Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism, The

The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism. By Robert William Fogel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. 383 pp. $25.00 (cloth).

The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism is a striking interpretation of American economic and religious history by Robert Fogel, the 1993 Nobel Prize winner in economics and Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago School of Business. An innovative economist, he is known for his controversial work (co-authored with Stanley L. Engerman) on American slavery, Time on the Cross (1974). In fact, Fogel writes that The Fourth Great Awakening grew out of his study of slavery and the religious movement against it. He notes a connection between the evangelical "great awakenings" and subsequent political movements. In fact, he holds that one cannot understand current political, cultural, and moral trends without understanding these religious awakenings in American history and their subsequent social, economic, and political reform movements. Thus, the first Great Awakening began in the 1730s and led to the American Revolution. The second began around 1800 and resulted in the anti-slavery movement that precipitated the Civil War. The third began at the end of the nineteenth century, leading to the Social Gospel movement, the rise of the twentieth century welfare state, and a secular technocracy or knowledge class.

This new work is a wide-ranging study that relates religion to economics, politics, technology, and what he calls "technophysio evolution." His controversial claim is that a fourth "Great Awakening," which began around 1960, is just now entering its political phase. As earlier "awakenings" brought better health, working and living conditions, and a higher standard of living, so this one is bringing new priorities. Spiritual (or immaterial) inequity is now as great a problem as material inequity, and so this "awakening" can focus on distributing non-material resources across society by promoting "self-realization," and "egalitarianism." According to Fogel, then, we can acquire more 11 spiritual equity" through "the democratization of self-realization," to be accomplished by "life-long education," accompanied by a "sense of purpose," a "vision of opportunity," a "strong family ethic," engagement with "diverse groups," a "thirst for knowledge," and greater "self-esteem."

The framework for his book is borrowed, as the author fully acknowledges, from William G. McLoughlin's Revivals, Awakenings, and Reforms (1978). In his study of how religious impulses have had profound consequences in American political history, McLoughlin speculated that a fourth great awakening may have started around 1960, and this provides Fogel his thesis in the central chapter of his book, "The Emergence of a Post-Modern Egalitarian Agenda." However, he has modified McLoughlin's thesis by altering the number of awakenings and lengthening their historical impact. Thus each of these awakenings are divided into three phases: religious awakening; the transformation of the awakening into a political agenda; and this agenda's ultimate reform or replacement.

While McLoughlin understood the fourth "awakening"-perhaps more accurately-as a countercultural, radical, and anti-religious phenomenon, Fogel views it as a conservative, evangelical and enthusiastic form of Christianity. Fogel contends that now "the evangelical churches represent the leading edge" of reform. However, if this is so, the dissonance between what most "evangelical Churches" would promote (pro-life, conservative politics, etc.) and Fogel's "spiritual equity" becomes striking. Religious folk, especially the conservative variety who are Fogel's "leading edge," would view life's purpose as glorifying God. Improving society may be a means to that end but is never the end in itself. Fogel, it seems, prioritizes the betterment of society. Further, what counts as a "spiritual resource"? Fogel provides the reader with a list, including such items as: sense of purpose, vision of opportunity, strong family ethic, sense of community, ethic of benevolence, work ethic, thirst for knowledge, self-esteem. Most of these are fine, but not necessarily the virtues that a religious awakening (or the Christian tradition) might inculcate. Certainly if Fogel is correct about the conservative and evangelical nature of this "awakening," then this list would not reflect their primary goals. In addition, Fogel doesn't attempt to demonstrate why these specific items should be on his list. Why not the cardinal virtues, or poverty, chastity, and obedience? Perhaps faith, hope and love? Indeed, why an "awakening"?

IAIN S. MACLEAN

James Madison University Harrisonburg, Virginia

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Fall 2001
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