British Evangelicals Research Articles

Wesley and the Anglicans: Political Division in Early Evangelicalism by Ryan Nicholas Danker

Reviewed by: Wesley and the Anglicans: Political Division in Early Evangelicalism by Ryan Nicholas Danker Kenneth M. Loyer Wesley and the Anglicans: Political Division in Early Evangelicalism. By Ryan Nicholas Danker. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press Academic. 2016. Pp. 304. $26.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-8308-5122-5.) In this work, Ryan Danker explores the significant but often contentious relationships between John Wesley and other Anglican clergy involved in the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival. Danker challenges the standard explanation that the separation of Wesley and Evangelicals within the Church of England toward the end of the 1760s was simply the outcome of theological debate, primarily about predestination and Christian perfection—the Arminianism of the Wesleyan Methodists versus the Calvinism of Anglican Evangelicals. He argues instead that while theology certainly played a role in the Evangelical Revival and in the ultimate separation of these two groups, important social and political pressures also need to be considered. Chapter One describes the Evangelical clergy within the Church of England in order to begin to delineate their relationship to Wesley. In Chapter Two Danker shows how Wesley fit within the larger picture of English Evangelicalism. He situates Wesley and his evangelical conversion at Aldersgate, where his heart was "strangely warmed," in the overarching context of the trans-Atlantic revival. Use of public tracts by Wesley and his opponents alike is the subject of Chapter Three, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the power of print materials in shaping public perceptions of the broader evangelical movement. That section is followed by a contextual examination of Methodist structure and its implications for the eventual separation between Wesleyan Methodists and Anglican Evangelicals, an endeavor that spans the next three chapters and covers a range of topics including Methodist society, class, and band meetings; Wesley's use of lay preachers; and eucharistic administration by lay preachers. These distinctive practices espoused by Wesleyan Methodists strained their relationships, and particularly Wesley's relationships, with Evangelical Anglicans, to the point of sometimes arousing suspicion of Methodist rebellion against the Church of England. For example, the work of Methodist lay preachers within parishes with an already established Evangelical Anglican presence raised concerns about Methodist incursions into [End Page 595] Anglican Evangelical enclaves and contributed to growing divisions between these two groups. Taken together, these practices critical to the formation of Methodist identity reflected an increasingly distinct ethos and polity for Wesleyan Methodists over against Anglicans, and those social and structural differences contributed in their own right to the later split between Methodists and Anglican Evangelicals. Chapter Seven highlights political dynamics that further divided these groups. A changing political environment under George III led to a certain imperialistic hegemony and tainted public impressions of evangelicalism. Danker describes the expulsions of six Oxford students in 1768 for "methodistical behaviour" and the ensuing political and ecclesiastical fallout, which exemplified a larger political and cultural trend toward marginalizing Evangelicals and squashing dissent, perceived or actual. These emerging political realities added to the forces pushing Wesley and the Methodist movement to the periphery of Anglican life. In chapter Eight, Danker proposes a new Anglican historiography, one that views Wesley as a high churchman influenced by traditional elements common to Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Christianity (such as an emphasis on the centrality of the Eucharist and ancient forms of liturgy) and focused on patristic writings. By contrast, the Evangelical Anglicans of Wesley's day were primarily influenced by renewed interest in the theology of the English Reformers and the Puritans. This paradigm sheds light on the theological controversies that erupted between these groups throughout the eighteenth century. The conclusion brings together salient themes and analyzes Wesley's failed attempts in the 1760s to form an Evangelical union based on shared theological commitments. As Danker concludes, such efforts had little or no chance of effectiveness, given the convergence of various factors—including social, political, and ecclesiastical dynamics, and not simply theological concerns—that together account for the deterioration of Evangelical/Methodist relations. From beginning to end, Danker effectively locates ecclesiastical and theological differences within their broader context in eighteenth-century England. The result is an engaging and richly detailed account of the development of evangelicalism and early...

