This week in Christian history: English pope dies, Charles Finney born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 27, 2023

Charles Finney born – Aug. 29, 1792

A portrait of Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), the famous 19th century revival preacher. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Charles Grandison Finney, an influential 19th century revival preacher, was born in Warren, Litchfield County, Connecticut.

A former teacher and attorney, Finney had a born-again religious experience in 1821 that led him to become a preacher, with him reaching large numbers of Americans during the Second Great Awakening.

“Few men have had a more pervasive influence for holiness and revival in America than Charles Grandison Finney,” wrote Robert Coleman, a distinguished professor of evangelism at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, in 2005.

“His anointed ministry, spanning half the nineteenth century, is said to have brought no less than 500,000 persons into the Kingdom of God' and introduced multiplied thousands more into what he called an experience of ‘perfect love.’”