The Gospel in the Past: Essays on the Historiography of the Evangelical Movement

From the dawn of their movement in the eighteenth century, evangelicals composed narratives of the revivals that were drawing in large numbers of new converts. As evangelicals continued to write about the achievements of their heroes at home and abroad, tensions between their theological purposes and the historical nature of their writings began to emerge, particularly as history developed into a professional academic discipline. Words praising the Lord’s doings in the past might seem out of place in scholarly discourse. Non-evangelicals, recognizing the importance of the movement, added to the problem by discussing it without reference to divine involvement. Theology and history found themselves opposed to one another in accounts of the evangelical past. Was the evangelical movement to be seen as an expression of divine activity or of human culture? If it was to be seen as both, how was its Christian content related to its contexts?

The Gospel in the Past brings together eleven scholars of evangelical theology and history seeking to answer questions such as these within evangelical historiography. Part 1 focuses on the historiography of selected evangelical themes and topics, such as eschatology, evangelical women, and responses to C. S. Lewis. Part 2 focuses on evangelical historiography within particular countries, such as Wales and Australia, and within particular denominations, such as Anglicanism.

Each of the essays touches to a greater or lesser extent on the contrast between traditional evangelical approaches to history and more recent ones shaped by the expectations of the academy. Engaging both sides of this lively divide, The Gospel in the Past is an accessible guide to the historiography of the evangelical movement with a focus on analyzing and beginning to resolve some of the tensions within the discipline.

David Bebbington is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Srtiling in Scotland.