The Evangelical Quadrilateral. Vol. I: Characterizing the British Gospel Movement. Vol. II: The Denominational Mosaic of the British Gospel Movement

Abstract

For more than forty years David Bebbington has been one of the most prolific and influential historians of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British religion. His The Nonconformist Conscience (1982) explored the attitudes and political impact of Nonconformity between Forster’s Education Act of 1870 and the First World War; he has also written extensively on the life and thought of W. E. Gladstone. However, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, published in 1989, made Bebbington’s reputation as a scholar of the transatlantic evangelical movement, and his fourfold characterization of evangelical emphases—biblicism, conversionism, crucicentrism, and activism—has passed into historiographical tradition as the ‘Bebbington quadrilateral’.The present collection gathers thirty-two essays, articles, and papers into two volumes under the broad title of The Evangelical Quadrilateral. One paper, an essay on ‘The Rise of Charismatic Renewal in Britain’, is published here for the first time; the others have appeared over almost forty years in journals, conference proceedings, Festschriften, and other forms. The first volume focuses on evangelical identity: character and culture, American influence, doctrine and experience, history and science, and trends into the twenty-first century, developing themes applicable to evangelicals of many different denominational traditions. The second volume explores the ‘denominational mosaic’, with sections on Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, and a variety of ‘others’, from the Brethren to the Buchmanites of the Oxford Group.Methodism is generously represented in this collection. Almost half of the ‘denominational mosaic’ volume is made up of essays on aspects of Methodism history, from wide-ranging surveys of entire sanctification and spirituality across a century or case-studies of Free Methodism in Louth, Primitive Methodism in Weardale, and the innovative (and hitherto underappreciated) Home Mission endeavours of mid-nineteenth-century Wesleyanism. Methodism also features in the first volume, for instance in essays on holiness, science, cultural diffusion, and deathbed piety. Those familiar with Professor Bebbington’s work will not be surprised to find in each of the papers his characteristic breadth of research, strength and subtlety of analysis, engagement with other scholars, and ability to range widely, in period and place. Whether offering an overview of evangelical identity or a detailed study of an individual like D. L. Moody or Henry Drummond or drawing out the significance of a particular incident like the Fernley Lecture controversy of 1913, the argument is presented with incisive clarity, supported by a wealth of examples and illustrations.The obvious benefit of a collection such as this is the bringing together of papers previously scattered, some of which may have originally appeared in volumes or journals that are now difficult to obtain. As well as accessibility, proximity is also helpful, allowing explicit cross-reference and the interplay of one paper with another. Moreover, each volume begins with a substantial introduction, in which Professor Bebbington discusses developments in scholarship since the chapters were first published. The introductions serve as an annotated bibliography of recent research. In the case of volume I, the introduction examines criticisms of the approach taken by Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, concluding that the main lines of the analysis have stood the test of time. In particular, the author insists that the quadrilateral is historical and not normative: it seeks to show what the evangelical movement was, not what it ought to be.David Bebbington’s scholarly output would have allowed for another volume or two of his collected essays, without risk of repetition. Students and researchers will be grateful to the author and to Baylor University Press for making this material accessible, so that it can continue to stimulate engagement with the unfailingly fascinating phenomenon of evangelicalism.