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Accordingto Robert Fogel's book "The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future ofEgalitarianism", there have been four religious revivals in Americanhistory. The first revival mentioned in the book began in the early1700s and the later ones continue to influence Americans in these earlyyears of the 21st century. All four revivals had their beginnings asreligious events which later became political and social movements.They overlap each other chronologically because later revivals areoften backlashes against earlier ones.

The first "Great Awakening Revival" began a few generations after theoriginal colonists landed. The colonists of the late 1600s and early1700s had lost much of religious zeal that the early colonists had.Preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield went throughoutthe colonies preaching powerful sermons on the topic of salvation as aresult of an individual, personal commitment to the Lord. These sermonswere diametrically opposed to the old school European notion thatsubordination to a prevailing government authorized church was the wayto obtain God's favor. The clergymen of the Church of England were notJonathan Edwards fans. Neither were many of the proponents of thehumanistic "French Enlightenment", either.
The first revival was a catalyst which combined with economic and political circumstances to ignite the American Revolution.

The first revival did not rid the colonies of things like slavery,bigotry and intemperance, so a second revival began in the early1800's. The second revival emphasized personal responsibility even morethan the first one did. The results of this revival included thingslike taxation of alcoholic drinks, urban government reform, mandatoryeducation for children, women's rights, the Civil War, and theConstitutional amendments which dealt with slavery and racism.

The third revival began at the end of the 19th century, in spite of thefact that the second revival continued to be a major force into theearly years of the 20th century . The third revival emphasized a shiftfrom personal responsibility in order to focus on social sin. Manypeople fought for the redistribution of wealth through the avenues ofcollective bargaining, and eventually, the creation of the governmentrelief system. Literal interpretation of the Bible was downplayed inorder to accommodate other theories and philosophies. The third revivalproduced a welfare state and a wider acceptance of humanism.

According to Mr. Fogel, the fourth great awakening is a focus onreturning to personal responsibility and Biblical values in a mannerwhich is somewhat reminiscent of the original "Great Awakening".

Is Mr. Fogel's assessment an accurate one? If so, is this revival offundamental Christian values going to be adequate for providing theU.S.A with direction for the future? Or does the American Christianrevival movement need to go in a new direction in order to continue tobe a force for positive change in America?

Religion has nothing to do with positive change in America.