Heaven on Earth: Reimagining Time and Eternity in Nineteenth-Century British Evangelicalism, by Martin Spence

Heaven on Earth: Reimagining Time and Eternity in Nineteenth-Century British Evangelicalism, by Martin Spence

The Protestant Reception of Jan Hus in Great Britain and the American Colonies

ABSTRACT Czech reformer Jan Hus (c. 1372–1415) has enjoyed a venerated place in Protestantism. Martin Luther's initial disdain for him was quickly transformed once he read Hus's sermons. Instead of rehearsing the literature of the early Protestants the article researches the untapped documents of the early modern period. In particular, the reception of Hus is traced in the writings of seventeenth-century British and American Puritans and eighteenth-century British and American Evangelicals. The ecclesiastical histories from this same period are also examined and provide a fuller and more critical exploration into Hus's life, especially his trial at Constance. Throughout these writings Hus has been highly acclaimed and celebrated as a champion of truth amid the persecution of the Roman Church and a significant reformer of the church.

Heaven on earth. Reimagining time and eternity in nineteenth-century British Evangelicalism. By Martin Spence (foreword David W. Bebbington ). Pp. xv +307. Eugene, Or: Pickwick Publications, 2015. $36 (paper). 978 1 62032 259 8

Heaven on earth. Reimagining time and eternity in nineteenth-century British Evangelicalism. By Martin Spence (foreword David W. Bebbington ). Pp. xv +307. Eugene, O<scp>r</scp>: Pickwick Publications, 2015. $36 (paper). 978 1 62032 259 8

The politics of being Muslim and being British in the British Christian print media

AbstractThere have been a significant number of published studies in recent years on the British media representation of Muslims. These studies have tended to focus only on the British mainstream media, and to my knowledge, there is no significant research on the discursive construction of British Muslims in alternative media outlets. This paper attempts to fill this gap, focusing on the representations of British Muslims in the British Christian print media. Drawing on empirical data relating to four British Christian print media, Church Times, The Tablet, Evangelicals Now and Evangelical Times, this paper investigates how the questions of being Muslim and being British are dealt with in the British Christian print media, and the extent to which the politics of being Muslim and being British inform us about identity formation and affirmation.

Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525–1590 by Karl Gunther

Reviewed by: Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525–1590 by Karl Gunther Aidan Norrie Gunther, Karl, Reformation Unbound: Protestant Visions of Reform in England, 1525–1590 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2014; Adobe ebook; pp. 293; R.R.P. US $79.00; ISBN 9781316057285; hardback; £65.00; ISBN 9781107074484. In Reformation Unbound, Karl Gunther provides an important revision of the current historiographical opinion on reform in Reformation England. Gunther’s expertly argued thesis rests on the observation that English evangelicals ‘were envisioning the reformation in ways that were far more radical than we have hitherto recognized’, and that they ‘had been part of the English Reformation’ from its beginning (p. 9). Chapter 1 provides a re-evaluation of the intellectual landscape of early English Protestantism, and argues that calls for ecclesiastical reform were not an Elizabethan phenomenon, but were ‘being openly canvassed at its very start’ (p. 10). Chapter 2 reveals the inherent conflict between peace and reform: few evangelicals shared Henry VIII’s belief that the establishment of a national Church would ‘bring an end to religious strife’ (p. 11). Many reformers believed that living according to Christ’s teaching would cause ‘permanent strife between the followers of Christ and the children of Satan’ (p. 11). Chapter 3 focuses on the anti-Nicodemite sentiment that flourished among Marian Protestants, and argues that anti-Nicodemism did not disappear with Elizabeth’s accession, but continued to be debated well into the 1590s. Chapter 4 analyses the continuance of ‘resistance theory’ after Elizabeth’s succession. Gunther argues that the accession of a Protestant monarch did not ‘lead to the abandonment of the more expansive conception of religious authority and godly activism that had taken hold during Mary’s reign’ (p. 133). Instead, Marian persecution had convinced reformers that their work ‘must proceed, with or without the monarch’s assistance’ (p. 157). Chapter 5 re-evaluates the Troubles at Frankfurt. Gunther argues that the dispute over the Book of Common Prayer in 1554–55 actually demonstrates a concern to commit ‘returning exiles to purge the Elizabethan Church of the “remnants of popery”’ (p. 160). In Chapter 6, Gunther argues that the vestments controversy of 1565–66 was not merely a dispute between Protestants, but that ‘Catholics were aggressive and crucially important participants’ (p. 13) in the debate. [End Page 268] In Chapter 7, Gunther demonstrates that Puritan beliefs were not unprecedented, but actually based on similar opinions found in rediscovered works of leading figures of the Henrician Reformation. Puritans could thus argue that they ‘were the true heirs of the English Protestant tradition, and that it was the conformists … who had departed from the original reforming spirit’ (p. 14). Reformation Unbound is an engagingly written and well-referenced reevaluation of the Protestant visions of reform in the sixteenth century, and is an invaluable reference work. Aidan Norrie University of Otago Copyright © 2016 Aidan Norrie

