The Fifth Great Awakening was an Abrahamic religious awakening that some scholars agree took place in the United States in the late 2050s and early 2080s, following World War III. It affected primarily Christian religious denominations, as well as the smaller Jewish and Muslim communities in the US, and had a strong element of social activism.
Whether or not they constitute an awakening, many changes did take place. The "mainline" Christian churches weakened sharply in both membership and influence while the new religious denominations (such as the Magdaleneans and Enochians) grew rapidly in numbers, spread across the United States, had grave internal theological battles and schisms, and became politically powerful. At the same time, secularism grew dramatically, and the more conservative churches saw themselves battling secularism in terms of issues such as non-human rights, genetic modification, and antediluvian history.
New religious movements[]
Concomitant to the power shift was a change in evangelicalism itself, with new groups arising and extant ones switching their focus. There was a new emphasis on an impersonal and almost academic relationship with God. This period also saw the rise of reforms and growth to the Roman Catholic Church while mainline Protestantism lost many members.
Many scholars argue the awakening began in earnest between 2063 and 2075 shortly after First Contact. This stemmed from a Catholic movement that placed emphasis on experiencing what they saw as a metaphysical or ethereal relationship with God, rejecting most mortal claims to the miraculous. It also focused on strengthening spiritual convictions through good works. Originally a Protestant movement, its influence spread to some in the Roman Catholic Church at a time when Catholic leaders were opening up to new beliefs, to a renewed emphasis on institutional structures and the new dogmatic interpretations.
Trends[]
Organized religion changed in the face of secularizing pressures after World War III. Notable examples include the growth of local parishes, the growth of denominations such as the Community of Lilu, the Enochians, the Magdaleneans, and the post-World War III influence of new scientific discoveries such as genetic engineering, the multiverse, and non-human intelligence. The awakening's major trends were largely aimed at trying to reconcile the last century of scientific discovery and social trends with traditional religious dogma in the Abrahamic faiths. Most outright rejected the literal, even moral teachings of mainstream scriptures, and chose rather to focus on apocryphal and antediluvian stories while studying the exact nature of humanity's relationship with God. Among Roman Catholics this manifested in new teachings that regarded the stories of the Old and New Testament as anecdotal history of mankind's struggle against its own failings and a passive recognition of the necessity of traditions in the past and their new obsolescence in the present.
Among protestant denominations (which had seen sharp declines in membership during the period of secularization that began at the end of the Fourth Great Awakening) there was a far greater emphasis on Christian mysticism and truly ancient stories. New faiths arose that rejected the Young Earth movement in favor of a greater emphasis on the mysterious and long history of the antediluvian stories. Some denominations directly reflected changes in society with major revisions to scriptural interpretations. The Community of Lilu, for example, incorporated elements of militant feminism, blaming Adam and Eve for human misery and honoring Lilith as a tragic figure of creation. Magdaleneans were founded on the idea of a lost Holy Bloodline from Christ's decedents through Mary Magdalene. Enochians outright rejected the King James Bible in favor of one much closer to the direct translations of the original texts from the Book of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and practiced many of the pseudo-mystical rituals as laid out in those texts.
By this point in history Islam had grown to be the third largest religious denomination in the United States thanks to the post-Flood surge in immigration from South Asia and Africa. In the US the new generation of Muslim-Americans began to push back against their parents and grandparents religious traditions, founding some of the United States' first reform minded Madrassa's that would go on to become some of the country's most important religious colleges in successive generations like Detroit's Dawood University and Minneapolis's Islamic University of Cedar-Riverside. Like its Christian counterparts, this movement was intersectional and saw younger Muslims in the US incorporate more liberal traditions with regard to the rights of women and LGBT people. In particular, there was a de-emphasizing of the importance of Surah Al-Ahzab 33:59 in the Quran, along with a broader loosening of restrictions for religious dress.