Saintly Heroes: Evangelical Ministers in Early America

When the Methodist minister Peter Cartwright set out to write his autobiography in the mid-nineteenth century, he recalled the difficulties faced by early circuit riders, who, as itinerants, often “had to camp out, without fire or food for man or beast.” Despite these material hardships, their ministerial dedication garnered spiritual benefits: “a Divine unction attended the word preached, and thousands fell under the mighty power of God.”¹ The model of Christian sacrifice remembered by Cartwright is evident in the books reviewed here. These monographs recount the histories of two white, middling status evangelical men in the eighteenth century: David Brainerd, a short-lived but well-known Connecticut New Light, who served as a missionary among the Delaware Indians; and Francis Asbury, the English born, long-lived and long-suffering cleric, who became titular head of American Methodism. Brainerd’s mission activity and early death canonized him as an exemplar of religious service for American evangelicals from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Francis Asbury’s longevity (he lived to be seventy-five years old despite chronic health problems) enabled him to oversee the growth of American Methodism from a small enclave of believers in the eighteenth century to the largest Protestant denomination in the United States by the nineteenth century. While one man’s influence was primarily posthumous and the other’s was recognized during his lifetime, both men were important to the growth of evangelical religion and Protestant denominationalism in early America. By providing comprehensive biographies of two significant figures that have heretofore been missing, Grigg and Wigger have filled these lacunae in the historical literature on evangelicalism in the United States. In the process, they have broadened the scholarship on ministerial spirituality and leadership in early American religious history.

John Grigg’s monograph, The Lives of David Brainerd, charts the life and legacy of a minister who has often been seen as a spiritual superstar in the history of American Protestantism. The book is divided into sections; the first three chapters concern his life and death; the fourth and fifth chapters address Jonathan Edwards’ and John Wesley’s accounts of his life; the last chapter examines the use of Brainerd’s life and writings by the nineteenth- and twentieth-century evangelicals. Though Brainerd has had cameo roles in several recent monographs, no detailed history of his life and its impact has been written until now. Grigg remedies this oversight by bringing together disparate sources to provide a complete and complex picture of David Brainerd: his upbringing, college experience, religious conversion, mission work, early demise, and lasting influence. During his short life, Brainerd became renowned for his mission activity among Delaware Indians in the Mid-Atlantic; the effect of this service as well as his dedication to a prayerful life would be his claim to fame after death. Brainerd’s decision to give up the prospect of a wealthy New England pulpit to preach the gospel to Native Americans served as a role model to other evangelicals. While Brainerd was not the only early American colonist to minister to Indians, Brainerd became famous because he kept a diary of his activities, which motivated Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley to write their own accounts of his life, bolstering the image of this cleric as a deeply pious man who sacrificed all for the glory of God. Their publications, in turn, would inspire evangelicals in centuries to follow.

Brainerd’s service to the Delaware Indians in Pennsylvania and New Jersey came through the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge (SSPCK). This organization supported the work of male missionaries to preach among Native Americans and European immigrants in the American colonies and to spread transatlantic Protestantism. By converting Indians, the SSPCK hoped to bring true Christianity to native peoples and to counter the...