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A History of Evangelicalism #4
The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond (Volume 4)
The Disruption of Evangelicalism is the first comprehensive account of the evangelical tradition across the English-speaking world from the end of the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It offers fresh perspectives on conversionism and the life of faith, biblical and theological perspectives, social engagement, and mission. Tracing these trajectories through a period of great turbulence in world history, we see the deepening of an evangelical diversity. And as events unfold, we notice the spectrum of evangelicalism fragments in varied and often competing strands. Dividing the era into two phases before 1914 and after 1918 draws out the impact of the Great War of 1914 18 as evangelicals renegotiated their identity in the modern world. By accenting his account with the careers of selected key figures, Geoffrey Treloar illustrates the very different responses of evangelicals to the demands of a critical and transitional period.The Disruption of Evangelicalism sets out a case that deserves the attention of both professional and arm-chair historians."
335 pages, Hardcover
Published March 7, 2017
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October 30, 2018
Summary: Countering the existing narrative of evangelicalism at its zenith before World War I followed by a great reversal, this work argues a more positive assessment of evangelical response to the disruptions of war.
The fourth volume in the series of the History of Evangelicalism Series covers the years of 1900 to 1940. The standard narrative is of evangelicalism reaching a pinnacle of influence at the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910, followed by the challenges of the Great War (World War I), and sent reeling into retreat by the forces of modernism and the post war boom and depression, resulting in a bunker-mentality fundamentalism. Geoffrey R. Treloar argues for a more positive assessment of evangelicalism throughout this period while noting the challenges, external and internal that it faced during this time.
Treloar understands Bebbington's four marks of evangelicalism in terms of intersecting axes. One axis is the biblicist-crucicentrist axis focused upon doctrine and more inward looking and the other axis the conversionist-activist experiential axis. Broadly speaking, the first period between 1900 and 1914 focused around the more outward looking conversionist-activist axis. Two figures exemplified this period--the revivalist Reuben A. Torrey and the missionary statesmen and ecumenist John R. Mott, who presided over the 1910 Edinburgh Missions Conference with its watchword, "the evangelization of the world in this generation." Scholars like A. S. Peake were engaging modern biblical criticism, although the first signs of a conservative approach concerned with doctrinal integrity was evident in the publication and distribution of The Fundamentals to pastors.
The second period was the Great War of 1914-1918. Evangelicals rallied to support the war effort of the Allied Powers and an ethic of laying down one's life shaped the zeal of many who fought. And many did, while others returned, some stronger in faith, but others shattered by the horrors of trench warfare. Evangelicals struggled with the tension between supposed "Christian nations" who did not act very Christianly at Versailles. The revival expected during and after the war did not occur. While church attendance did not fall off, neither was there the vibrancy of the pre-war period.
This leads to the third discernible period in Treloar's survey. He explores the tensions within the diverse evangelical movement, responding to modernism. On the one hand is a more liberal evangelicalism that attempts to hang on to its core of faith while engaging modernist ideas and social involvement. On the other, there is the rise of a fundamentalism concerned with doctrinal integrity and maintaining the priority of evangelism. Two figures Treloar focuses on here is Aimee Semple McPherson, representing the growing pentecostal movement and the uses of the new technology of radio, and Thomas Chatterton (T. C.) Hammond, whose work, first with the Church of Ireland as an evangelist and pastor, where he honed skills in articulating a winsome and theologically acute Christian faith, and later with the newly formed Inter-Varsity Fellowship and the Anglican Church in Australia. He was most know for a manual of doctrine, In Understanding Be Men, used to equip non-theological students with a knowledge of evangelical doctrine. Meanwhile J. Edwin Orr continued to study and mobilize believers to pursue revival in the church, and Australian Lionel Fletcher widely evangelized, seeing as many as 250,000 conversions in his extensive travels. By the 1930's, a vibrant missions movement had also revived.
Treloar's point is that while the war represented a definite disruption in the trajectory of evangelicalism, and an unraveling of the various strands of the movement, after a nadir period in the 1920's, this very diversity resulted in a renewal of both axes--the doctrinal biblicist-crucicentrist, and the conversionist-activist.
I do think Treloar offers a more nuanced rendering of this history. Yet I believe he ignores the critique Mark Noll makes in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Noll notes that both the activist, and conservative theological commitments led to a disengagement with modernist scholarship, and a retreat from serious influence in the academic world. Apart from the theological rigor of the IVF in Great Britain and related institutions like Tyndale House, I would contend that this period represented a serious retreat and reversal in the market place of ideas, if not in other aspects, a retreat reversed only with the rise of the post-World War II evangelicalism of Carl Henry and his like.
