Johnson is an Assistant Professor of History at Yale University who especially enjoys the history of popular religion. (MORE?!?!?) To begin with, Johnson offers the argument of Emile Durkheim that religious beliefs give credence to moral rules, which govern society. By existing outside the individual himself, these rules allow an individual to be obedient to the social order while still retaining his independent identity. According to Durkheim, religion is grounded in certain types of social relationships. When fractures or problems in those relationships occur, there is a period of religious tension and a revival is the way of getting things back on track (p. 10-13). Johnson reasons that if we can identify the relationships between people that existed at the time and how they changed before the revival, we can determine the effects of it.…