# The summarized history of the Christian church 11: The Protestant Post-Modernism

The Third Great Awakening came between the late 1850s and late 1920s, and had a strong attitude driven by the belief that [Jesus would only come](theology-end.md) *after* a millennium of a [golden age of humanity](politics-perfectsociety.md).

- They focused heavily on the Social Gospel (a more practical approach to spirituality focused on [activism](church-serve.md)), and endorsed quite a few political/moral causes such as abolitionism (which at least partly provoked the American Civil War) and prohibition (preventing people from drinking [alcohol](fun-alcohol.md)).
- The **Pentecostals** arose in the early 1890s from R.C. Horner asserting there was a *third* work of the Holy Spirit beyond baptism of the Holy Spirit: speaking in tongues. They exploded in membership and involvement during the Azusa Street Revival, which was regarded by most Christianity at the time as outrageous and unorthodox. Some Pentecostal, like **Oneness Pentecostals**, believe that God isn't a Trinity.
- In 1887, Albert Benjamin Simpson founded The Christian Alliance and The Evangelical Missionary Alliance. The two organizations merged in 1897 to create the **Christian and Missionary Alliance (or CMA)**. By 1912, there were major rifts between them and the Pentecostals over whether speaking in tongues was an indicator of the Holy Spirit, and they distanced themselves from Pentecostalism by 1919. Eventually, in 1975, they reformed into the **Alliance World Fellowship (AWF)** in 1975.
- There were plenty of less-than-Gospel-centered denominations/[cults](people-conflicts-christian-5_cults.md) that arose, including:
  - Mary Baker Eddy's **Christian Science**
  - The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society's **Jehovah's Witnesses** by Charles Taze Russell as an offshoot of the Millerites
  - The New Thought movement's **Unity Church** and **Church of Divine Science**
- **The Mission Friends** based in Sweden, among many others, were interdenominational pietists devoted to [evangelism](spiritual-exercises-evangelism.md). In 1884 in Boone, Iowa the Swedish Evangelical Free Mission shared fellowship with a few Lutheran groups that year, then across a few places all over the USA, then expanded from there to become the **Evangelical Free Church**.
- In 1893, the Evangelical Church of West Africa was established by three white people who wanted to spread the Gospel to West Africa on an "evangelical suicide mission" from the risks of malaria known at the time. They've since expanded their name to become **Evangelical Church Winnning All (ECWA)** to reflect their broader mission.
- The Manchurian Revival was a series of events in 1908 that rapidly invoked a Christian presence in the modern-day Liaoning Provide of China.
- Around 1920, **Bruderhof Communities** were established, which were communal living arrangements away from the rest of society as a new Hutterite movement.
- The **Christian Catholic Apostolic Church** was founded by John Alexander Dowie in 1896 by founding a city called Zion in Illinois, which was an attempt to create God's Kingdom on earth. They emphasized faith healing, not eating pork, and wearing white robes. They weren't relevant in the USA much, but had a profound impact on Africa:
  - In 1908, the **Apostolic Faith Movement** was founded in Africa as a Pentecostal amalgamation that combined the South African Revival of 1860 with the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church. Other **African Independent Churches** arose with a similar background.
  - The **Zion Christian Church** was founded by Engenas Lekganyane in 1910 from his claim he had received a revelation from God. His life and subsequent succession of leadership is marked by constant conflict, including conflicting testimonies.

The **Church of the Nazarene** arose as a set of mergers of various Holiness Movement churches, starting in 1907, though they slowed down on the mergers around the end of the late-2000's. Broadly, this was one of the first churches that pioneered the Ecumenical Movement (where churches try to come together and partner even though they're from different [cultures](people-culture.md)).

In 1954, China's new government established the **Three-Self Patriotic Movement**, which taught a form of Christianity that was aligned with the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. It was disbanded during their Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, then brought back in 1979 with even more [government oversight](politics-systems.md). It veers *very* close, if not outright, into [cult territory](people-culture-cults.md).

The Fourth Great Awakening happened in the late 1960s through the early 1970s [following World War II](https://gainedin.site/here-2/). During this time, many members of "mainline" Protestant churches left and went to the most conservative ones (e.g., Baptists, Lutherans), and is where most of the denominations of the Third Great Awakening culturally froze.

- Their focus was from a reshaping of Evangelical thought with people like Billy Graham, with a strengthened emphasis on simplified Gospel presentation and having a personal relationship with Jesus. New [media](stories-storytellers.md) technology meant "megachurches" were more capable to use that presence to draw in followers, so church attendance was heavily defined by high-quality [advertising](marketing.md).
- Megachurches were also able to direct their congregations toward political (typically [conservative](politics-conservativeliberal.md)) purposes more than before.
- Many "non-denominational" denominations rose during the Jesus Movement, started by **Calvary Chapel** with Chuck Smith. Its largest communal culture was the **Shiloh Youth Revival Centers**, starting in 1968.
- The **Charismatic** movement was established as "second-wave Pentecostalism", which heavily emphasized the previous Pentecostal "baptism of the Holy Spirit". Most of them propagated with tent revivals, which involved the Holiness Movement's camp meetings, but with far more theatrical performance and spectacle involved.

Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council #21 in 1962-1965 - The Second Vatican Council, feat. Popes John XXIII and Paul VI w/ 2,860 leaders

- Issued documents on renewing and reforming the Roman Catholic Church, especially with the new [technologies](technology.md) and [trends](people-trends.md)
- Established the Mass in the language of its environment, instead of simply in Latin

The Shepherding Movement, or Discipleship Movement, was an effort in the 1970s and early 1980s by charismatic churches to create a unified cultural framework within the vast number of new house churches and small congregations that had recently arisen.

The **Evangelical Orthodox Church** was founded by former members of the parachurch ministry Campus Crusade for Christ in 1979, and hybridized Evangelicalism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Shepherding Movement.