Book Review: The British Evangelical Dilemma, 1790-1833: Doreen M. Rosman, Evangelicals and Culture

Book Review: The British Evangelical Dilemma, 1790-1833: Doreen M. Rosman, Evangelicals and Culture

English Evangelicals and Tudor Obedience, c.1527-1570. By RYAN M. REEVES.

English Evangelicals and Tudor Obedience, c.1527-1570. By RYAN M. REEVES.

English Evangelicals and Tudor Obedience, c.1527–1570

English Evangelicals and Tudor Obedience, c.1527–1570

Music and Theology in Nineteenth-Century Britain ed. by Martin V. Clarke (review)

Music and Theology in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Edited by Martin V. Clarke. (Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain.) Farnham, Surrey, Eng.; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012. [xvii, 262 p. ISBN 9781409409892. $114.95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.A new title in Ashgate's Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain series, this publi- cation lives up to the series' interdiscipli- nary ambitions by presenting eleven essays by thirteen authors working in a wide range of fields, including historical musicology, theology, hymnology, English literature, communications media, and church music history. The result is an eclectic collection of essays that explores topics as diverse as the changing repertory of the Anglican choral anthem, the role of British hymnody in the colonization of Madagascar, and the impact of Darwinian thought on nineteenth- century theories about music's spiritual ba- sis. The topics examined and approaches taken are as varied as the authors involved, and while this leads to a certain unsteadi- ness of method and approach, the richness and novelty of the contributions make the book well worth it. Not that everything here is new. The relationship between music and theology may well be a burgeoning subject, as the editor Martin Clarke asserts (p. 1), but it is one that has long exercised hymnologists, who are well represented in the book. A number of contributors are, in fact, well-known writers on hymnody and congregational song; their essays trace fa- miliar themes while still offering fresh in- sights and perspectives. Mel Wilhoit's dis- cussion of American gospel hymnody ably recounts the story of Ira David Sankey and Dwight Lyman Moody's impact on British evangelicalism in the 1870s and 1880s while also examining them within the context of nineteenth-century revivalism in general. He suggests that the general softening of hard-line Calvinism during the period, the shift towards a more reassuring and senti- mental theology, had much to do with their success. Martin Clarke's comparison of two early Victorian hymnbooks, one Evangeli- cal, the other Anglo-Catholic, investigates how the two groups positioned themselves in response to the Church of England's growing acceptance of hymn-singing (as opposed to psalm-singing, which had long been permitted) in church services. Evan- gelicals welcomed new texts and tunes so long as they were scripturally based or per- sonal in tone, while Anglo-Catholics stressed the revival of ancient texts and tunes that reinforced Catholic liturgies and traditions of communal worship. Again, the argument is not exactly new, but it is well presented, and ends with a striking observa- tion about hymns as markers of theologi- cal identity (p. 34) for each of the differ- ent factions of the nineteenth-century Anglican Church. Similar conclusions in- form Ian Bradley's efforts to pin down the character of a wide range of hymns and hymntunes, though his expansion of the field of inquiry to include High Church and Broad Church groups as well, breaks down in an overzealous need to prove his case. Each of the four main parties within the Established Church clearly had a unique cast, but they over- lapped in subtle ways that Bradley's analy- sis, for all its sensitivity on the subject, sometimes ignores.Questions of theological identity also inform C. Michael Hawn and June Hadden Hobbs's study of hymn texts authored by British and American women, though their injection of feminist criticism puts the dis- cussion onto a different plane altogether. Here, the personal imagery of Evangelical hymns, explored in other essays, is linked to the language of intimacy and the poetics of small things (pp. 61, 69) by which many Victorian women, confined by increasingly strict gender roles, found an outlet for self- expression. The essay explores connections between religious devotion and sexual sub- limation, and suggests that the identifica- tion of women and the domestic sphere with passion and spirituality-a cliche of nineteenth-century Anglophone culture- was partly a consequence of the popularity of Evangelical hymns. …