As a side note, I was fascinated by Treloar's focus on T. C. Hammond. His In Understanding Be Men was still in print in the mid-1970's and was the theological handbook I studied in my early years on InterVarsity/USA staff. I was saddened to learn that Hammond was associated with a "White Australia Policy" as were many American churchmen in the 1920's with "100 Percent Americanism." Ideas of white supremacy and racism, sadly have a long history in evangelicalism.
Treloar does a great service in chronicling this period of evangelical history, often relegated to a kind of evangelical "dark ages" far less illustrious that the eras that preceded and followed. He helps us see that far more was going on in both theological and missiological formation in the evangelical movement than is often credited.
The fourth volume in the series of the History of Evangelicalism Series covers the years of 1900 to 1940. The standard narrative is of evangelicalism reaching a pinnacle of influence at the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910, followed by the challenges of the Great War (World War I), and sent reeling into retreat by the forces of modernism and the post war boom and depression, resulting in a bunker-mentality fundamentalism. Geoffrey R. Treloar argues for a more positive assessment of evangelicalism throughout this period while noting the challenges, external and internal that it faced during this time.
Treloar understands Bebbington's four marks of evangelicalism in terms of intersecting axes. One axis is the biblicist-crucicentrist axis focused upon doctrine and more inward looking and the other axis the conversionist-activist experiential axis. Broadly speaking, the first period between 1900 and 1914 focused around the more outward looking conversionist-activist axis. Two figures exemplified this period--the revivalist Reuben A. Torrey and the missionary statesmen and ecumenist John R. Mott, who presided over the 1910 Edinburgh Missions Conference with its watchword, "the evangelization of the world in this generation." Scholars like A. S. Peake were engaging modern biblical criticism, although the first signs of a conservative approach concerned with doctrinal integrity was evident in the publication and distribution of The Fundamentals to pastors.
The second period was the Great War of 1914-1918. Evangelicals rallied to support the war effort of the Allied Powers and an ethic of laying down one's life shaped the zeal of many who fought. And many did, while others returned, some stronger in faith, but others shattered by the horrors of trench warfare. Evangelicals struggled with the tension between supposed "Christian nations" who did not act very Christianly at Versailles. The revival expected during and after the war did not occur. While church attendance did not fall off, neither was there the vibrancy of the pre-war period.
This leads to the third discernible period in Treloar's survey. He explores the tensions within the diverse evangelical movement, responding to modernism. On the one hand is a more liberal evangelicalism that attempts to hang on to its core of faith while engaging modernist ideas and social involvement. On the other, there is the rise of a fundamentalism concerned with doctrinal integrity and maintaining the priority of evangelism. Two figures Treloar focuses on here is Aimee Semple McPherson, representing the growing pentecostal movement and the uses of the new technology of radio, and Thomas Chatterton (T. C.) Hammond, whose work, first with the Church of Ireland as an evangelist and pastor, where he honed skills in articulating a winsome and theologically acute Christian faith, and later with the newly formed Inter-Varsity Fellowship and the Anglican Church in Australia. He was most know for a manual of doctrine, In Understanding Be Men, used to equip non-theological students with a knowledge of evangelical doctrine. Meanwhile J. Edwin Orr continued to study and mobilize believers to pursue revival in the church, and Australian Lionel Fletcher widely evangelized, seeing as many as 250,000 conversions in his extensive travels. By the 1930's, a vibrant missions movement had also revived.
Treloar's point is that while the war represented a definite disruption in the trajectory of evangelicalism, and an unraveling of the various strands of the movement, after a nadir period in the 1920's, this very diversity resulted in a renewal of both axes--the doctrinal biblicist-crucicentrist, and the conversionist-activist.
I do think Treloar offers a more nuanced rendering of this history. Yet I believe he ignores the critique Mark Noll makes in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Noll notes that both the activist, and conservative theological commitments led to a disengagement with modernist scholarship, and a retreat from serious influence in the academic world. Apart from the theological rigor of the IVF in Great Britain and related institutions like Tyndale House, I would contend that this period represented a serious retreat and reversal in the market place of ideas, if not in other aspects, a retreat reversed only with the rise of the post-World War II evangelicalism of Carl Henry and his like.
As a side note, I was fascinated by Treloar's focus on T. C. Hammond. His In Understanding Be Men was still in print in the mid-1970's and was the theological handbook I studied in my early years on InterVarsity/USA staff. I was saddened to learn that Hammond was associated with a "White Australia Policy" as were many American churchmen in the 1920's with "100 Percent Americanism." Ideas of white supremacy and racism, sadly have a long history in evangelicalism.
Treloar does a great service in chronicling this period of evangelical history, often relegated to a kind of evangelical "dark ages" far less illustrious that the eras that preceded and followed. He helps us see that far more was going on in both theological and missiological formation in the evangelical movement than is often credited.
October 31, 2019
This book is well named. It is certainly the most difficult of the series to read (so far). There are several reasons for this: First, while the book still emphasizes the considerable centrist-evangelical position, the borders of the movement to the right and left were spreading rapidly. Fundamentalism and liberalism turned evangelical diversity into an irreconcilable polarity. Second, the time period covered in this volume was split in half by the Great War, which exerted tremendous influence on the development and character of the movement. Treloar does a fine job working through what I am sure was a phenomenally difficult period to research and organize. I am by no means surprised that this was the last book in the series to be published. The summary/contrast of the pre-war and interwar periods on pages 282-284 was particularly well done. Also, the presentation and use of Rob Warner's adaptation of the Bebbington quadrilateral was very insightful. Highly recommended along with the full series to those interested in understanding the scope, character, and development of Evangelicalism.
September 22, 2017
This is the fourth of five eras covered in the series but the last one published. I have enjoyed this entire series and utilized it in preparation for a course at church. This installment covers the first half of the 20th century, dividing the book around the beginning of World War I. This is a part of evangelical history often neglected since it was not dominated by the type of revival and social gains noted of other eras. However, it is a crucial look at attitudes and emphases between two wars that dominated the century, including the various responses to them by faithful evangelicals. It also summarizes Fundamentalist/Modernist controversies, the rise of ecumenism, Temperance, Holiness-Pentecostal movement, premillennialism, missions, social gospel, and revival. The author describes the period up to WWI as Fin de siecle, sort of the long end of the previous century, post-Victorian, Enlightenment era.
March 5, 2020
Of the five books in the series, this was the one I was most looking forward to reading. I am disappointed. The disruption of evangelicalism is not discussed as extensively as the title might lead one to expect. Further, the author does the same category-shifting that occurs in some other modern writers. In books of a generation ago (Hutchinson, Ferenz) the divide was between conservatives and modernists/liberals. For Treloar, evangelical liberals are described as liberal evangelicals which the result that Fosdick and others that were previously placed contra the evangelicals are now counted as evangelicals. This then allows the "broadening evangelicals" to become the center of the movement and further marginalizes the despised "fundamentalists." As I noted in my first sentence: disappointing.
September 13, 2022
The first two chapters alone make this book an excellent addition to the series. The return to a more narrative approach (like Noll) as opposed to a thematic structuring (like Wolffe+Bebbington) is a welcome change.
The problem with the book is not the books fault, but something that the book testifies to - this period of evangelicalism is so broad and diverse that 'evangelicalism' is a nebulous concept and is therefore hard to track to write a history on it. The result is that sometimes the book feels as though it trying to cover too much.
The problem with the book is not the books fault, but something that the book testifies to - this period of evangelicalism is so broad and diverse that 'evangelicalism' is a nebulous concept and is therefore hard to track to write a history on it. The result is that sometimes the book feels as though it trying to cover too much.
April 21, 2017
Hot and steaming off of the press, with the fresh smell of newness, comes “The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond”. It is the fourth volume in a planned five volume series chronicling a history of evangelicalism. The author, Geoffrey R. Treloar, is director of learning and teaching at the Australian College of Theology, visiting fellow in history in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, and veteran writer. This volume readably recounts approximately 50 years of evangelicalism’s story as it moves from the 19th into the first half of the 20th Century. The style makes the material accessible for savants and beginners alike.
Treloar lays out “The Disruption of Evangelicalism” into three neatly folded stacks: 1900-1914, then 1914-1918, and finally 1919-1940. Though none of the sections are exhaustive, they are representative (viii) and insightful. Each timeframe covered develops the main parties, concepts, approaches, frustrations and successes of the movement. The author follows Bebbington’s quadrilateral of enduring qualities that marked the boundaries of evangelicalism: conversionism, Biblicism, crucicentrism and activism (6-7). Yet by the end of the book it becomes clear that two lesser qualities could be added: the reach to maintain social/national influence and the pursuit of ecumenism.
As readers ride the current flowing through the book, they will begin to pick up, page after page, how the center was becoming threadbare and unknotted. Diversification in evangelicalism deepened over the decades, separatist tendencies were strengthened, and cultural influence slipped from their hands. Altogether, evangelicalism became “more divided, less coherent and less credible.” In other words, the first half of the 20th Century was “the disruption of evangelicalism” (284).
On a personal level, I found several aspects of the book informative and edifying, of which I will only mention two. First, in this centenary season of the Great War (the First World War) it was gratifying and timely to delve into the three chapters covering 1914-1918, and some of the material dealing with the aftermath. Treloar beneficially shows how evangelicalism was influenced and affected by the Great War in three ways, “first in their readiness to become involved spiritually as well as materially, and then in the conduct of evangelical servicemen ‘under fire’ at the front and also in the manner evangelicals fought ‘the war within’ at home” (118). But further he maps out the numerous ways the Great War and its consequences aided in dislocating and disordering evangelicalism.
Secondly, it was refreshing to read that our early 20th Century evangelical forbearers had a strong view of the Lord’s Day, and “generally retained a high view of the Sabbath as a day set apart for physical and spiritual renewal on which the moral and spiritual power of both church and the wider society depended” (264). And how, further, they perceived that the neglect of Sunday by the population was “an index of the spiritual state of society.” That the relaxation of Sunday as a day of rest, and the “encroachments of newspapers, sports and popular entertainments” on the Lord’s Day “was a clear sign that a major cultural change was taking place” (167). Unfortunately much of this way of thinking and way of living has been lost in 21st Century churches. Nevertheless it was encouraging to be reminded that a high view of the Lord’s Day is not a foreign concept, but is in the evangelical background.
“The Disruption of Evangelicalism” is a good read, being both astute and educational. Seminarians would benefit by reading it, along with pastors and professors. In fact, by perusing this book Christians and evangelicals of all stripes and strides will gain a deeper perception and appreciation of a significant slice of Church history in the West. I strongly encourage you to obtain a copy and dive in!
Thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing, upon my request, the free copy of the book used for this review. The assessments are mine given without restrictions or requirements (as per Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255).
Treloar lays out “The Disruption of Evangelicalism” into three neatly folded stacks: 1900-1914, then 1914-1918, and finally 1919-1940. Though none of the sections are exhaustive, they are representative (viii) and insightful. Each timeframe covered develops the main parties, concepts, approaches, frustrations and successes of the movement. The author follows Bebbington’s quadrilateral of enduring qualities that marked the boundaries of evangelicalism: conversionism, Biblicism, crucicentrism and activism (6-7). Yet by the end of the book it becomes clear that two lesser qualities could be added: the reach to maintain social/national influence and the pursuit of ecumenism.
As readers ride the current flowing through the book, they will begin to pick up, page after page, how the center was becoming threadbare and unknotted. Diversification in evangelicalism deepened over the decades, separatist tendencies were strengthened, and cultural influence slipped from their hands. Altogether, evangelicalism became “more divided, less coherent and less credible.” In other words, the first half of the 20th Century was “the disruption of evangelicalism” (284).
On a personal level, I found several aspects of the book informative and edifying, of which I will only mention two. First, in this centenary season of the Great War (the First World War) it was gratifying and timely to delve into the three chapters covering 1914-1918, and some of the material dealing with the aftermath. Treloar beneficially shows how evangelicalism was influenced and affected by the Great War in three ways, “first in their readiness to become involved spiritually as well as materially, and then in the conduct of evangelical servicemen ‘under fire’ at the front and also in the manner evangelicals fought ‘the war within’ at home” (118). But further he maps out the numerous ways the Great War and its consequences aided in dislocating and disordering evangelicalism.
Secondly, it was refreshing to read that our early 20th Century evangelical forbearers had a strong view of the Lord’s Day, and “generally retained a high view of the Sabbath as a day set apart for physical and spiritual renewal on which the moral and spiritual power of both church and the wider society depended” (264). And how, further, they perceived that the neglect of Sunday by the population was “an index of the spiritual state of society.” That the relaxation of Sunday as a day of rest, and the “encroachments of newspapers, sports and popular entertainments” on the Lord’s Day “was a clear sign that a major cultural change was taking place” (167). Unfortunately much of this way of thinking and way of living has been lost in 21st Century churches. Nevertheless it was encouraging to be reminded that a high view of the Lord’s Day is not a foreign concept, but is in the evangelical background.
“The Disruption of Evangelicalism” is a good read, being both astute and educational. Seminarians would benefit by reading it, along with pastors and professors. In fact, by perusing this book Christians and evangelicals of all stripes and strides will gain a deeper perception and appreciation of a significant slice of Church history in the West. I strongly encourage you to obtain a copy and dive in!
Thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing, upon my request, the free copy of the book used for this review. The assessments are mine given without restrictions or requirements (as per Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255).
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