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A History of Evangelicalism #5
The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott (Volume 5)
Evangelical Christianity underwent extraordinary expansion―geographically, culturally and theologically―in the second half of the twentieth century. How and why did it spread and change so much? How did its strategic responses to a rapidly changing world affect its diffusion, for better or for worse? This volume in the History of Evangelicalism series offers an authoritative survey of worldwide evangelicalism following the Second World War. It discusses the globalization of movements of mission, evangelism and revival, paying particular attention to the charismatic and neo-Pentecostal movements. The trends in evangelical biblical scholarship, preaching and apologetics were no less significant, including the discipline of hermeneutics in key issues. Extended treatment is given to the part played by southern-hemisphere Christianity in broadening evangelical understandings of mission. While the role of familiar leaders such as Billy Graham, John Stott, Carl Henry, Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Festo Kivengere receives full coverage, space is also given to lesser-known figures, such as Edward Carnell, Agnes Sanford, Orlando Costas, John Gatu and John Laird. The final chapter considers whether evangelical expansion has been at the price of theological coherence and stability, and discusses the phenomenon of "postevangelicalism." Painting a comprehensive picture of evangelicalism's development as well as narrating stories of influential individuals, events and organizations, The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism is a stimulating and informative contribution to a valuable series.
- GenresChurch HistoryHistory
283 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2013
3 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Brian Stanley
45 books14 followersA specialist in the field of the history of Christian missions and world Christianity, Brian Stanley is Professor Emeritus of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 10, 2021
"The battle for the integrity of the gospel in the opening years of the twenty-first century is being fought not primarily in the lecture rooms North American seminaries but in the shanty towns, urban slums and villages of Africa, Asia and Latin America." (p. 247)
An excellent and accessible overview the most recent period of evangelicalism. The one hesitation I have is that this is perhaps less 'global' than could be expected. I think it's fair to say that this is the story of the evangelicalism which was diffused globally, rather than the the story of the diffusion itself. At the same time, it comes as the conclusion of a series which is very much focused on the North Atlantic countries and is not meant to take in the full global picture. Stanley's writing reads very well and his analysis is clear and helpful. I especially appreciated seeing the constellation of my own influences set in a coherent story. The section on Lausanne is based on Stanley's own mining of the personal correspondence of key participants and is a real treat.
An excellent and accessible overview the most recent period of evangelicalism. The one hesitation I have is that this is perhaps less 'global' than could be expected. I think it's fair to say that this is the story of the evangelicalism which was diffused globally, rather than the the story of the diffusion itself. At the same time, it comes as the conclusion of a series which is very much focused on the North Atlantic countries and is not meant to take in the full global picture. Stanley's writing reads very well and his analysis is clear and helpful. I especially appreciated seeing the constellation of my own influences set in a coherent story. The section on Lausanne is based on Stanley's own mining of the personal correspondence of key participants and is a real treat.
June 12, 2014
The title of this book proposes an ambitious project and I am impressed with how well Brian Stanley pulls this off in under 250 pages of text. While focusing on the evangelical landscape in the U.S. and U.K.(hence Graham and Stott), he gives us a helpful overview of the global spread of the evangelical movement from 1945 to the year 2000.
He opens with exploring the dynamics of this period--communications, the spread of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world, and the growing evangelical influence of the majority world. He then goes back to the beginning of this period and explores the differentiation of evangelical from fundamentalist in its US, British, Canadian and Australian forms, marked most notably in the US with the establishment of Christianity Today as the print organ of the forming evangelical consensus.
The next chapter on missions, evangelism, and revival focuses on the development of Billy Graham's global ministry, the World Evangelical Fellowship, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and the East Africa Revival, and finally the work of Scripture Union in Africa. "Scholarship, the Bible, and Preaching" focuses on the beginnings of an evangelical effort to engage the biblical scholarship of the day and produce scholarly work consonant with an evangelical view of scripture, including the New Bible Commentary. Stanley explores the British controversy over inspiration and the later American one centered around Fuller Seminary over the issue of inerrancy. The chapter concludes with profiling the development of expository preaching as an expression of evangelical biblical conviction in the ministries of Martyn Lloyd Jones, John R. W. Stott, and James Boice.
