Tent revival

A marquee tent set up for a tent revival in rural Pennsylvania (2008)

Tent revivals, also known as tent meetings, are gatherings of Evangelical Christian worshipers in a tent erected specifically for the purpose of revival meetings, camp meetings, evangelism, and healing crusades in the United States. Historically, tent revivals and camp meetings had a prominent role in the spread of Evangelical Christianity through the Great Awakenings that occurred across the early United States before the American Civil War.

History

Historically grounded in the cultural and socio-religious context of the First (c. 1730–1755), Second (c. 1790–1840), and Third (c. 1855–1930) Great Awakenings in British North America, most tent revivals in the United States have been held by the Methodist Church (inclusive of the Holiness movement), along with other Evangelical churches, as well as Pentecostal denominations, in addition to Baptist churches and non-denominational Protestant churches. Major Protestant evangelists and itinerant preachers in the history of the Great Awakenings who made use of tent revivals and camp meetings were George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennent, and Samuel Davies in 18th-century New England, while notable pastors and theologians that supported the American revival movement were James McGready, Timothy Dwight IV, Lyman Beecher, and Nathaniel W. Taylor.

A notable tent revival that took place outside of the United States was the first Keswick Convention at Saint John's Church in Keswick, England in 1875. This revival initiated the "Higher Life movement" among Evangelical Anglicans and British conservative Evangelicals, a Protestant theological tradition within Evangelical Christianity that espouses a distinct teaching on the doctrines of entire sanctification, healing, and spiritual gifts. Since the late 19th century, the movement has spread throughout the United Kingdom and across the former colonies of the British Empire.

As tent revivals are held outdoors, they attract people who, after hearing the preaching, are expected to undergo a conversion to Christianity, experience to be "born again", and join a local Christian church. With radio and television playing an increasingly important part in U.S. culture by the second half of the 20th century, some Christian preachers and tent revivalists, such as Oral Roberts, started to make use of broadcast mass media as early televangelists. Other Christian revivalists and evangelists who have been noted for their use of tent revivals in ministry include the married couple Anna Ladd and Frank Bartleman, Billy Sunday, William M. Branham, Billy Graham, Robert W. Schambach, Reinhard Bonnke, Benny Hinn, Jorge A. Pérez, and John M. Perkins.

In the Methodist tradition, tent revivals occur at various parts of the year, especially in the summer, for preaching the doctrine of the two works of grace: (1) the New Birth and (2) entire sanctification. Among Baptist denominations, preachers at tent revivals focus their sermons on the New Birth, with those receiving it undergoing baptism. Today, some tent revivals and camp meetings are ecumenical, with the participation of Christian preachers from different Protestant denominations, such as interdenominational parachurches.

Cultural representations

Books

Films

TV series

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Benton, Andrew M. (2018). "TENT REVIVALS". In Kindell, Alexandra (ed.). The World of Antebellum America: A Daily Life Encyclopedia. Vol. 1–2. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 758–760. ISBN 9781440837111.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Caldwell III, Robert W. (9 January 2018). "How Revival Turned Protestants into Evangelicals". www.thegospelcoalition.org. Indianapolis, Indiana: The Gospel Coalition. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Boles, John B. (2005). "THE GREAT REVIVAL". In Hill, Samuel S.; Lippy, Charles H.; Wilson, Charles R. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Religion in the South (Revised, Updated, and Expanded ed.). Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 356–359. ISBN 9780865547582. LCCN 2005026402.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Woodworth, Steven E. (2001). "Part I: The Religious Heritage and Beliefs of the Civil War Soldiers — "In Such A Country As This": Christianity in America Before the Civil War". While God is Marching on: The Religious World of Civil War Soldiers. Modern War Studies. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. pp. 1–26. ISBN 9780700612970. LCCN 2001001123.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Blumhofer, Edith L. (1993). "Pentecostalism's Roots in the Premillennial, Healing, and Holiness Movements (1880–1901)". Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture. Urbana and Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 11–42. ISBN 978-0-252-06281-0. OCLC 1245770981.
  6. ↑
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 McClymond, Michael J. (2018). "Revival". In Thompson, Andrew (ed.). The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume II: The Long Eighteenth Century, c. 1689–c. 1828. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 225–242. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198702245.003.0012. ISBN 9780191838910. LCCN 2017964309.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Choiński, Michał (2016). "American Revivalism". The Rhetoric of the Revival: The Language of the Great Awakening Preachers. Göttingen, Lower Saxony: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 45–50. ISBN 978-3-525-56023-5.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Harvey, Brian (April 2012). Revivalism in America: The Great Awakening (DMin. thesis). Lynchburg, Virginia: Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. pp. 5–13. Retrieved 9 May 2026 – via Academia.edu.
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  18. 1 2 3 Randall, Ian (2014). "The Keswick Convention and Anglican Evangelical Tensions in the Early Twentieth Century". In Atherstone, Andrew; Maiden, John (eds.). Evangelicalism and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century: Reform, Resistance, and Renewal. Studies in Modern British Religious History (New ed.). Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester, New York: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 89–108. doi:10.1017/9781782043065.004. ISBN 9781782043065. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt6wp88k.8.
  19. 1 2 Morgan, D. Densil (2017). "Spirituality, Worship, and Congregational Life". In Larsen, Timothy; Ledger-Lomas, Michael (eds.). The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume III: The Nineteenth Century. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 502–524. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199683710.003.0022. ISBN 9780191823923. LCCN 2016953084.
  20. ↑ Sorensen, Karen (16 June 2010). "Faith: The rise and fall of tent revival church services". Taunton Daily Gazette. Taunton, Massachusetts: USA Today Co. OCLC 9545291. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ Balmer, Randall H. (2002). "Televangelism". Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism (Revised and Expanded ed.). Louisville, Kentucky and London, U.K.: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 570–571. ISBN 9780664224097. LCCN 2001026902.
  23. ↑ Donev, Dony K. (2021) [2019]. "Bartleman, Frank and Anna (Ladd)". In Wilkinson, Michael; Au, Connie; Haustein, Jörg; Johnson, Todd M. (eds.). Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Online. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/2589-3807_EGPO_COM_043812. ISSN 2589-3807.
  24. ↑ Shelton, Sally J. (2021) [2019]. "Branham, William Marrion". In Wilkinson, Michael; Au, Connie; Haustein, Jörg; Johnson, Todd M. (eds.). Brill's Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism Online. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/2589-3807_EGPO_COM_041679. ISSN 2589-3807.
  25. ↑ Silliman, Daniel (13 March 2026). Olasky, Marvin (ed.). "Died: John M. Perkins, Who Lived and Preached Racial Reconciliation". Christianity Today. Carol Stream, Illinois: Christianity Today International. ISSN 0009-5753. OCLC 1554505. Archived from the original on 24 April 2026. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
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  27. ↑ Case 2017, pp. 211–230.
  28. ↑ Ensign-George, Barry (2018). "Denomination as a Distinctive Organizing Form". In Hutchinson, Mark P. (ed.). The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume V — The Twentieth Century: Themes and Variations in a Global Context. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 320–323. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198702252.003.0010. ISBN 9780198702252. LCCN 2018937565.

Bibliography