As The World Turns

I thought these timelines were interesting and well done, they are from an excellent series that Russell is doing.

The first listing is a map of the great Awakenings that have occured in Anglo-American history since the Reformation:

The Protestant Reformation (1517-1542) In addition to the continental effects, the Reformation transformed England from a bastion of Catholic Loyalists to a Protestant stalwart.

The Puritan Awakening (1621-1649) A golden era of reformed theology that led to a renewed emphasis on Christ's lordship over all aspects of life. The postmillenial hope that puritans held fired their imaginations to seek out the New World and build a city shining on a hill.

The Great Awakening (1727-1746) After settled colonists hardened into rigid european class distinctions, this great season of revival shaped the revolutionary generation, stamping them with a passionate individualistic faith.

The Transcendental Awakening (1822-1844) A season of renewed spiritual interest that led to the abolition movement, and to the creation of new sects (many of the heretical -- like the Jehovah's witnesses and the Mormons)

The Third Great Awakening (1886-1908) A season of reform, utopianism and birth of the social gospel.

The Consciousness Revolution (1964-1984) The time in which new age movement, modern charismatic movement, and the New evangelical movement all came into their own as shapers of American culture.

The second listing show's chronologcially the great crises -- the winters of Anglo-American culture (which roughly happen every 80-100 years), which reshaped the foundational ways in which culture worked. After these crises, everything was different:

Wars of the Roses Crisis (1459-1487) -- Medeival feifdom-structured England is torn apart by competing houses for the throne. However England emerges from the crisis as a modern monarchial nation-state with a strong centralized administration ready to direct the course of the nation

Armada Crisis (1569-1594)-- England is a protestant Isle nearly alone in the rising tide of Spanish Catholic Hegemony. England emerges as a global superpower with an expanding world empire.

The Glorious Revolution Crisis (1675-1704) American colonies are backwaters in the empire, suffering terrible defeats by the Indians and the French, and neglected by England who is locked in a life and death struggle with Louis XIV of France for control of the world. America emerges from the crisis as a viable cosmopolitan culture, and England emerged triumphant over their rival superpower.

The American Revolution Crisis (1773-1794) The American colonies establish themselves as an independent state and successfully launch an experiment in self-government that would soon inspire revolution in the old world.

The Civil War Crisis (1860-1865) -- America begins as fractured regionally, economically, and socially. It emerges with a strong Federal government and a true sense of being a union.

The Depression and World War II Crisis (1929-1946) -- transformed the isolationist America, mired into decadence and stagnation of the roaring twenties, into a global superpower whose business and industry created an economy that was the envy of the world.


HT:Russell Smith