Chapter 5 profiles the major evangelical apologists of the period beginning with Cornelius Van Til, Carl F.H. Henry, Edward J Carnell, Francis Schaeffer, and Leslie Newbigin. He also cites the philosophical work of Alvin Plantinga, and the appropriation by evangelicals of High Church Anglican, C.S. Lewis, whose approach to the Bible was anything but evangelical. Chapter 6 explores the history of world missions consultations and the increasing social justice emphasis beginning from a bare mention at Berlin 1966, to a greater majority world presence and emphasis at Lausanne 1974 and the increasing integration of evangelism and social justice efforts since.
Chapter 7 covers the global spread of pentecostalism and that rapid growth of pentecostal movements in the majority world. This often gets short shrift in Western contexts but is critical to understanding global evangelicalism. Then the book concludes with raising the disturbing question of whether evangelicalism is simply diffusing, or in fact disintegrating as a cohesive movement with a coherent theological stance. The book ends with the provocative idea that this may not be something decided in the West but in the Majority world.
I found this book a fascinating overview of this decisive period--how decisive, the next 50 years may tell. It makes one give thanks again for the vision and character of so many profiled in this book, notably John Stott and Billy Graham, but also many other scholars, pastors, evangelists and missionaries of this period. At the same time, I think the book shows evidence of, but fails to diagnose the critical issue of the lack of consensus with regard to what is meant by the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy (or infallibility, or trustworthiness) of the Bible that was oft fought over and also the source of an interpretive pluralism that could lead to disintegration of this movement. Does final authority lie with the individual interpreter, within "interpretive communities", in the tradition of biblical interpretation? Perhaps that would move beyond the descriptive character of this work and yet this issue is important in what seems a growing movement of frustrated evangelicals to Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. That being said, Stanley has given us a masterful overview of the development of evangelicalism up to the turn of the century.
He opens with exploring the dynamics of this period--communications, the spread of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world, and the growing evangelical influence of the majority world. He then goes back to the beginning of this period and explores the differentiation of evangelical from fundamentalist in its US, British, Canadian and Australian forms, marked most notably in the US with the establishment of Christianity Today as the print organ of the forming evangelical consensus.
The next chapter on missions, evangelism, and revival focuses on the development of Billy Graham's global ministry, the World Evangelical Fellowship, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, and the East Africa Revival, and finally the work of Scripture Union in Africa. "Scholarship, the Bible, and Preaching" focuses on the beginnings of an evangelical effort to engage the biblical scholarship of the day and produce scholarly work consonant with an evangelical view of scripture, including the New Bible Commentary. Stanley explores the British controversy over inspiration and the later American one centered around Fuller Seminary over the issue of inerrancy. The chapter concludes with profiling the development of expository preaching as an expression of evangelical biblical conviction in the ministries of Martyn Lloyd Jones, John R. W. Stott, and James Boice.
Chapter 5 profiles the major evangelical apologists of the period beginning with Cornelius Van Til, Carl F.H. Henry, Edward J Carnell, Francis Schaeffer, and Leslie Newbigin. He also cites the philosophical work of Alvin Plantinga, and the appropriation by evangelicals of High Church Anglican, C.S. Lewis, whose approach to the Bible was anything but evangelical. Chapter 6 explores the history of world missions consultations and the increasing social justice emphasis beginning from a bare mention at Berlin 1966, to a greater majority world presence and emphasis at Lausanne 1974 and the increasing integration of evangelism and social justice efforts since.
Chapter 7 covers the global spread of pentecostalism and that rapid growth of pentecostal movements in the majority world. This often gets short shrift in Western contexts but is critical to understanding global evangelicalism. Then the book concludes with raising the disturbing question of whether evangelicalism is simply diffusing, or in fact disintegrating as a cohesive movement with a coherent theological stance. The book ends with the provocative idea that this may not be something decided in the West but in the Majority world.
I found this book a fascinating overview of this decisive period--how decisive, the next 50 years may tell. It makes one give thanks again for the vision and character of so many profiled in this book, notably John Stott and Billy Graham, but also many other scholars, pastors, evangelists and missionaries of this period. At the same time, I think the book shows evidence of, but fails to diagnose the critical issue of the lack of consensus with regard to what is meant by the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy (or infallibility, or trustworthiness) of the Bible that was oft fought over and also the source of an interpretive pluralism that could lead to disintegration of this movement. Does final authority lie with the individual interpreter, within "interpretive communities", in the tradition of biblical interpretation? Perhaps that would move beyond the descriptive character of this work and yet this issue is important in what seems a growing movement of frustrated evangelicals to Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. That being said, Stanley has given us a masterful overview of the development of evangelicalism up to the turn of the century.
