Great spiritual awakening believed to be under way
The Baptist Press, December 31, 1998
The current hunger for spirituality is not just an American phenomenon. A search to find God is taking place worldwide in a variety of ways, and may be unprecedented in its scope and intensity, those who study religious trends say.
“I believe the greatest spiritual awakening of all time is taking place today,” Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ told The Washington Times. “More people are hearing the gospel. More people are responding to the gospel.”
Moral decay, financial disasters, and the emptiness of materialistic cultures are causing people to turn to religion for answers, says Martin Marty, director of the Public Religion Project. Many more people are reading religious texts such as the Bible and the Koran, studying at seminaries, meeting in prayer groups, and attending healing services.
Two-thirds of Americans say that religion could “solve all or most of our problems,” a Gallup poll found this year. Resources increasingly are being directed to U.S. churches because they have proven to be effective in treating social problems such as drug and alcohol addictions.
The 21st century is likely to bring a new era of religion, observers of trends say. Many people have turned to traditional faiths, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. Islam has 1.1 billion followers worldwide and is growing fast. One of every seven people in the world was a Muslim in 1950; today the number is one of five.
Evangelicals increasing
The number of evangelical Christians has grown 126 percent since 1970, while the world’s population has increased 60 percent since then. Christianity, which has 1.9 billion adherents, has become a major religion in non-Western areas. Pentecostal churches have 410 million members and are said to be growing by 20 million a year, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Religions find themselves “elbow to elbow, cheek by jowl” as they have spread around the world, Harvey Cox, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, told the Christian Science Monitor. This creates tensions and the opportunity for dialogue, he said.
Others, disillusioned by conventional religion or suspicious of institutional authority, have ventured outside of traditional dogmas and creeds, into areas such as the New Age movement. Some people design their own faith, selecting beliefs and practices from various religious traditions.
Young people increasingly find their religious communities in cyberspace. The Internet carries approximately 140 million pages related to religion. By the year 2010, 10 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population will rely exclusively or primarily on the Internet for religious purposes and will never attend a church again, said David Kinnaman, research director of the Barna Research Group.
Substitute for Church
One of six teens say they expect to use the Internet as a substitute for attending church within the next five years, Barna found. “You may tell your grandchildren that back in the old days, when people wanted a religious experience they attended a church for that purpose. Chances are good that your grandchildren will be shocked by such a revelation.”
The rise of religion contradicts predictions of 30 years ago. Some theologians said God was “dead.” Many observers tended to be condescending toward religion, which was considered declining in relevance, and saw science, reason, and technology as holding the keys to the future.