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The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World
Evangelicalism appeared as a new pattern of Christian devotion at a moment when the foundations of Anglo-American society were shifting. The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism locates the rise of evangelical religion in relation to movements that we now routinely acknowledge with capital Modernity, the Scientific Revolution, and the Enlightenment. The book examines the evangelical awakening in connection with the history of science, law, art, and literature. The eighteenth century saw a profound turn toward nature and the authority of natural knowledge in each of these discourses. As a more democratic public sphere became available for debating contemporary concerns, evangelicals forcefully pressed their agenda for "true religion," believing it was still possible to experience "the life of God in the soul of man." The results were dramatic and disruptive.
Bruce Hindmarsh provides a fresh perspective, and presents new research, on the thought of leading figures such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards. He also traces the significance of evangelical spirituality for elites and non-elites across multiple genres. This book traces the meaning of evangelical devotion in a rich variety of contexts, from the scribbled marginalia of lay Methodists and the poetry of an African-American laywoman to the visual culture of grand manner portraits and satirical prints. Viewing devotion, culture, and ideas together, it is possible to see the advent of evangelicalism as a significant new episode in the history of Christian spirituality.
Bruce Hindmarsh provides a fresh perspective, and presents new research, on the thought of leading figures such as John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards. He also traces the significance of evangelical spirituality for elites and non-elites across multiple genres. This book traces the meaning of evangelical devotion in a rich variety of contexts, from the scribbled marginalia of lay Methodists and the poetry of an African-American laywoman to the visual culture of grand manner portraits and satirical prints. Viewing devotion, culture, and ideas together, it is possible to see the advent of evangelicalism as a significant new episode in the history of Christian spirituality.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 12, 2026
Today's evangelicalism is so often caricatured as the stuff of over-emotional, over-sentimental worship (complete with smoke machines and flashing lights), megachurches that resemble arenas more than sacred spaces, celebrity pastors, and simplistic theology. In recent decades, it has even been condemned for harbouring bigoted and nationalistic attitudes as it grasps for political domination rather than the Kingdom of God. There are credible pushbacks to these charges, but one can also query whether these shallow expressions and sinister sides of evangelicalism are in the movement's inherent DNA or if they are aberrations, mutations.
The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World is an exceptional and detailed examination of the early era of evangelicalism, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and the ministries of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards. Bruce Hindmarsh particularly delves into early evangelicalism's engagement with spirituality, science and nature, the law, and art and aesthetics. Hindmarsh ably demonstrates that evangelicalism rigorously wrestled with the changes that impacted them and the culture at large.
The book opens with Whitefield and the genesis of evangelical devotion. Though evangelicals have always been committed to the principle of "sola scriptura," the early evangelicals eagerly consulted other texts, mining them for spiritual sustenance. They were aware of the "ancients" but they also read medieval mystics like Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, Pietist works such as Pia Desideria and Johann Arndt: True Christianity, and the Puritans (evangelicals would read patristics as well, but I wish Hindmarsh would have addressed this more). Henry Scougal's (1650 - 1678) The Life of God in the Soul of Man was particularly important. John Wesley would innovatively edit and abridge texts for his massive, 50-volume "Christian Library" anthology that offered affordable spiritual books for believers.
In this way, evangelicalism was a renewal and a recovery movement within the larger Christian Church. Evangelicals "naturalized" their spiritual predecessors into their devotional life; worthy Catholic mystics and theologians who were "foreign" to Protestantism, could be "incorporated" within the borders of evangelicalism. Hindmarsh quotes the Anglican evangelical John Newton who lauds the faith of Blaise Pascal, François Fénelon, Pasquier Quesnel, and Pierre Nicole. Hindmarsh explains:
Indeed, with the exception of Fénelon, the other three Catholics were associated with Jansenism which has curious affinities Calvinism (one wonders if the Wesleys would laud Pascal, Quesnel, and Nicole as much as the writer of 'Amazing Grace!').
Yet this practice of "naturalization" of Catholic writers continues today on both ends of the "Protestant theological spectrum." There are mainline Protestants and exvangelicals who warmly embrace Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, James Martin, Elizabeth A. Johnson, and Pope Francis and there are conservative evangelicals who appreciate the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Robert Barron, and Pope Benedict XVI.
What was scandalous about early evangelicalism was its joyful declaration that one could have certainty that one was forgiven (pp. 63-64). This good news was so outrageous that evangelical preachers were even deemed as heretics and newspapers during "the late 1730s and early 1740s" accused Whitefield and Wesley as being "modern Jesuits, modern Anabaptists, modern Puritans, modern Quakers, and, above all, modern Enthusiasts" (p. 64).