June 30, 2018
Having have read all the other books in this series at least twice (and dipped into them on loads of other occasions), I am a bit late on getting round to Brian Stanley's installment. There are two reasons for this apparent neglect. First, I was supposed to be getting a review copy, but the editor forgot to send it to me. Second, it came out at a time when I had a whole load of other books which I literally had to read before it, as they were more relevant to my PhD topic whereas this book is way outside my time-period (it covers c. 1945-2000). Nonetheless, I finally got round to starting this volume yesterday afternoon. I have scarcely been able to put it down. Had it not been for the fact that the Wiles lectures have been on, I would probably have finished it last night, rather than this afternoon.
All the books in this series represent an outstanding synthesis of the period under review, being written by one of the leading living historians of English-speaking Evangelicalism (Mark Noll, John Wolffe, and David Bebbington). This volume is no exception, as Professor Stanley displays a judicious mastery of a vast array of material covering an enormous amount of ground. This book should be required reading for students taking courses on the history of evangelicalism and should be eagerly devoured by all historians of religion. The clergy and well-read lay-people should make time to read this book, even if history is not "their thing".
While a number of difficult topics, including debates over biblical inerrancy, female ordination, and homosexuality are judiciously discussed, the reviewer thought that the chapter on Pentecostalism was probably the highlight of the book. If I was to be byper-critical, my only complaint would be that perhaps too much space was devoted to the Lausanne Covenant of 1974, while very little was said about Northern Ireland - even if C. S. Lewis gets mentioned a bit. Although I would agree that Billy Graham and John Stott are probably the leading figures in this particular age of evangelicalism, it was peculiar that Ian Paisley is not mentioned once in the book. Aside from this minor point, I cannot recommend this excellent survey highly enough. It is a close call as to whether or not Professor Stanley's book or John Wolffe's "The Expansion of Evangelicalism" is my favourite contribution to this outstanding series. The only slight downside is that the final volume in the series is out of sync chronologically, as it will cover the period from c. 1900-45.
All the books in this series represent an outstanding synthesis of the period under review, being written by one of the leading living historians of English-speaking Evangelicalism (Mark Noll, John Wolffe, and David Bebbington). This volume is no exception, as Professor Stanley displays a judicious mastery of a vast array of material covering an enormous amount of ground. This book should be required reading for students taking courses on the history of evangelicalism and should be eagerly devoured by all historians of religion. The clergy and well-read lay-people should make time to read this book, even if history is not "their thing".
While a number of difficult topics, including debates over biblical inerrancy, female ordination, and homosexuality are judiciously discussed, the reviewer thought that the chapter on Pentecostalism was probably the highlight of the book. If I was to be byper-critical, my only complaint would be that perhaps too much space was devoted to the Lausanne Covenant of 1974, while very little was said about Northern Ireland - even if C. S. Lewis gets mentioned a bit. Although I would agree that Billy Graham and John Stott are probably the leading figures in this particular age of evangelicalism, it was peculiar that Ian Paisley is not mentioned once in the book. Aside from this minor point, I cannot recommend this excellent survey highly enough. It is a close call as to whether or not Professor Stanley's book or John Wolffe's "The Expansion of Evangelicalism" is my favourite contribution to this outstanding series. The only slight downside is that the final volume in the series is out of sync chronologically, as it will cover the period from c. 1900-45.
September 11, 2014
We all have a personal experience of and perspective on the various people and movements who have influenced our Christian life. A book like this fills in the gaps and blind spots in that perspective very nicely.
November 20, 2019
Excellent final volume to a fantastic series of books. Those who want to understand Evangelicalism in its own terms and from a historically informed perspective must read this set.
I was impressed that the author brought this final volume all the way up to the (author's) present--a risky venture in such a book, and dependent on some degree of either guess-work or prophetic vision. It would have been tempting to end this book in the 80s or early 90s to allow some time and distance to give the author the benefit of greater objectivity. But I appreciate his boldness in bringing the series fully up to date (as of publication in 2013--it's too bad from the perspective of 2019 that he had not seen and commented on the crisis of American Evangelicalism in the age of Trump, though fortunately, he rightly identifies Evangelicalism not as a modern political movement but as the deeply religious and historically grounded movement that it is--a trap of far to many Evangelical ... commentators).
Probably most insightful to me was the chapter on Lausanne 1974--most of the chapters dealt with relatively familiar materials and names for me, but my more Fundamentalist background has left this chapter of history rather distant. Fascinating read.
