Renewed by the Word: The Bible and Christian Revival since the Reformation (review)

The tension between structured organization and changing circumstances has been particularly acute in Christian history. Jeremy Morris, Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, suggests in this volume that the attempt to adapt to the changes of the modern world gave rise to revivalism, which therefore holds a central place in the recent story of the faith. The theme of revival is treated broadly, encompassing not just the revivalism associated with the Great Awakening and Pentecostalism but also the Reformation and the Catholic resurgence after the French Revolution. The renewal of the church is the fruit, Dr. Morris claims, of attention to the Bible, which is why "the Word" finds a place in the title. Painting with a broad brush, he presents an outline of the Protestant Reformation and the ensuing wars of religion, suggesting that by the eighteenth century toleration and pluralism were in place. The revivals of that century, he contends, were deeply rooted in the continental world of Pietism and Moravianism. He depicts the Evangelical Revival of Britain as part and parcel of a larger international movement that found expression in America's Great Awakening. The Evangelical movement, he argues, had triumphed in the English-speaking world by the mid-nineteenth century and was largely responsible for the missionary expansion of that era. Roman Catholic revival, by which Dr. Morris means the whole process of the nineteenth-century reinvigoration of the church spearheaded by the religious orders and fostering ultramontanism, was as much a sign of adaptability as what was passing among contemporary Protestants. The author goes on to point out the transformation of worship, and especially its setting, over the last two hundred years. He also shows the novelty and success of Pentecostalism, which he does not distinguish sharply from charismatic renewal, justly remarking that it deserves to be recognized as a third wave of revivalism as mighty as its Evangelical and Catholic predecessors. The book amounts to a brief overview of modern Christian history organized around the theme of revival. It is evidently designed for a broad public with little previous knowledge of the field: on one page the word "theology" is explained. This is not a book for those the author calls at this point "the specialists" (p. 105). Naturally it cannot be comprehensive, but it is a pity that in a book on movements of revival no room was found for even a mention of the Anabaptists of the Reformation, who, after all, survive as a vigorous Christian tradition in parts of the contemporary world. Nor, oddly, do the Jesuits put in an appearance until the nineteenth century. The treatment of missions could have benefited from fuller use of recent scholarship. It is doubtful whether the missionary enterprise was bound up with national ambitions to the extent that is assumed here; and there is no hint that most evangelization was undertaken by indigenous people. There are also a number of imprecise comments: Dissenters, for example, enjoyed no "rights" under the English Toleration Act of 1689, which merely exempted them from certain penalties under existing legislation (p. 32). So this is an introductory work for beginners, and as such it is to be welcomed. Basic themes in Christian history, made readily intelligible to non-historians, need to be disseminated in this way.