In his introduction, Johnson discusses the historical context for the 1830s Rochester religious revival—a phenomenon he will analyze throughout A Shopkeeper’s Millennium. The book focuses on how the preacher Finney ignited a resurgence of Christian faith in the bourgeoning city of Rochester, beginning in fall 1830. Johnson argues that Finney’s religious revival is historically important as it “climaxed a generation of revivals that historians have called the Second Great Awakening” (4). By “systematically” uncovering the societal forces that led to Rochester’s evangelical revival, Johnson hopes to shed light on the role that religious revivals more generally played in 19th-century America (13).

The preaching of evangelists such as Finney fundamentally altered core Protestant theology in the early 19th-century. Prior to such evangelists, most American Protestants followed the teachings of Calvinism, which preached that human beings were either innately sinful or predestined to enter Heaven. In contrast, Finney and other evangelists believe that every individual has the capacity to be good and must actively pursue such a life through prayer. Such teachings led the middle class to develop an “activist” attitude toward converting non-Christians, and they begin to believe that through prayer they can help spur the second coming of Christ—a belief known as “millennialism” (5).