The chapter on apologetic was (thankfully) very simply arranged, dealing in turns with various noteworthy apologists, giving their background and contribution to Evangelical apologetics. (Included are Van Til, Carnell, Henry, Schaeffer, Plantinga, Newbigin, and Lewis, with appropriate notes explaining the inclusion of the couple non-Evangelicals.)
Perhaps most interesting to me throughout the volume were the scattered occurrences of names familiar to me from their published works (commentaries, theologies, etc.), but now set into a historical context, especially those who made names for themselves by pushing the borders of more conservative evangelical convictions. For instance, C. K. Barrett is familiar to me through his commentary on 1 Corinthians, but here I find that he "was orthodox and Pauline in his theology but not markedly conservative in his view of Scripture" (p. 45). This, of course, has more to do with the perspective from which I read this book, and less to do with the intrinsic character of the book itself. Take it for what it's worth.
So, very highly recommended book and set.
I was impressed that the author brought this final volume all the way up to the (author's) present--a risky venture in such a book, and dependent on some degree of either guess-work or prophetic vision. It would have been tempting to end this book in the 80s or early 90s to allow some time and distance to give the author the benefit of greater objectivity. But I appreciate his boldness in bringing the series fully up to date (as of publication in 2013--it's too bad from the perspective of 2019 that he had not seen and commented on the crisis of American Evangelicalism in the age of Trump, though fortunately, he rightly identifies Evangelicalism not as a modern political movement but as the deeply religious and historically grounded movement that it is--a trap of far to many Evangelical ... commentators).
Probably most insightful to me was the chapter on Lausanne 1974--most of the chapters dealt with relatively familiar materials and names for me, but my more Fundamentalist background has left this chapter of history rather distant. Fascinating read.
The chapter on apologetic was (thankfully) very simply arranged, dealing in turns with various noteworthy apologists, giving their background and contribution to Evangelical apologetics. (Included are Van Til, Carnell, Henry, Schaeffer, Plantinga, Newbigin, and Lewis, with appropriate notes explaining the inclusion of the couple non-Evangelicals.)
Perhaps most interesting to me throughout the volume were the scattered occurrences of names familiar to me from their published works (commentaries, theologies, etc.), but now set into a historical context, especially those who made names for themselves by pushing the borders of more conservative evangelical convictions. For instance, C. K. Barrett is familiar to me through his commentary on 1 Corinthians, but here I find that he "was orthodox and Pauline in his theology but not markedly conservative in his view of Scripture" (p. 45). This, of course, has more to do with the perspective from which I read this book, and less to do with the intrinsic character of the book itself. Take it for what it's worth.
So, very highly recommended book and set.
March 15, 2026
The final book in the "History of Evangelicalism" series, "The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism" covers Evangelicalism from 1945 through approximately 2000. The book focuses particularly on Evangelicalism in global perspective, with a focus on the Global South - Nigeria in particular is covered sporadically, as are multiple other countries. Evangelism, revivals, Evangelical scholarship, and defending the faith in a changing cultural climate are covered in depth, as is Pentecostalism as an increasingly prominent component of Evangelicalism, and issues of gender and sexual ethics. I did find the book uneven at some points - the 1974 Lausanne convention was treated at too much (boring) depth. More importantly, the rise of the Religious Right in the United States was downplayed - there was no real treatment of this important aspect of contemporary Evangelicalism, which itself reverberates in global influence. Even while understanding the desire to take a wide and global view of Evangelicalism, this downplaying of significant political developments in modern Evangelicalism makes the book feel incomplete, especially in light of Evangelicalism's continued political relevance in the Trump era.
November 1, 2016
Final in a series of volumes published by the IVP on the history of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world. Because it's scope is the last half of the 20th century, to me this is the most relevant and interesting book in the series. In less than 300 well-written pages, the author presents an overview of the currents that have roiled the evangelical community over the past 60 or so years. Names and movements are discussed that I have encountered throughout my life in the church. The author brings coherence, perspective, and analysis to the "jumbled mess" that often characterizes the broad rubric of evangelicalism. The style is controlled, fast-moving, and easily accessible.
April 16, 2020
The subject matter was handled well but could easily have filled a volume twice its length. I thought that this was the best volume of the five in the series (A History of Evangelicalism). I had been waiting a long time to read the entire completed series but must confess that, as a whole, it was disappointing.
July 20, 2014
Very informative. Easy read. More information on political whims and organizations than needed. Would have like more depth in theology differences between organizations.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews