BY AARON GRIFFITH
NATION
SOMETHING HAPPENED AT ASBURY UNIVERSITY. MANY Christians called the weeks-long worship service at the small Wilmore, Ky., school, which attracted tens of thousands and disrupted campus life, a revival. Fervent worship and prayer that began during a Feb. 8, 2023, chapel service continued for hours afterward, then days, with word soon spreading globally through social media and national news coverage. Asbury administrators, noting that the school and town had been overwhelmed by the rush of outside visitors, officially ended the on-campus revival gatherings on Feb. 24. But a number of other universities have reported their own enthusiastic campus awakenings, leading excited Christians to contend this is evidence of an unprecedented movement of God across the nation.
The revival has had its fair share of skeptics, however, many of whom argue this is but another instance of embarrassing evangelical behavior. Two general critical trends have emerged, each of which has roots in long traditions of revivalist reproval. The first worries that revivals like Asbury’s lack moral seriousness. One need only think here of the stereotypical image of cash-grabbing prosperity preachers swindling their way through the revival circuit, or the exacting evangelicals visiting the restaurant after worship who don’t tip. Or, perhaps even worse, there is the fear that such revivals are a cover or propellant for problematic politics, akin to the collective effervescence of a Trump rally. And to be sure, some MAGA-style public figures have hailed the happenings in Wilmore, seeing it as part of a larger political surge that bolsters the religious right.
A second concern is that revivals like Asbury’s are simply sites of emotional manipulation, that participants are being swept up in charismata that are artificial, designed to induce chill-bumps-on-arms responses. If a revival is simply the powerful surge of collective emotion, or the product of stagecraft, is it really real?
Indeed, some revivalists from past generations grew quite comfortable with exploiting material means. The 19th century preacher Charles Finney penned a manual that spelled out how to lead an effective revival. He did not see this strategy as insincere, but frustrated critics cried manipulation. Similarly, any evangelical church musician knows that if you hit the right chord at just the right moment, you are guaranteed more hands in the air. A student at the Christian college where I teach r
