I’ve also had wonderful experiences in Christian rally groups and charismatic events.

Again, I’ve watched people drive on winter roads in ways likely to kill or seriously injure others, and people act in “spiritual” contexts in ways prone to manipulate, belittle, and take advantage of others.

People is people: more gracious than any angel could dream of; more destructive than any devil could aspire to. And that’s sometimes the same individual, one moment to the next.

Revival is really more my husband’s issue than mine. I’ve seen the divisions that revival can bring right in my own family. But most people talk about it as if it was the best part of their life and they wish they could stay there.

Let’s take Angus Buchan as another example of that. I did not grow up on stories of revival. I had to do some research to find out who Buchan is. One one hand, he is a faithful man of God, running an orphanage on his own property, and leading people in reportedly successful prayers for rain, crops and prosperity. On the other, he is apparently a man who preaches to tens of thousands of people at a time. All of them male. Almost all of them white. The vast majority of them Afrikaner. With the end of apartheid, it is much harder for these men to get and keep the well-paying jobs they once could take for granted. Thanks to new employment equity laws, they could end up competing for jobs with their own wives. It’s a rather drastic turnabout of affairs. And Buchan preaches to them at Mighty Men conferences, telling them that the way to fix the country is to take their proper place in their own families- the position of prophet, priest and king- earning bread for the table, cherishing and protecting their wives and disciplining their children. He preaches biblically supported roles for men and women, and the disempowered men come out in droves to hear him. An estimated 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since the end of apatheid, and Buchan preaches to the survivors that their masculinity might be restored.

As for communities coming together, it happens more often than one might think, especially if there is a sudden disaster that simple actions now might appreciably affect.

I grew up on stories of revival. Our church came from a denounced pentecostal revival. Orphanages mostly were given as examples of community coming together. The orphanage I helped out in India was a joint venture between our group, some Catholics, Anglicans and occasionally- Hindus. That may have been more from the fact that it is a good thing to support orphans rather than the Holy Spirit?

Perhaps the stories from Angus Buchan and South Africa have more to do with giving people a different ‘tribe’ so they stop fighting each other and come together to fight something else?

I’d say our tendency to group off into tribes (us vs them instead of I-thou) is at the root of religious differences.

But, revivals have claimed to overcome these differences, not on at an individual level, but on a community basis. I’ve only ever heard of Christian revivals though. Has anyone experienced a non-Christian ‘revival’? Would banding together to cheer for the same soccer team produce them same results?

All I know about Communism sounds much like the Christian church of the first century: no class distinctions, property owned in common, collective society making decisions for the common good, et cetera. It sounds like the Christian ideal.

Yes. It is called Communism. Particularly the Chinese and Russian varieties.

Yes, but what? Is it something within or outside of human nature? Is it always the same something, or could it be many different somethings, depending on the circumstances? If Christendom wasn’t spread by empires, would something else have filled the same role?

Is there anything outside of Christendom that has the same results as inspiring factions to destroy the other, and causing people to spend much of their lives fearing and hating the different and the unknown? Individually, there are many examples, but corporately, over the span of history? And does this really say anything about Christendom, or just about people?

One thing I am interested in is revival. There have been many self-reported cases of revival bringing about positive social change. I’m thinking of the Transformations video series about how revivals brought positive change in whole town and cities), Bruchko, the Auca/Waurani, revivals in South Africa lead by Angus Buchan, and even certain native tribes in Western Canada that credit Christianity with social improvement. I’ve been in India and witnessed how Christians treat the outcasts, tribals, lepers, orphans and widows so much better than many of their Hindu counterparts.

Is there anything outside of Christian revival that has the same results as bringing together warring factions of people, and causing people to spend much of their lives helping the poor and unfortunate? Individually I’m sure there are many examples, but corporately?

Isn’t the example of a changed life point to something?