“Engaged in the Same Glorious Cause”: Anglo–American Connections in the American Missionary Entrance into India, 1790–1815

In December 1812, American missionary Samuel Newell sent word of the death of his wife Harriet Newell, to Joseph Hardcastle, a man he had never met. Hardcastle was a director of the London Missionary Society, and for a missionary of the American Board exiled from India in the midst of the War of 1812, he was the only hope of getting news back to the United States. This article examines the beginnings of American foreign missionary work during the early republic, focusing on the relationship between American and British evangelicals. When British missionaries first began working in India in the 1790s, American evangelicals watched their progress eagerly. Americans interested in missions soon came to argue that they, too, had a duty to evangelize the whole world. With the formation of the ABCFM in 1810, Americans sponsored their own missionaries to the region only to find that working within the British Empire presented new and unexpected challenges. When the first missionaries left American shores for South Asia, the War of 1812 began before they reached their destination and the politics of empire affected the mission and its supporters. By examining the ways that missionaries and their supporters negotiated the tensions between their national identity as Americans and their religious identity as evangelical Christians, this article argues that for these Americans, national identity was created in a global context.

The Cambridge Seven, Late Victorian Culture, and the Chinese Frontier

While some gender studies have examined dimensions of British masculinity with regard to the empire, they often have neglected the constitutive role that Christian faith played in the formation of British masculinity and the ways that British Christians constructed ideal masculine character. This essay reassesses the Cambridge Seven’s significance in the construction of a British evangelical masculinity in the late Victorian period. It argues that British evangelicals utilized the ideals the Seven collectively represented to construct a Christian masculinity in relation to the foreign frontier. This analysis suggests that both faith and the foreign mission field were integral dimensions of British evangelical masculinity. Ultimately, the Seven’s experiences in China challenged and subverted many of these ideal constructions.

The Role of Nature and Post-Pastoral Signs in William Blake’s “Night” and “A Little Girl Lost”

This study traces the role of nature in William Blake’s “Night” and “A Little Girl Lost” through the application of three out of six crucial features of Gifford’s Post-pastoral principles. Within the framework of the Eco-critical paradigm, which is still very much a work in progress, the analysis of these poems from this perspective puts emphasis on the sense of sorrow towards the natural world, the exploitation of the planet, here the Earth, which is of the same as the oppression and exploitation of women and minorities, and the recognition of the inner world and the workings of the outer world; i.e., man’s inner nature can be understood in relation to his external nature. Moreover, from Post-pastoral perspective, this paper shows the oppressive treatments of female being and identity which is one of the consequences of the industrialism as well as the restricted norms of British Evangelical Church. Women are among those who are suppressed and deprived from the privileges of life except prostitution. Finally, this study sheds more light on Blake’s implication of Jerusalem in relation to man’s continuous desire to reach a compromise between the inner and outer natures

