Charles Grandison Finney
A fiery preacher who turned religious revivals into a mass spectacle, reshaping American Christianity with his emotional, theatrical style.
1792–1875 (age 83)·American minister and writer·Birthday: August 29
Biography
Charles Grandison Finney began his adult life as a lawyer, but a dramatic conversion experience in 1821 sent him down a different path. He brought a lawyer's precision and a showman's flair to the pulpit, becoming the central engine of the Second Great Awakening. Rejecting the staid Calvinism of his era, Finney preached that salvation was a choice available to all, and he employed 'new measures' like the 'anxious bench'—a seat for those wrestling with conversion—to create public, emotional spectacles. His revivals in cities like Rochester, New York, were major civic events that drew thousands and fueled social reform movements, particularly abolitionism. Finney's legacy is a more democratic, emotionally expressive form of Protestantism that permanently altered the American religious landscape.
#1 When Charles Was Born
The biggest hits of 1792
Charles's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1792Born
1797Started school
1805Became a teenager
1808Could drive
1810Could vote
1813Turned 21
1822Turned 30
1832Turned 40
1842Turned 50
1852Turned 60
1862Turned 70
President: Abraham Lincoln
1872Turned 80
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Died at 83
President: Ulysses S. Grant
Key Achievements
- His 1830-31 Rochester, New York, revival became a model for urban evangelism and social reform.
- Authored 'Lectures on Revivals of Religion' (1835), a manual that systematized his revivalist techniques.
- Served as president of Oberlin College, a progressive institution that admitted women and African Americans.
- Became a leading voice for abolitionism, using his pulpit to argue passionately against slavery.
Did You Know?
He was known to point at individuals in his congregation and address them directly about their sins.
Finney initially trained and worked as a schoolteacher and then a lawyer before his religious conversion.
He allowed women to pray aloud in mixed-gender gatherings, a controversial practice at the time.
His preaching style was so intense he was sometimes accused of causing hysterical fits in attendees.
“A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.”
