In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Methodism was the most vigorous religious group in South Australia with the largest body of regular church attenders and Sunday school enrolments. A handful of Methodists were present at the commencement of the colony in 1836. By 1900, self-described Methodists comprised 25 per cent of the state's population, and hovered around the same figure through to 1939. This thesis explores the contribution of revivalism to conversionary growth and institutional expansion in the period from 1838, with the first recorded religious revival, to 1939. It results from a conviction that the study of revivalism within Methodism has received too little attention from historians. It is argued in this thesis that revivalism provided the Methodist churches with an effective methodology for conversionary growth in the quest for 'vital religion' - a religion of the heart. This study includes a chronology of recorded revival activities. Collation of the evidence has depended in large part on Steve Latham's taxonomy of revival. His six distinguishing forms of revival events provided the methodological framework for arranging and categorising the relevant information. The narrative includes a selective utilisation of both statistics and topics relevant to the argument. In addition, an 'Annual Conversion Index' locates each revival within its denominational context, while an examination of the number of reported conversions against membership data also enables an assessment of the contribution of revivalism to denominational growth. The main sources for reported conversions, membership, and narrative information were denominational periodicals and church statistics. Part One examines the place of revivalism in the initial colonial period from 1838 to 1865, with particular reference to the foundational elements within South Australian Methodism which aided revivalism. Part Two covers the period from 1866 to 1913. This examines the contribution of specialist revivalists of international or Australian origin who conducted large-scale missions in Adelaide alongside the revivals that occurred in rural and suburban Methodist circuits as the result of local evangelistic preaching. Part Three, from 1914 to 1939, examines how traditional revivalism adapted to various challenges, both intellectual and internal. There was diminished revival activity in the inter-war period. The thesis demonstrates that revivalism was far more extensive than previously thought, and was a very significant factor in the numerical growth of South Australian Methodism during the period studied.

Discover Australia’s Great Awakenings Australia is a nation forged in the furnace of revival. Long forgotten, Australia’s Spirit-filled history comes to life in Great Southland Revival. Discover how the flame of Pentecost spread from the book of Acts all the way to the South Pacific. Journey on convict ships and city trams, to goldfields, outback communities and far-flung islands transformed by the gospel. Most of all, be inspired that God longs to revive the church, sweep multitudes into His kingdom, and renew our world once again.

This book is the first critical biography of William Taylor, a nineteenth-century American missionary who worked on six continents. Following Taylor’s global odyssey, the volume maps the contours of the Methodist missionary tradition and illumines key historical foundations of contemporary world Christianity. A work of social history that places a leading Methodist missionary in the foreground, this narrative illustrates distinctive aspects and tensions within Methodist missions such as the importance of doctrines like universal atonement and entire sanctification, a deeply pragmatic orientation rooted in God’s providence, an embrace of both entrepreneurial initiatives and networked connection, and the use of revivalism for missionary outreach and leadership development. A Virginia native, Taylor became a Methodist preacher and missionary in California. This volume provides an important narrative account of Taylor’s career as an itinerant revivalist and popular author, in which he toured the eastern United States, the British Isles, and Australasia. Taylor’s participation in the South African revival made him an evangelical celebrity. The author also follows Taylor’s important visits to India and South America, where he initiated new Methodist missions in those contexts and pioneered the concept of “tentmaking” missions. In 1884, Taylor was elected missionary bishop of Africa by his church. By the end of his life, Taylor had recruited or inspired hundreds of Methodists to become foreign missionaries.