A.B. Simpson and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism (Volume 286)

by Daryn Henry

A shrewd synthesizer, gifted popularizer, and inspiring founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement, A.B. Simpson (1843-1919) was enmeshed in the most crucial threads of evangelical Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century. Daryn Henry presents Simpson's life and ministry as a vivid, fascinating, and paradigmatic study in evangelical religious culture, during a time when the conservative wing of the movement has often been overlooked. Simpson's ministry, Henry explains, fused the classic evangelical emphasis on revivalist conversion with the intensification of that sensibility in the quest for the deeper Christian life of holiness. Recovering the practice of divine healing, Simpson emphasized a dynamically empowered and supernaturally animated Christianity that would spill over into nascent Pentecostalism. His encouragement of cross-cultural missions was part of a trend that unleashed the dramatic rise of world Christianity across the Global South. All the while, his Biblical literalism, antagonism to modernist theology, campaigns against evolution, and views on premillennialism, Biblical prophecy, and the role of Israel in the end times made Simpson a precursor of the fundamentalist melees of subsequent decades. From his upbringing in rural Canada and confessional Scottish Presbyterianism, Simpson journeyed into the heart of American evangelicalism revolving around his base in New York City. Against most previous writing on Simpson, Henry's biography presents both continuities and discontinuities in the development of modern interdenominational evangelicalism out of the denominational evangelicalism of the nineteenth century.

Genres: Religion

424 pages, Hardcover

Published December 26, 2019

Reviews

[Parker Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this one for an ordination assignment with the C&MA.

This was a very decent read, packed with detail and history of the Simpson family, the C&MA, and evangelicalism as a whole. If one is interested in any of these things, it's a worthwhile read.

Although there are any number of things I could leave in this brief review, one that stood out to me is how theological conversation is carried out, and how we talk about theology, particularly our differences of perspective, actually ends up informing the next generation on how to speak as well. This was highlighted several times as the author points to the condescending, patronizing and sometimes arrogant posture that Simpson spoke about the theological "errors" of prior Protestantism. He speaks forcefully on how he and his movement are doing things "right" while others are so obviously "wrong" and "ignorant". It was then fascinating to see people in the Pentecostal movement who originated in the Alliance turn to Simpson using the same language about how archaic and short-sighted the Alliance and Simpson are and how they're getting in the way of God's work.

Being smug, arrogant and sanctimonious, in and out of church, begets itself in the next generation. The cycle of exceptionalism at the roots of our movement has carried on into our day as well, and it's fascinating to see how it recycles itself into all sorts of different issues with, most of the time, having both sides of binaries assuming moral, spiritual and intellectual high ground.

[Doug Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I debated between giving three stars or four. Parts of the book were really good but other parts were somewhat tedious. I like a biography to be sympathetic but critical. At times I wasn't sure if Henry was being sympathetic or critical. I know that it claims to be the first academic biography of Simpson but at times the academic approach went a bit far for my tastes. It was interesting to learn about 18th-19th century PEI history--taking that history all the way back to First Nations' legends about the source of the island seemed to me to be unnecessary.

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review is in the September 2021 issue of Studies in Religion.