David William Bebbington

Evangelicalism : comparative studies of popular Protestantism in North America, the British Isles, and beyond, 1700-1990

The first comparative history of one of the most dynamic popular religious movements in recent times, Evangelicalism offers a uniquely comprehensive survey of this complex phenomenon from its emergence in the mid-eighteenth century to the present. International in scope, the book includes essays by leading American, Canadian, English, Irish, Scottish, and Australian scholars and compares developments in every major region in the English-speaking world. The contributors examine the many ways that evangelicalism has been shaped by its popular nature, and explore the international networks of communication that have given it much of its distinctive character, from trans-Atlantic publishing networks in the eighteenth century to mass-marketing campaigns in the twentieth, and covering a wide range of other influences and trends, including Methodism, the legacy of George Whitefield, the American Civil War, anti-Catholicism, religious and civil revolution, and Pentecostalism. Based on path-breaking scholarship, this book is vital to students of religion who wish to grasp the breadth and complexity of evangelicalism as a social and political force as well as an irreducibly religious phenomenon.

The nonconformist conscience : chapel and politics, 1870-1914

1. Nonconformists and their Politics 2. The Quest for Religious Equality 3. The Problems of Society 4. The Free Church Council Movement 5. The Irish Question 6. The Role of Britain in the World 7. The Education of the People 8. The End of the Conscience Notes. Index

Gladstone centenary essays

W. E. Gladstone towers over the politics of the nineteenth century. He is known for his policies of financial rectitude, his campaigns to settle the Irish question and his championship of the rights of small nations. He remains the only British Prime Minister to have served for four separate terms. In 1998 an international conference at Chester College brought together Gladstone scholars to mark the centenary of his death, and many of the papers presented on that occasion are published in this volume. Covering the whole of the statesmans long political life from the first Reform Act to the last decade of the nineteenth century, they range over topics as diverse as parliamentary reform and free trade, Gladstones English Nonconformist supporters and his Irish Unionist opponents. A select bibliography, arranged by subject, supplies guidance for further research. The collection forms a tribute, appreciative but critical, to the Grand Old Man of British politics.

Christian Higher Education in Europe: A Historical Analysis

The history of Christian higher education in Europe may be analyzed in terms of seven eras. From their medieval origins in scholasticism and the practical needs of students and rulers, universities passed through Renaissance humanism to a period of decay, yet remained substantially Christian in intent. The Enlightenment exercised a partially secularizing influence, and the neohumanist reaction against it also tended to dilute the faith. The recent era of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has been associated with the rise of postmodernism and the involvement of the state in the quest for relevance. A Christian response to contemporary circumstances is to engage with the cultural currents of the present day and, in drawing on the thought of John Henry Newman and Sir Walter Moberly, to ensure the integration of Christianity into higher education so that discussion of ultimate questions is informed by the Christian faith.

Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism in the United Kingdom during the Twentieth Century

I: BEFORE FUNDAMENTALISM II: THE BEGINNINGS OF BRITISH FUNDAMENTALISM III: THE LATER TWENTIETH CENTURY IV: NATIONAL VARIATIONS V: THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS

The Baptist Colleges in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract The era between the 1830s and the opening of the 1860s witnessed a gradual shift in Baptist ministerial education. Nonconformists were becoming more respectable; and educational standards were rising in society at large. There was therefore a tendency for an academy to turn into a college. A change of scale meant that several institutions grew into larger bodies. The setting often altered from basic provision to grand facilities. The instruction delivered generally ceased to be amateurish and became more professional. The purpose shifted further from evangelism to study. Standards rose from the elementary to the advanced. The range of studies tended to move from a narrower to a broader variety. And the theology shifted from a confessional to an evangelical stance. Although there was resistance to the trends, especially from C. H. Spurgeon, traditional academies were becoming colleges with a newer ethos.

BRITISH BAPTIST CRUCICENTRISM SINCE THE LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: Part 1

Abstract The cross has always been central to Baptist theology and spirituality but the approach has varied as Baptists have tried to relate gospel and culture for each generation. This second part considers that of Victorian and twentieth-century Baptists.

The Mid-Victorian Revolution in Wesleyan Methodist Home Mission (Forthcoming/Available Online)

Wesleyan Methodists in Victorian Britain are supposed to have been hampered by traditional methods of mission. From the 1850s onwards, however, they launched a strategy of appointing home missionary ministers. Although Wesleyans adopted no new theology, left structures unchanged and still relied on wealthy laymen, they developed fresh work in cities, employed paid lay agents, used women more and recruited children as fundraisers. Organised missions, temperance activity and military chaplaincies bolstered their impact. District Missionaries and Connexional Evangelists were appointed and, in opposition to ritualist clergy, Wesleyans increasingly saw themselves as Nonconformists. They experienced a quiet revolution in home mission.

The Textual Culture of English Protestant Dissent, 1720–1800, by Tessa Whitehouse

The Textual Culture of English Protestant Dissent, 1720-1800, Tessa Whitehouse, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, xiii + 250 pp., 978-0-19-871784-3

The Textual Culture of English Protestant Dissent, 1720-1800 (Book Review) (Forthcoming/Available Online)

The Textual Culture of English Protestant Dissent, 1720-1800, Tessa Whitehouse, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, xiii + 250 pp., 978-0-19-871784-3