Reflecting On The Asbury Revival Three Years On

The political consequences of the Asbury Revival will still be felt for years to come.

Thom Nickels | July 26, 2026

Having grown up in a Catholic family, evangelical revivals have always struck me as emotionally overwrought and lacking in substance. When people sway their bodies and/or fall to the floor in so-called “Spirit” motivated swoons, my initial response is to think of a Benedictine monastery where the spiritual manifestations are mostly interior, thanks to the powerful incantations of Gregorian chant.

When the evangelical Jesus Movement hit Protestantism in 1970, it was a given that it would soon seep into Catholic territory. The effect of this overlap did much to inspire what was then referred to as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, best represented by the National Cursillo Movement, which has been capitalizing on ecumenism and “extraverted” outpourings of the Spirit since the mid-1960s. In the 1970s, examples of this new “rapture” form of worship could be spotted in many Catholic churches: parishioners lifting up their hands in the manner of Southern Baptists as they recited the Our Father, or racing around the church in revival-like swirls at the “Kiss of Peace” during Mass.

But, as Rod Dreher noted in The American Conservative, “Kumbaya” worship is “definitely not my worship style, but the Holy Spirit surely doesn’t need my permission to show up and change hearts.”

Still, Catholics (at Mass) acting like evangelical Protestants seemed like some sort of heresy to me. This behavior was certainly anti-liturgical. As Catholics, we were taught to revere the Holy Spirit—or the Holy Ghost in pre-Vatican II terminology—and not scatter that mystical mystery around like parade confetti. By that I mean the mechanized and sometimes careless way in which millions of Christians invoke the Holy Spirit, in some cases dropping the word “Holy” so that the “Spirit” part seems to be on a par with New Age crystal seers who never define what “Spirit” they are invoking.

Fast forward to Asbury University, a small Christian college of 1,600 students in Wilmore, Kentucky, where on February 8, 2023, the required chapel service for students did not end. As one Asbury student noted, “Revival isn’t hype. It’s just ordinary people who are hungry. This is going to spread.” Prophecy........

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