History Department holds conference on awakenings and revivals

A conference, “Awakenings and Revivals in American History,” is drawing nearly 30 scholars from across the United States and Canada to Liberty University this weekend to discuss the history of major religious revivals and their impact in American history.

The conference, hosted by Liberty University’s History Department, will be held April 16-18 and includes speakers presenting research on the social, cultural and intellectual origins and influences of revivals and spiritual awakenings in America. Noted historians of Colonial American religious history, Dr. Timothy Hall of Central Michigan University, Dr. John Fea of Messiah College and Dr Thomas Kidd of Baylor University will each present an address examining the origins and influence of Evangelicalism in 18th century America.

The conference concludes on Saturday afternoon with a roundtable discussion of Kidd’s “The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America” (Yale, 2007), which recently won the 2008 Award of Merit from “Christianity Today” magazine.