‘Science in the Hands of Love’: British Evangelical Missionaries and Colonial Development in Africa, c. 1940–60

During the era of colonial development, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and the London Missionary Society (LMS) revitalised their work by taking advantage of the 1940 Colonial Development and Welfare Act to uplift British Africa. These evangelical organisations did not simply appropriate governmental ideas of development, but formulated their own concepts based on the incarnational theology of the ‘whole man’ with body and soul. In implementing their developmental policies, these evangelicals promoted Christ's example of a ‘servant’ to guide missionary conduct as they encountered increased African criticism of colonialism following the Second World War. Both organisations shifted to focusing more closely on souls rather than bodies when African independence movements strengthened during the mid and late 1950s in hopes that Christian ideology would steer Africans towards Christian democracies. By 1960, the CMS and LMS stressed their relationship within the ecumenical Church in their efforts to emancipate themselves from their colonial ties. Through examining missionary discourse on colonial development, this article reveals not only the complexity of development discourse, but also the various ways in which evangelical missionary organisations sought relevance within the context of the Cold War, the rise of the welfare and expert state, and decolonisation.

A brief history of spirituality

Preface. Introduction: What is Spirituality?. Contemporary Meaning. Spirituality and History. Interpretation. Periods and Traditions. 1 Foundations: Scriptures and Early Church. Christian Spirituality and the Scriptures. Scriptural Markers. Spirituality in the New Testament. Spirituality and the Early Church. Liturgy. Spirituality and Martyrdom. Spirituality and Doctrine. Origen. Evagrius. The Cappadocians. Augustine. Pseudo-Dionysius. Christian Spirituality as Transformation and Mission. Theories of Spiritual Transformation. Conclusion. 2 The Monastic Paradigm: 300-1150. The Emergence of Monasticism. Widows and Virgins. Syrian Ascetics. Egyptian Monasticism. Wisdom of the Desert. Monastic Rules. Benedictine Expansion. The New Hermits. The Cistercians. The Spiritual Values of Monasticism. Spirituality and the Conversion of Europe. Local Spiritualities: Ireland. Spirituality in the East. Syriac Conclusion. 3 Spirituality in the City: 1150-1450. The Gregorian Reform. The Vita Evangelica. Twelfth-Century Renaissance. The Rebirth of Cities. Cathedrals and Urban Vision. The City as Sacred. Universities as Sacred Space. Vita Evangelica and Urban Sensibilities. The Mendicant Movement. Dominic, Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure. The Beguines. Fourteenth-Century Mysticism. Devotional Spirituality and Eastern Christianity. The Renaissance. Conclusion. 4 Spiritualities in the Age of Reformations: 1450-1700. Seeds of Reform: The Devotio Moderna and Christian Humanism. The Crisis of Medieval Spirituality and the Lutheran Reformation. John Calvin and Reformed Anabaptist Anglican Puritan Early Quakers. The Catholic Reformation. The New Orders. Ignatius Loyola and Early Ignatian Carmelite Mysticism. Lay Devotion. Seventeenth-Century French Conclusion. 5 Spirituality in an Age of Reason: 1700-1900. Spirituality in the Roman Catholic Tradition. Pietism. Wesleyan Puritanism and the Great Awakening. Shaker Orthodox Post-Revolutionary Catholicism. The English Evangelicals. The Oxford Movement. John Henry Newman. A Distinctive American Spirituality. Conclusion. 6 Modernity to Postmodernity: 1900-2000. The Impact on Evelyn Underhill. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Simone Weil. Dorothy Day. Thomas Merton. Spiritualities of Liberation. Gustavo Gutierrez. Feminist Spiritualities of Reconciliation. Ecumenical Spirituality: The Example of Taize. Spirituality and Inter-Religious Dialogue: Bede Griffiths. Making Spirituality Democratic: The Retreat Movement. Making Spirituality Democratic: The Charismatic Movement. Conclusion. Epilogue. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index

Michael S.Whiting: Luther in English: The Influence of His Theology of Law and Gospel on Early English Evangelicals 1525–35. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010; pp. viii + 360.

