Father of modern revivalism
Charles Finney was born in Warren, Connecticut, the seventh child of farming
parents. With land increasingly scarce and costly in Connecticut, in 1794 the
Finneys joined with many other young families in the westward migrations of
post-Revolutionary America. Charles first attended school in Hanover (now
Kirkland), New York. At the Hamilton Oneida Academy in Clinton the bright,
popular, six-foot-two student was introduced to classical education, singing,
and the cello. In 1812 Finney returned to Connecticut to attend the Warren
Academy. After teaching school for two years in New Jersey, he was forced by his
mother’s illness to return to New York. There in the town of Adams in 1818 he
began to study law. Although never formally admitted to the bar, Finney did
argue cases in the local justices’ court.
Finney’s religious conversion in 1821 dramatically changed the direction of his
life. He left law, claiming he had been given "a retainer from the Lord Jesus
Christ to plead his cause," and sought entry into the Presbyterian ministry.
Taken under care by the St. Lawrence Presbytery in 1823, Finney studied theology
with George Gale, his Princeton-trained pastor in Adams, later that year was
licensed to preach, and was ordained in 1824. Hired by the Female Missionary
Society of the Western District, Finney began working as a missionary to the
settlers of upstate New York.
Under Finney’s preaching, a series of revivals broke out in several villages in
Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties. By 1825 his work had spread to the towns of
Western, Troy, Utica, Rome, and Auburn. These so-called "Western Revivals"
(centered in Oneida County), brought Finney national fame. In them he used such
"new measures" as the "anxious seat" and protracted meetings (lasting several
days or weeks). He also allowed women to pray in public.
Not all were pleased with his success. Yale-trained revival leaders like Lyman
Beecher and Asahel Nettleton, troubled by false reports of alleged excesses,
joined with other evangelical leaders from the northeast in 1827 to discuss
their differences. At that meeting Finney emerged as the new leader of
evangelical revivalism. Between 1827 and 1832 Finney’s revivals swept cities
like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Rochester. Although he continued to
promote revivals throughout his life (including trips to England in 1849–1850
and 1859–1860), Finney’s early years marked the height of his revival career.
Forced by tuberculosis in 1832 to curtail his travels, Finney became pastor of
the Chatham Street Chapel (Second Free Presbyterian Church) in New York City.
Subsequently he held pastorates at the Broadway Tabernacle of New York City and
the First Congregational Church of Oberlin, Ohio—the latter for thirty-five
years beginning in 1837. In 1835 he became professor of theology at the newly
formed Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio (now Oberlin College), which he also
served as president (1851–1866).
Theologically, Finney was a "New School" Calvinist. His preaching and teaching
stressed the moral government of God, the ability of people to repent and make
themselves new hearts, the perfectibility of human nature and society, and the
need for Christians to apply their faith to daily living. For Finney, this
included investing one’s time and energy in establishing the millennial kingdom
of God on earth by winning converts and working for social reform (anti-slavery,
temperance).
Finney wrote several books, sermon collections, and articles. Among them were
his Lectures on Revival (1835), a kind of manual on how to lead
revivals; his Lectures on Systematic Theology (1846, 1847), reflecting
his brand of "arminianized Calvinism"; and his Memoirs (1876),
recounting his part in the nineteenth-century revivals.