Other Recommended Publications

Anthony Wallace, “Revitalization Movements: Some Theoretical Considerations for their Comparative Study,” American Anthropologist 58:264-281.

Wallace helps correct the one-sided tendency to think of renewal in purely spiritual terms, divorced from the cultural and political. It is in that sense a corrective term, that helps us move the discussion to rigorous interdisciplinary work on specific revitalization movements found locally and globally.

Bradley C. Whitsel, “Anti-Government Movements and the Revitalization Process: An Examination of Anthony F.C. Wallace’s Theory of Revitalization as Applied to Domestic Terrorist and Extremist Groups,” Journal of Conflict Studies 25(1): 72-101, 2005.

William Abraham, The Logic of Renewal, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
Abraham presents an insightful exposition and evaluation of major approaches to renewal.

Michael E. Harkin, ed., Reassessing Revitalization Movements: Perspectives from North America and the Pacific Islands, Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.
Several case studies from different parts of the world evaluate the applicability of Anthony Wallace’s theory of revitalization movements. Cases include Indian revolts in California, cargo cults in New Guinea, conversion among the Cherokee, the Wasitay religion of Hudson Bay, identity in Tahiti, and the Warm House cult of western Oregon.

Alf Walle, “Native Americans and Alcoholism Therapy: The Example of Handsome Lake as a Tool of Recovery,” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse 3(2): 55-79, 2004.
Examines the case of Handsome Lake, a charismatic leader who overcame alcoholism and led a revitalization movement among the Iroquois. Focuses on the affect of revitalization on substance abuse recovery among Native Americans.

C. Taylor, “Elite Reform and Popular Heresy in c. 1000: `Revitalization Movements’ as a Model for Understanding Religious Dissidence Historically,” Studies in Church History 42: 41-53, 2006.

Alicia Hughes-Jones, “Reconciling America’s Divided Society Through Religious Revitalization,”Direction 32(1): 10-20, Spring 2003.
Argues that Wallace’s theory of religious revitalization can be applied in the U.S. case as a way to reconcile the various racial, ethnic, and interest groups with the dominant society.

Michael W. Phelan, “Cultural Revitalization Movements in Organization Change Management,”Journal of Change Management 5(1): 47-56, March 2005.
Applies Wallace’s theory to the analysis of organizational change management. “Applying the psychodynamics of revitalization explains how this procedure of corporate culture change in distressed organizational cultures creates an adaptable culture of new behavioral norms. The driving force of this procedure is the transference of dependency wishes among anxious organization members onto their perceived powerful organization leader. An understanding of how and why organizational cultures change according to this model can guide the values and behavior of organizational leaders in successfully managing organizational change” (from abstract).

Matthew Orr, “Environmental Decline and the Rise of Religion,” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 38(4): 895-910, December 2003.
“Historically, crises have spawned deliberate, widespread efforts to change a culture’s worldviews. Anthropologists have characterized such efforts as ‘revitalization movements’ and speculated that many of the world’s religions, including Christianity, arose through revitalization. Some responses to the planet’s environmental crisis share the characteristics of both a revitalization movement and an incipient religion. They call for a science-based cosmology and an encompassing reverence for nature, and thus differ from responses to environmental decline offered by traditional religions. As environmental problems deepen, historical precedent suggests that religious shifts in affected cultures may follow.”

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Renewal, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1979. - A now-classic discussion that treats historical models, particularly Puritans and Pietists.