The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys (review)

The first in a five-volume series on the 300-year global history of evangelicalism, Mark A. Noll's informative The Rise of Evangelicalism presents the world and work of early evangelicals in Britain and North America from 1734 to 1795. His book provides both a synthesis of scholarship in the religious history of Protestantism in the English-speaking world and an introduction to the most significant primary sources written or read by evangelicals during the era of revivals and awakenings on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1700's.

Evangelicalism arose during an era when men and women sought to revitalize religion, to encourage godliness in a world expanding under the pressure of industrial and economic growth. Early evangelicals were reformers who set out primarily to better themselves spiritually. The consequence of conversion, however, was often the betterment of the wider society. And sometimes, as in the case of African Americans and slavery, evangelicals played an important role in altering the ways people thought about this world, not just the next.

Noll introduces both the series and his own work by defining evangelicalism, associating the term first with the Protestant Reformation. Theological emphases introduced in the sixteenth century, such as justification by faith rather than works and salvation through Christ's sacrifice on the cross rather than ecclesiastical mediation or the sacrifice of the Mass, were also associated with the early evangelical movement in Britain and America. However, Noll stresses that there was no one unified evangelical code of beliefs or practices. Yet, while conflicts sometimes flared between different evangelical groups (most notably Calvinists and Arminians), what was more amazing was the ecumenism that generally existed among the various evangelicals at this time. The goal was not to encourage competition among evangelicals, but to inspire spiritual conversion among all believers.

The book begins with the physical and mental geography of evangelicalism, linking Britain and her North American colonies through their common history and religious traditions. These links are central; Noll never loses sight of the intimate connection between evangelicalism on the British Isles and in the American colonies. Noll also uncovers the international influence on the development of evangelicalism through Puritanism, continental pietism (especially the Moravians) and High-Church Anglicanism.

Four central chapters cover the years 1734 to 1795. They include an examination of the transatlantic nature of British revivals and the American Great Awakening; the expanding role of the laity; the central figures of the revivals including Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and Charles and John Wesley; the growing "theological differentiation" among evangelicals; the development of evangelization and voluntary societies; hymnody; the role of women; and the movement of evangelicalism beyond both established churches and the borders of the British Isles and North America.

Along with tracing the development of evangelicalism, Noll also considers why the movement began in the first place. Early evangelical preachers "created evangelicalism" (p. 142) by recognizing first their own spiritual needs and then addressing the needs of others within and outside their own communities in England, Scotland, Ireland, and the colonies. Emphasizing once again the diversity of the evangelical experience, Noll outlines the political, social, economic, and religious circumstances that "awakened" men and women on both sides of the Atlantic to revitalize religion in their own lives. Evangelical leaders were men willing to look outside the box, whether as preachers, theologians, publicists, or publishers. These innovators, such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, recognized a society in flux as the Enlightenment, the growth of empire, and early industrialization changed their world and the lives of ordinary men and women who longed for something more.

Noll divides evangelicals "in the world...