What is perhaps more shocking about Newton's praise of select Roman Catholics mentioned earlier is that early evangelicalism would be bitterly divided between Calvinists and Arminians. Even though evangelicalism could be found within Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist churches and beyond, this divison was intense. This feud was most exemplified by the split between Whitefield and the Wesleys, though John Wesley would also be censured by the Calvinist minister and hymn writer Augustus Toplady (Charles Wesley would write "The Horrible Decree," an acerbic attack on Calvinism that to this day likely has never been sung in Presbyterian churches).
The differences between Calvinists and Arminians also came out in their spiritual postures. Hindmarsh writes:
Calvinism was marked more by contemplation, Arminianism by striving.
Interestingly, the new insights of Newtonian science (which had gradually displaced the older Aristotelian system) would serve as one battlefield in the struggle between Calvinism and Arminianism, thought the Newtonian revolution in science overall would have more far-reaching consequences than this (pp. 147-49). John Hutchinson (1674 - 1737) sought to counter Newtonian physics with science based on Scripture but he was widely critiqued.
Detractors of Christianity were ushering in a natural ethic rather than one based on divine command. This was also tied to the stunning growth in law. There had always been a close connection between statute law and divine law. Evangelicals would visit those condemned to death before their executions and earnestly urge them to come under the Lordship of Christ. Hindmarsh also states:
The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism is a commendable book that is wide-ranging and carefully researched. Were I to make a slight critique, it is that the individuals who are examined at length come from early evangelicalism's leadership (Whitefield, the Wesleys, Edwards) and its elite (e.g. the English painter John Russell). Hindmarsh will add asides from less prominent, "ordinary," evangelicals, but this tends to be "top-down" history.
The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World is an exceptional and detailed examination of the early era of evangelicalism, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century and the ministries of John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards. Bruce Hindmarsh particularly delves into early evangelicalism's engagement with spirituality, science and nature, the law, and art and aesthetics. Hindmarsh ably demonstrates that evangelicalism rigorously wrestled with the changes that impacted them and the culture at large.
The book opens with Whitefield and the genesis of evangelical devotion. Though evangelicals have always been committed to the principle of "sola scriptura," the early evangelicals eagerly consulted other texts, mining them for spiritual sustenance. They were aware of the "ancients" but they also read medieval mystics like Thomas à Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, Pietist works such as Pia Desideria and Johann Arndt: True Christianity, and the Puritans (evangelicals would read patristics as well, but I wish Hindmarsh would have addressed this more). Henry Scougal's (1650 - 1678) The Life of God in the Soul of Man was particularly important. John Wesley would innovatively edit and abridge texts for his massive, 50-volume "Christian Library" anthology that offered affordable spiritual books for believers.
In this way, evangelicalism was a renewal and a recovery movement within the larger Christian Church. Evangelicals "naturalized" their spiritual predecessors into their devotional life; worthy Catholic mystics and theologians who were "foreign" to Protestantism, could be "incorporated" within the borders of evangelicalism. Hindmarsh quotes the Anglican evangelical John Newton who lauds the faith of Blaise Pascal, François Fénelon, Pasquier Quesnel, and Pierre Nicole. Hindmarsh explains:
Newton was a robust and confessional Calvinist. But in this statement he grants a form of honorary citizenship to Pascal, Fénelon, Quesnel, and Nicole, and places them among the host nation of "most enlightened Protestants." He simply chooses to cast a veil of discretion over their popish associations and to ignore their foreign accents, even as he glosses over their "incidental errors." As Henry Rack says of John Wesley, such writers could be "taken up, shorn of their original contexts and unwelcome accompaniments." Not all evangelicals would be this accommodating, but Newton captures well the process of "naturalization" by which Wesley and other evangelicals could appropriate the insights of Catholic spiritual writers into their own devotion. It probably did not hurt, either, that most of the writers listed by Newton were condemned in some way by the Vatican or representatives of the Roman hierarchy (p. 95).
Indeed, with the exception of Fénelon, the other three Catholics were associated with Jansenism which has curious affinities Calvinism (one wonders if the Wesleys would laud Pascal, Quesnel, and Nicole as much as the writer of 'Amazing Grace!').
Yet this practice of "naturalization" of Catholic writers continues today on both ends of the "Protestant theological spectrum." There are mainline Protestants and exvangelicals who warmly embrace Thomas Merton, Richard Rohr, James Martin, Elizabeth A. Johnson, and Pope Francis and there are conservative evangelicals who appreciate the writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Robert Barron, and Pope Benedict XVI.
What was scandalous about early evangelicalism was its joyful declaration that one could have certainty that one was forgiven (pp. 63-64). This good news was so outrageous that evangelical preachers were even deemed as heretics and newspapers during "the late 1730s and early 1740s" accused Whitefield and Wesley as being "modern Jesuits, modern Anabaptists, modern Puritans, modern Quakers, and, above all, modern Enthusiasts" (p. 64).
What is perhaps more shocking about Newton's praise of select Roman Catholics mentioned earlier is that early evangelicalism would be bitterly divided between Calvinists and Arminians. Even though evangelicalism could be found within Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist churches and beyond, this divison was intense. This feud was most exemplified by the split between Whitefield and the Wesleys, though John Wesley would also be censured by the Calvinist minister and hymn writer Augustus Toplady (Charles Wesley would write "The Horrible Decree," an acerbic attack on Calvinism that to this day likely has never been sung in Presbyterian churches).
The differences between Calvinists and Arminians also came out in their spiritual postures. Hindmarsh writes:
The evangelical Calvinist expressed spiritual aspirations that appear as a religious version of the sublime - that sense of abasement and "shrinking into the minuteness of one's nature" that is felt in the presence of all that is overwhelming in vastness and power. The evangelical Arminian expressed spiritual aspirations that appear as a religious version of the heroic - that feeling for the agony of moral choice demanded by the good that requires struggle and rests only in the victory that follows travail (pp. 274-75; also pp. 260-65).
Calvinism was marked more by contemplation, Arminianism by striving.
Interestingly, the new insights of Newtonian science (which had gradually displaced the older Aristotelian system) would serve as one battlefield in the struggle between Calvinism and Arminianism, thought the Newtonian revolution in science overall would have more far-reaching consequences than this (pp. 147-49). John Hutchinson (1674 - 1737) sought to counter Newtonian physics with science based on Scripture but he was widely critiqued.
Detractors of Christianity were ushering in a natural ethic rather than one based on divine command. This was also tied to the stunning growth in law. There had always been a close connection between statute law and divine law. Evangelicals would visit those condemned to death before their executions and earnestly urge them to come under the Lordship of Christ. Hindmarsh also states:
Although evangelicals were interested in a just society and the creation and reform of positive law to approximate more perfectly the will of God, their first interest was in the application of the divine law to the conscience in a way that would provoke a felt need for not merely "legal obedience" but something deeper: an "evangelical obedience." (p. 233).
The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism is a commendable book that is wide-ranging and carefully researched. Were I to make a slight critique, it is that the individuals who are examined at length come from early evangelicalism's leadership (Whitefield, the Wesleys, Edwards) and its elite (e.g. the English painter John Russell). Hindmarsh will add asides from less prominent, "ordinary," evangelicals, but this tends to be "top-down" history.
October 17, 2019
In this fascinating and original study historian Bruce Hindmarsh chronicles the quest of early evangelicals in their search for “true religion” in a radically changing word. This book builds off of the pioneering work of W. R Ward but brings the conversation into previously unchartered waters. The author establishes Evangelicalism as a unique expression of Christian thought and spirituality that emerges coincident with the major innovations in the 18th century: the emergence of Modernity, Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution. Hindmarsh does not come right out with an organizing thesis statement that the study will go on to support. Rather, the conversation is driven by a question: what does spirit, or spirituality, mean for these Christians in a world that is newly preoccupied with “nature?” In the course of the book, Hindmarsh demonstrates how in all their involvements with natural philosophy, science, ethics, and art, evangelicals constantly uphold true religion as “the one thing needful.” Highly recommended!
April 18, 2023
Great examination of the spirit of evangelicalism as it began with figures like George Whitefield, the Wesleys, and Jonathan Edwards. Hindmarsh looks not only at the spirituality, theology and missionary thrust of the early evangelicals, but discusses their place in the battle between the ancients and the moderns. For this he looks at the various range of perspectives evangelicals had on art, science, law, and particular points of theology, as well as other aspects of 18th century life, and where they fit in their contemporary context. In the end, early evangelicalism was a combination of carrying on a tradition of Christian piety and belief which can be traced back through the centuries as well as an embrace and employment of many (but not all) aspects of an emerging and growing modernism (with cautionary criticisms as well). It was a Christian renewal movement that happened in the midst of a rapidly changing society. While it was not monolithic, it spanned denominational and affiliation boundaries, uniting Protestants of many stripes around key convictions about the need for true religion; real lived faith which reflected the genuine activity of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. It was urgent, vital and real, and beneath disagreements over particular theological points (such as predestination) and degree of acceptance of changing scientific, legal and aesthetic paradigms, there was an underlying commonality around the importance of and need for a personal experience of the saving work of Christ through his Spirit in every individual's life.
March 30, 2020
Hindmarsh gives brushstroke archival detail to explain how the evangelical message persuaded millions in its first manifestation in the middle 1700s. It turns out that the modern scientific shift to a law-ordered universe matched its message of right order within human beings. The persuasiveness of the preaching stemmed from a basic connection and basic distinction from the society in which the message was received. Message and dominant worldview need a tension. (No surprise in a sense, and if so, to which aspects of the faith should a gospel to the affluent society be attuned?)
