For almost two weeks, a revival has taken place at Asbury College, Kentucky, where thousands of people have taken part in non-stop praise and worship. It began with students following a regular chapel service that snowballed through live feeds and social media to include thousands of people of all ages, some of whom travelled thousands of miles to be part of the experience.
In our briefing, historians observed that revivals are a fairly regular occurrence at Asbury college, which grew out of the Methodist revival movement.
Academics who have studied revivals explained they can be explained not just as a psychological phenomenon but as a response to change, often happening at a time when people feel they are losing something important to their identity. Now American religion is in decline, with fewer people, especially younger people, saying they are affiliated to Christianity, and it is a moment of cultural crisis.
Our guests in the briefing were Bob Smietana, reporter with the Religion News Service; Dr John Maiden, Head of Department of Religious Studies at the Open University; Dr Leah Payne, Associate Professor of American Religious History, George Fox University; Rev Ashley Cooper, principal of Cliff College, Derbyshire; and Kami Rice, former student president at Asbury College.
The Religion Media Centre podcast – the only podcast to sit firmly in the space where religion and the media collide. We ease that relationship, strengthen links that already exist, and be part of building new ones through chat, reflection, and comment, with a panel of regular contributors of journalists, broadcasters, writers, comedians, and experts.
Listen to our other episodes here >>
