The Evangelical Quadrilateral: The Denominational Mosaic of the British Gospel Movement

by David Bebbington

Publisher:

Baylor University Press

, 2021

Overview

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.

Key Features

• Examines features of particular denominational bodies within Evangelicalism
• Explores key aspects in the history of Evangelicalism

Contents

• Introduction: The Evangelical Mosaic

I Anglicans

• 1 The Islington Conference: The Seat of Authority in Anglican Evangelicalism
• 2 Bishop J. C. Ryle: Holiness, Mission and Churchmanship

II Methodists

• 3 Entire Sanctification in Methodism during the Nineteenth Century
• 4 The Dimensions of Methodist Spirituality, c. 1800-c. 1950

III Wesleyan Methodists

• 5 The Mid-Victorian Revolution in Wesleyan Methodist Home Mission
• 6 The Evangelical Conscience: Hugh Price Hughes as Exemplar
• 7 The Persecution of George Jackson: A British Fundamentalist Controversy

IV Other Methodists

• 8 Primitive Methodism in Weardale: The Intellectual Attainments of Evangelical Nonconformity
• 9 Free Methodism in Louth: The Spirit of Secession in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

V Baptists

• 10 The Democratization of British Christianity: The British Case, 1770-1870
• 11 Baptists and the Cross since the Late Eighteenth Century
• 12 Baptists, Church and State in the Nineteenth Century

VI Others: Brethren and a Presbyterian

• 13 The Brethren in International Evangelicalism
• 14 Henry Drummond: A Presbyterian, Evangelicalism and Science

VII Others: The Oxford Group and Charismatic Renewal

• 15 The Oxford Group
• 16 The Rise of Charismatic Renewal in Britain

Praise for The Evangelical Quadrilateral

David Bebbington’s important scholarship has shaped an entire field. I am delighted to see his classic essays gathered in one place and made readily available to a new generation. Eminently readable and always insightful, these essays represent Bebbington at his best. They belong on the shelf of every serious scholar of evangelical history.

—Dana L. Robert, Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and History of Mission, Boston University

In this superb collection, Professor Bebbington, one of our foremost historians of modern Christianity, investigates the history, character, outreach, and diversification of British Evangelicalism from the eighteenth century to the present. He shows that far from being opposed to our modernising world, British Evangelicalism has been dynamic, socially concerned, and often progressive—and very much engaged with broader cultural movements, including the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Modernism. Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Bebbington’s essays explore Evangelical identity in its widest sense, and will be savoured by all those with interests in the history of Christianity in Britain, and the larger world.

—Stewart J. Brown, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, University of Edinburgh

Speaking from these monumental pages is clearly the most authoritative voice on the history of British Evangelicalism in its transnational connections. In two volumes spanning centuries and continents, Bebbington shows with assiduity and rigour how British evangelicalism responded and adapted to cultural change, political currents, and historical tides. Drawing the reader into a compelling mosaic of sermons and worship, history and theology, convictions and conversions, Bebbington brings to life not just what unifies evangelicals across denominational lines and national borders. He also shows in rich contours the diversity and transformability of British Evangelicalism. This collection of essays is nuanced, probing, and valuable; it will be the definitive work on British Evangelicalism for years to come.

—Uta A. Balbier, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, King’s College London

Product Details

• Title: The Evangelical Quadrilateral: The Denominational Mosaic of the British Gospel Movement
• Author: David Bebbington
• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• ISBNs: 9781481313797, 9781481314503, 1481313797, 1481314505
• Resource ID: LLS:VNGLCLQDRLMVMNT
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-26T16:25:29Z

About David Bebbington

David W. Bebbington (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His principal research interests are in the history of politics, religion and society in Britain from the eighteenth to the twentieth century and in the history of the global evangelical movement. His recent books include Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (1989), Victorian Nonconformity (1992), William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain (1993) and Holiness in Nineteenth-Century England (2000). He has edited The Baptists in Scotland (1988), Evangelicalism: Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles and Beyond, 1700-1990 (1994), Gladstone Centenary Essays (2000), The Gospel in the World: International Baptists Studies (2002) and Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations (2003).