When talking about religion of the 19th century it would not be fair to not mention the third great awakening. The third great awakening took place from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The third great awakening resulted in approximately one million conversions to churches in the United States. Baptists added almost 200,000 to their numbers by baptism. The revival led to many young men being called into the ministry to preach the word of God. This revival helped people to prepare for the Civil War that started in 1861. In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, stating, “God has decided this question in favor of the slaves.” This was a type of turning point for religion in America as well as a turning point for freedom. In 1879, Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christian Science. In 1880 African Methodist Episcopal Church has over 800,00 members, and agnosticism is recognized in America. In 1890, Catholicism became America’s largest religion. The Protestants faced a divide when the liberals and conservatives disagreed about the inerrancy of the scripture. In 1906, The Los Angeles revival started the Pentecostal movement, and the first Hindu temple in America was built. In 1907, the Social Gospel Movement was started. The Social Gospel Movement was started by the Protestants in order to exterminate social sin so Christ could return. “Social sins” could be classified as drinking, gambling, impurity etc. This movement helped to bring about Prohibition.

   In the late 19th century to early 20th century there were many immigrants entering the United States. The immigrants had a significant impact to the churches of their time by significantly growing their numbers. The Roman Catholic churches grew significantly as well as the Jewish community.

   The Holiness Revival occurred in the late 19th century influenced by the teachings of John Wesley, who founded the Methodist church. The most successful church to come out of this movement was the church of the Nazarene, established in 1895. Pentecostal churches also came out of this holiness movement. The Pentecostal churches were more radical than the other churches of that time.

The National Baptist Convention was founded in 1880. The National Baptist Convention is comprised of black churches. There are many denominations within the church the largest one being the Church of God in Christ, whose main ideals are a stress on sanctification and speaking in tongues. At this time, there were churches that included both black and white members, but the black members only counted for a small portion of the congregations.

   All in all, this time period was instrumental in shaping the religious aspect of our nation today. Without all of these revivals and movements we would not have the different denominations that we have now. This period was a time of “great awakening” for the churches to reestablish and find themselves. Throughout this time there was much growth as well as some decline in the religious system. Without this time, religion would not be where it is today.