Finney himself was a strong abolitionist and encouraged Christians to become involved in the antislavery movement. Christians became the leaders in many other social concerns such as education, prison reform, temperance, Sabbath observance, and women's rights. The large numbers of Christian workers for social reform became so influential they and the organizations they founded became known as the Benevolent Empire. The Second Great Awakening had a greater effect on society than any other revival in America. Christian History magazine has devoted an issue to Charles G. Finney.
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Iain H. Murray's Revival and Revivalism, available from Christian Book Distributors, can help us answer those questions. When the Second Great Awakening swept across America in the early 1800s, rustic Methodist campgrounds sprang up from Kentucky to New England. They were the setting for countless revivals marked by firebrand preaching, hymn-singing and emotional testifying that might last for days. Prepared by Ken Curtis PH.D., Beth Jacobson, Diana Severance Ph.D., Ann T. Snyder and Dan Graves.