Michael S.Whiting: Luther in English: The Influence of His Theology of Law and Gospel on Early English Evangelicals 1525–35. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2010; pp. viii + 360.

Keswick and the East African Revival: An Historiographical Reappraisal

AbstractThe history of the East African Revival has been understood predominantly from the perspective of British missionaries who were associated with the movement in the 1930s and 1940s. The most enduring of these narratives defined the revival by its relation to the English Keswick‐influenced evangelicalism of the Western missionaries associated with the revival. This bias can be observed not only in the basic narrative of the revival, but also in the missionaries’ definition of ‘revival’, which served to exclude from considerations related groups that did not meet the missionaries’ standards. Subsequent historians and anthropologists have largely followed the lead of these initial missionary reporters of the revival. This has resulted in a historiography that conceives the movement primarily in its relationship to European missionaries in general and conservative British evangelicalism in particular. Consequently, significant dimensions of the revival’s impact upon late colonial East Africa have been neglected, such as the movement’s relationship to pre‐Christian African religions, late colonial politics, African‐language literature and literacy, and other contemporary movements of spiritual renewal. Investigation into such topics is only beginning to emerge with regard to the revival movement. What these varied studies indicate is that the history of the revival is best understood not in its relation to English evangelicalism, but rather as a Christian movement that was shaped by African hands, infused with African life, and carried with an African beat. It is, after all, an African story.

Humanitarian Narratives: Knowledge and the Politics of Mission and Empire

AbstractThis essay offers a reassessment of the connections between missionary work and empire building. It focuses on the role of 'humanitarian narratives' in soliciting sympathy amongst British evangelicals and humanitarians for the 'suffering' of Maori during the 1820s and 1830s. Exploring the nature and influence of these narratives not only allows the historian to explore the connections between the empire and British metropolitan culture and politics in this period, but it also provides new insights into why New Zealand was finally incorporated into the British empire in 1840.

EVANGELICALISM AND CAPITALISM IN TRANSLANTIC CONTEXT

This article is a critical engagement with political scientist William Connolly’s book Christianity and Capitalism: American Style. Connolly’s analysis of the ways in which evangelical Christianity and capitalist agendas interrelate in the US context is outlined and critiqued in terms of its tendency to homogenise the US evangelical movement and overstate its incorporation of right wing political interests. Its theoretical framework is also critiqued, but developed in light of its potential to generate insights into the global context of evangelical influence, including as a vehicle for capitalist values. This is explored in terms of US influence upon British evangelicalism and what this reveals about the circulation of evangelical-capitalist ideas within a transatlantic context. A case study is offered of the Willow Creek sponsored Global Leadership Summit by way of illustration.

Fatherhood in British Evangelical Christianity: Negotiating with Mainstream Culture

This article explores fatherhood in evangelical Christianity in the United Kingdom, using a case study of the evangelical movement Newfrontiers, a network with nearly 200 U.K. churches that has been relatively successful against a backdrop of declining church attendance in Britain. Material from the movement’s public discourse and participant observation and interviews in a local congregation are examined to explore how these Christians understand and practice fatherhood. Like evangelicals in the United States, Newfrontiers combine older ideas about responsible, breadwinner fatherhood with new concepts of emotionally involved fathering. Like American evangelicals, they aim to maintain biblical values while embracing contemporary culture in order to be relevant to society. What is noticeable is that despite the more traditional ideals their leaders advocate, evangelical congregations’ fatherhood ideals and practices are very similar to those of mainstream U.K. society. Thus, the article concludes that mainstream culture is exercising a greater influence on British evangelicals than theology.