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Fall Cron Lecture Looks at Great Awakenings Then and Now

An expert in American religious history will discuss the theologies of the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries and how they shaped today’s “Christian America” as part of the Fall Cron Lecture Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Newman Center, 91 Broad St., Plattsburgh.

Robert Harsh, retired counselor and adjunct lecturer at SUNY Plattsburgh, will speak to “A Christian America: Back When, Then, and Now,” examining the theological and social differences that America has gone through as the result of the religious revivals known as the First and Second Great Awakenings, which in the early 18th and late 19th centuries caused a sharp interest in religion and formation of new movements and denominations. Those changes helped bring about a Christian America and today’s preoccupations with the Religious Right, and what might now be termed the Third Great Awakening. 

Harsh studied American religious history at Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary and served as associate editor of Christianity and Crisis Magazine prior to moving to the North Country.

The Cron Lecture Series is sponsored by the Protestant Campus Ministry in honor of ministry founder, Rev. Karl Cron. Since its first lecture in 1997, the series has brought nationally renowned scholars to campus for guest lectures, class sessions and textural studies on topics in religion and culture.

Lecturers have included religious-studies scholars, biblical scholars, religious, social and environmental activists and more, including environmentalists Bill McKibben, National Book Award author Mark Kurlansky, and Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian Dr. Edward Larson.

For more information, contact Rev. Philip Richards, Protestant campus minister, at [email protected].

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