1688 to February 19, 1689, five to six hundred prophets emerged in France (in Dauphiny and in the Vivarez) as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV and the consequent persecution of Protestants. Under its effect, eight thousand seers were counted in Languedoc in the first year.

There hardly was a house that did not have its inspired orators. Even children prophesied in tongues unknown to them. Heavenly music was heard day and night in the air, tongues of fire were observed and, in at least one case, the ordeal of the pyre was harmlessly undergone by the entranced leader Claris. Cavalier, Roland, and Marion, the organizers of the insurgency, were all inspired orators. The army which they assembled chose its own chief by their gifts of the spirit.

The great Irish revival in 1859 and the Welsh revival in 1904 were accompanied by similar phenomena, especially the sound of unearthly music and the sight of inexplicable lights.

The Reverend John Crapsey of Brookfield, Tioga County, was quoting the words of Jesus on the cross when: "a mighty invisible power seemed suddenly to possess him, and a luminous appearance scintillated upon and around his hand, shining with brilliant effulgence in the eyes of all beholders. Under an impulse which I could not resist, I sprang from the desk out upon the middle of the floor into the midst of the congregation. Fire and pillars of smoke and luminous light rose up bodily in our midst; men, women and even stammering children were seized, speaking with new tongues, and uttering prophecies. Prayers and exhortations were poured forth in abundance, and many of the congregation broke out into the most marvelous and heavenly singing."

McLoughlin, in Modern Revivalism (1959) cites three great revival periods in the United States history, each lasting about a generation, each spurred on by national periods of intellectual and cultural conflict and change. The First Great Awakening (1725-1750) followed a period of colonial growth prior to the Revolution, featuring the immigration of the religiously persecuted. The Second Great Awakening (1797-1835), emerged as the new United States sought to establish its identity, expanding its political boundaries through western expansion.

The Second Great Awakening, in particular, emerged out of the rural camp meetings of Tennessee and Kentucky, on the western borders of the burgeoning United States. One of the most famous of these camps took place over five successive days in August of 1801. As many as 10,000 to 30,000 traveled to east of Paris, Kentucky from parts throughout the East and Midwest, to listen to ministers from the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist churches preach adherence to fundamental Christian ideals.

"…from rotting stumps, fallen tree trunks, horse-drawn wagons, and makeshift platforms, they sermonized and admonished, cajoled and exulted, often all at the very same time…As many as 3000 to 5000 made their confessions of faith right there, many displaying involuntary physical convulsions as evidence of their heart-felt conversions: they jerked and twitched, barked and bayed, sang and chanted, cried like babies, and fainted dead away, often remaining unconscious for hours on end."

The Third Great Awakening (1875-1915) followed the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War, as the country attempted to redefine itself as it moved toward the Industrial Revolution. Each of these Awakening periods swept through the growing nation, creating new sects, reviving old ones, and inspiring an infectious spiritual fervor. Among the most famous evangelists of the Great Awakenings included Charles Finney, Dwight Moody, and Billy Sunday, each paving the way for revivalists of future generations.

A peculiar form of revivalism is said to have arisen by the late twentieth century, culminating with the explosion of television evangelists in the politically conservative 1980s. Televangelists such as Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggert, Jerry Falwell, and Jim and Tammy Bakker reached huge audiences through broadcast and cable television, virtually recreating the Great Awakenings' revivalist meetings in the American living room. These televangelists reflected much of the same fervor, fundamentalism, and showmanship of 19th century preachers. Scandals erupted among some of them in 1987, but by then the phenomenon of the televised revival had affixed itself to the modern cultural landscape.

Sources:

Buchanan, Paul D. Historic Places of Worship. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Co., Inc., 1999.

Grey, E. Howard. Visions, Previsions and Miracles in Modern Times. London: L. N. Fowler, 1915.

Hadden, Jeffrey K. and Shupe, Answen. Televangelism. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1988.

Kelsey, Morton T. Tongue Speaking. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964.

Lewis, Mrs. J. The Awakening in Wales. London: Marshall; New York: Revell, 1905.

McLoughlin, William G. Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham. New York: The Ronald Press Co., 1959.

Simson, Eve. The Faith Healer: Deliverance Evangelism in North America. Concordia/Pyramid, 1977.

For a list of words related to revival, see:

• Practice and Doctrine - revival: evangelistic rekindling of religious fervor

---

See words rhyming with "revival."

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - genoplivelse, genopblomstring, genoptagelse, vækkelse

Nederlands (Dutch)
(weder)opleving

Français (French)
n. - (gén, Méd) rétablissement, (fig) reprise, redressement, regain, renouveau, remise en vigueur, (Théât) reprise, (Relig) renouveau de la foi, réunion pour le renouveau de la foi, (Mus, Hist) Revival

Deutsch (German)
n. - Neubelebung, Wiederaufführung, Erweckung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αναγέννηση, αναβίωση, αναζωογόνηση, επανάληψη (θεατρικού έργου)

Italiano (Italian)
rinascita, ripresa

Português (Portuguese)
n. - renascimento (m)

Русский (Russian)
возрождение, выздоровление

Español (Spanish)
n. - renacimiento, resurgimiento, reanimación, resucitación, recuperación, reactivación, restablecimiento

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - återupplivande, renässans, nypremiär, väckelsemöte

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
苏醒, 再生, 复活, 复兴, 再流行

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 甦醒, 再生, 復活, 復興, 再流行

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 소생 , 부활 , 회복

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 生き返り, 再生, 回復, 復興, 再流行, 信仰復興, 信仰復興特別伝道集会, 再上演, リバイバル

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) إحياء, إنبعاث‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮התעוררות, תחייה, חידוש‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.