This volume is a collection of thirty-one essays that offer a comprehensive history of the early evangelical movement in Great Britain, North America, and Europe during the long eighteenth century. Edited by Jonathan Yeager, the book features an impressive lineup of distinguished authors.
The book is divided into four parts that present different angles of vision on early evangelicalism. Part I, “Context,” contains two chapters investigating the social and intellectual contexts for the rise of evangelicalism. Part II, “Churches and Movements,” presents an exhaustive overview of the regional and denominational variety of the movement. Particularly noteworthy is Jan Stievermann's superb essay on German Pietism, which expertly traces the intertwined histories of German Pietism and Anglophone evangelicalism. Part III, “The Culture of Evangelicalism,” identifies some of the key features of early evangelicals’ theology and practice, including their anti-Catholicism, their ambivalence about slavery, and their missionary spirit. Two excellent essays – Wendy Raphael Roberts on “Poetry” and Mark Noll on “Hymnody” – reveal why future historians should pay greater attention to evangelicalism and the arts.
Part IV, “Personalities,” is both the richest section of the volume and in some ways, the least satisfying. Those who think that there is nothing left to say about Jonathan Edwards will want to read Kenneth Minkema's fresh interpretation of Edwards's interest in mysticism, Cabbalism, quietism, and vitalism. But Part IV is structured so that it includes essays about white, male leaders – Edwards, John Erskine, and George Whitefield – with no attention to the fact that they were white men. In contrast, the contributors writing about indigenous, women, and black evangelicals seem to have been asked to write about particular figures and to draw larger conclusions about race and gender. The titles are instructive. Jonathan Yeager's essay, “John Erskine and Transatlantic Correspondent Networks” does not refer to Erskine's identity as a white man, but Vincent Carreta's essay, “Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley Peters, and the Black Evangelical Experience,” points to the experience of early black evangelicals as a whole. Race and gender are also important categories in Hilary E. Weis's and Anthony Trujillo's essay, “Samson Occom, Joseph Johnson, and New England Native American Evangelicalism,” and Cynthia Aalders's essay, “Ann Bolton and Early Evangelical Women.” The unintended message of the closing pages of the volume is that race and gender deserve analysis, but only for early evangelicals who were neither white nor male.
This is a regrettable flaw in an otherwise rich collection of essays. Those who are interested in the early history of evangelicalism will learn much from this volume, which is highly recommended.
