This major textbook is a newly researched historical study of Evangelical religion in its British cultural setting from its inception in the time of John Wesley to charismatic renewal today. The Church of England, the Church of Scotland and the variety of Nonconformist denominations and sects in England, Scotland and Wales are discussed, but the book concentrates on the broad patterns of change affecting all the churches. It shows the great impact of the Evangelical movement on nineteenth-century Britain, accounts for its resurgence since the Second World War and argues that developments in the ideas and attitudes of the movement were shaped most by changes in British culture. The contemporary interest in the phenomenon of Fundamentalism, especially in the United States, makes the book especially timely.
David Bebbington is well known for his characterization of the Evangelical movement in terms of the four leading emphases of Bible, cross, conversion, and activism. This quadrilateral was expounded in his classic 1989 book Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Bebbington developed many of the themes in that book in articles published from the 1980s to the present, but until now most of those articles have remained little known. The present collection of thirty-two essays makes readily available these important explorations of key aspects in the history of Evangelicalism. The Evangelical movement arose in the eighteenth century in Britain and America as a revitalization of Protestantism. Sharing much with the Puritans who preceded them, the Evangelicals nevertheless adopted a fresh stance by making revival rather than reformation their priority. Coming from diverse denominations, they formed a zealous united front. Over subsequent centuries they grew in number and carried their message throughout the world, giving rise to many of the churches in the global South that have come to the forefront in world Christianity. The essays in this work deal chiefly with Britain, though a few place the British movement in a world setting. Because Evangelicals on both sides of the Atlantic interacted, reading much of the same literature and visiting each other, there was a great deal of common ground between the British and American movements. Hence many of the topics covered here relate to developments mirrored in the American churches over the last three centuries. The two volumes of The Evangelical Quadrilateral address different aspects of the Evangelical movement. The first volume deals with issues in the movement as a whole, and the second volume examines features of particular denominational bodies within Evangelicalism. Each volume contains an introductory essay reviewing recent literature in the field, and then a series of related essays. Volume 2, The Denominational Mosaic of the British Gospel Movement, turns to the movement's component parts. The essays cover such representative areas as the Islington Conference's influence in setting out the public stance of Anglican Evangelicals, the doctrine and spirituality of the Methodists, the Baptists in Britain in light of Nathan Hatch's thesis about the democratization of American Christianity, the role of the (so-called Plymouth) Brethren in world Evangelicalism, and the charismatic renewal that transformed church life in the postwar world. This second volume therefore brings out the wide range of denominations in the Evangelical mosaic.
Understand the history, core values, and divisions as they've developed within the Evangelical Christian movement. Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalismcompares and contrasts four distinct positions on the current fundamentalist-evangelical spectrum. Each contributor offers their case for one of four primary views: Fundamentalism – defended by Kevin T. Bauder Conservative/confessional evangelicalism – defended by R. Albert Mohler Jr. Generic evangelicalism – defended by John G. Stackhouse Jr. Postconservative evangelicalism – defended by Roger E. Olson Each author explains and defends his position, which is critiqued by the other three authors. The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.
This book examines the paradoxical relationship between the religious and political behaviors of American and British Evangelicals, who exhibit nearly identical religious canon and practice, but sharply divergent political beliefs and action. Relying on interviews with British religious and political elites (journalists, MPs, activists, clergy) as well as focus groups in ten Evangelical congregations, this study reveals that British Evangelicals, unlike their American counterparts known for their extensive involvement in party politics, have no discernible ideological or partisan orientation, choosing to pursue their political interests through civic or social organizations rather than electoral influence. It goes further to show that many British Evangelicals shun the label itself for its negative political connotations and in-/out-group sensibility, and choose to focus on a broader social justice imperative rendered almost incoherent by a lack of group identity. Placing itself at the forefront of an incipient but growing segment of comparative research into the intersectionality of religion and politics, the work satisfies a lacuna of how the same religious tradition can act differently in public squares contextualized by political and cultural variables.
This work continues the compelling History of Evangelism series in its effortto chart the course of English-speaking evangelicism over the last 300 years.300 pp.
This engaging book provides a gateway to larger themes in modern British history through a set of fascinating portraits of individuals that explore important events and movements from the perspective of the people involved. As a rich and humanized supplement to traditional survey texts, this book offers readers a deeper understanding of key facets of British life in the early modern and modern periods.
This title tells how John Erskine was the leading evangelical in the Church of Scotland in the latter half of the 18th century. It explores how, educated in an enlightened setting at Edinburgh University, he learned to appreciate the epistemology of John Locke and other empiricists.
David Bebbington--one of the most influential historians working today--is widely acknowledged as a world authority on religious history. He is also recognized for having devised the Bebbington Quadrilateral as the standard definition of evangelicalism, one of the most important global religious movements of the twenty-first century. In this lively study, Eileen Bebbington--who first met her husband as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge over forty years ago--paints a vivid portrait of the life and thought of this leading scholar. Many who know Professor Bebbington's most celebrated books, such as Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, Patterns in History, The Mind of Gladstone, and Victorian Religious Revivals, will be delighted to learn that his first such effort was actually A History of the Ancient World with Which Is Incorporated Classical Mythology, a duly footnoted, four-volume work written at the age of nine! A Patterned Life is much more than an account of the intellectual development of a preeminent historian; it is a study of a life lived as a disciple of Jesus Christ--a human and often humorous account of eccentricities, an honest acknowledgment of trials, and an inspiring witness to one person's efforts to integrate a deep, earnest Christian faith with the best of modern thought.
The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism sheds new light on the nature of evangelical religion by locating its rise with reference to major movements of the 18th century, including Modernity, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment.
A major study of the impact of the Swiss RTveil (Awakening) on British evangelicals in the 1820s. This book provides an important synthesis of a variety of tendencies and movements which have usually been treated and understood as separate. By resisting the temptation to read back into the 1820s the partisan labels of later decades, Timothy Stunt rediscovers the common ground which was shared by a wide spectrum of Christians who were later seen as mutually hostile. The author considers the influence of the Awakening on radical attitudes to mission and ecclesiastical radicalism in Ireland, pre-Tractarian Oxford, and Scotland. In dealing with the reluctant movement towards secession from the established church, Stunt illuminates and reinterprets the origins of the early Catholic Apostolic Church and the Brethren.