August 8, 2023
A unique study that looks at the usual suspects of early evangelicalism: Edwards, the Wesley’s, and Whitefield. Yet, Hindmarsh shows how evangelicalism was positioned between the ancient and modern in cultural categories, in science, and in art.
April 20, 2020
This is an exceptionally well-researched, original and wide-ranging book that places the Evangelical revival of the early and mid Eighteenth century firmly in the context of scientific, legal and artistic changes in the period. By doing so, faith is no longer seen as an outlier to culture but clearly part of it. Despite having read reasonably widely on the rise of Evangelicalism, this book opened up new avenues to explore and new insights and angles on the subject. The famous Calvinist/Arminian split is intriguingly placed alongside the differences between Gainsborough and Reynolds on the purpose of portraiture and expression as well as the sublime and heroic in art and literature. The Eighteenth Century debate between ancient and modern sources of knowledge is demonstrated to be present in Wesley and the other leaders as they simultaneously look to the old sources of Christian devotion whilst recognising that they are part of a new movement.
It is well known, but restated here, that many of the marks of the modern evangelical movement - the emphasis on personal testimony, small group meetings and the importance of personal experience of God were well established in the pietist movement even before Edwards and Wesley adopted them. Evangelical Christians today continue to find themselves torn between ancient and modern as they look back (often unwittingly) to an early Eighteenth Century movement and its precursors whilst throwing themselves into the culture and technology of the Twenty First Century.
It is well known, but restated here, that many of the marks of the modern evangelical movement - the emphasis on personal testimony, small group meetings and the importance of personal experience of God were well established in the pietist movement even before Edwards and Wesley adopted them. Evangelical Christians today continue to find themselves torn between ancient and modern as they look back (often unwittingly) to an early Eighteenth Century movement and its precursors whilst throwing themselves into the culture and technology of the Twenty First Century.
November 17, 2022
It's hard to give a rating to a book like this.
It is so masterfully done, so thorough and eloquent - how do you evaluate it? In this context, I suppose it's based on one's subjective experience of it.
Hindmarsh attempts something that I have not seen in a history book before: he offers a detailed account of a specific historical movement while placing it in the broader context of societal trends. Or, more concretely, he dissects the journals and letters of early Evangelical leaders while drawing parallels to what was happening in the broader culture of their time. By doing so, Hindmarsh creates a sort of dialogue between a particular history of English revivals and the more general history of 18th century modernity. With great thoroughness, he demonstrates how the Evangelical message of experiencing God, forgiveness of sin, and attaining virtue found it's parallels in contemporary developments in science, law, and art.
This is not to say that the Evangelical message was completely a product of its time. Rather, its growth and success may be partially due to its ability to remain conversant with the culture around it. Has the English middle class grew and public forums became more common, Evangelical preachers entered the fray with relevant messages.
Overall, I can't think of a better book on this topic. It is academic, and a little tough to get through, but I'm sure it will form the basis for many more books that can process and apply what has been said in this one.
It is so masterfully done, so thorough and eloquent - how do you evaluate it? In this context, I suppose it's based on one's subjective experience of it.
Hindmarsh attempts something that I have not seen in a history book before: he offers a detailed account of a specific historical movement while placing it in the broader context of societal trends. Or, more concretely, he dissects the journals and letters of early Evangelical leaders while drawing parallels to what was happening in the broader culture of their time. By doing so, Hindmarsh creates a sort of dialogue between a particular history of English revivals and the more general history of 18th century modernity. With great thoroughness, he demonstrates how the Evangelical message of experiencing God, forgiveness of sin, and attaining virtue found it's parallels in contemporary developments in science, law, and art.
This is not to say that the Evangelical message was completely a product of its time. Rather, its growth and success may be partially due to its ability to remain conversant with the culture around it. Has the English middle class grew and public forums became more common, Evangelical preachers entered the fray with relevant messages.
Overall, I can't think of a better book on this topic. It is academic, and a little tough to get through, but I'm sure it will form the basis for many more books that can process and apply what has been said in this one.
February 22, 2019
Bruce Hindmarsh here focuses on the bright, burning heart of evangelicalism in the eighteenth century, its spirituality. With an amazing ability to telescope up and down from private letters to international trends, and to connect with great expository power central evangelical concerns with the general cultural trends in science, law, and art, Hindmarsh illuminates everything from Wesleyan hymnody to the Calvinist-Arminian doctrinal controversy. It is the most erudite and eloquent historical book I've read in years.
Want to Read
February 27, 2018I went to the book release lecture of this book by a professor of mine. Now I want to read it even more!!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews