Book Review: The Rise of Evangelicalism

Title: The Rise of Evangelicalism
Author: Mark Noll
Publisher: IVP
Number of pages: 330
Purchased: IVB bookclub, January 2006 ($0.20 promotional price)
Recommended by:
Begun: 4/11/2006
Finished: 3/1/2007
Rating: ***

Review: Despite the fact that Mark Noll (named one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals by Time magazine in 2005) recently left Wheaton College Graduate School to teach at the University of Notre Dame (beginning fall of 2006), and despite the fact that he believes that there are “groups that today can be called both evangelical and Roman Catholic” (17), Noll presents and excellent understanding, and an engaging presentation of the rise of “evangelicalism” in eighteenth-century Britain and the American Colonies.

Tracing the rise of evangelicalism is a difficult task because the movement never has been “a hard-edged, narrowly defined denomination. Rather, evangelicalism was and is a set of defining beliefs and practices easier to see as an adjective (e.g., evangelical Anglicans, evangelical missionary efforts, evangelical doctrine) than as a simple noun” (21).
This book is the first volume of “A History of Evangelicalism: People, Movements and Ideas in the English-Speaking World.” It covers the age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys (up to 1795). Noll identifies the late 1730s as the period when modern evangelicalism emerged (59).

The book begins with an overview of the era’s landscapes--political, ecclesiastical and geographical. Noll then describes the “antecedents” and “stirrings” that converged to give rise to the evangelical movement. They are Puritanism (e.g., Cotton Mather, d. 1728, Thomas Boston, d. 1732), Continental Pietism (e.g., August Hermann Franke, d. 1727, Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, d.1760), and High-Church Anglicanism (e.g., Samuel and Susannah Wesley).

The book then moves to the Colonies to cover the revival that began in late 1734, and traces the conversion of the Wesley brothers and Whitefield. Their interconnectedness, along with the Wesleys’ early connection to the Moravians, and Whitefield’s friendship with Edwards are what Noll identifies as the early threads of the movement, which being woven together began the distinctive cord of “evangelicalism.”

This book follows the development of evangelicalism, including early consolidation as well as fragmentation, through the death of George Whitefield. The narrative is lively, sprinkled with interesting anecdotes. However, this book is more than a simple historical narrative of evangelicalism. It is an analysis of how evangelicalism was shaped by its era, and in turn how it shaped its world. Though Noll does not discredit the role of the supernatural in the creation and shaping of evangelicalism, he does not attempt to explain it or identify its particulars. “What all who look to explain things in [a merely] spiritual way have assumed is that they could understand clearly the ways of God in the world” (140). “It is not excessive to claim that the early evangelicals created evangelicalism. ... Human agency must always be a large factor in interpretations of early evangelical history” (142). His analyses are helpful and of special benefit to any 21st-century individual who would claim to wade in that stream of Christianity descending from 18th-century evangelicalism. Though one may take issue with some of Noll’s assessments, this book will help develop an evangelical self-consciousness that is not parochial and limited to this present era.

“The Rise of Evangelicalism” will give you a greater appreciation for our spiritual heritage and a greater love for the men and women who helped to form it. Though Noll attempts to write from the perspective of an objective historian, he unashamedly identifies himself with the cause. He closes the book with a series of personal testimonies of those “for whom Christianity had moved from the realm of inherited beliefs to the sphere of experimental faith” (284). He concludes: “An evangelical historian of evangelical history may be pardoned for his own conclusion that in many particulars they also sound like the truth” (290). They are the truth. That’s why this book is worth reading.

Book Review: Famine in the Land

Title: Famine in the Land: A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching
Author: Steven J. Lawson
Publisher: Moody Press
Number of pages: 134
Purchased: Together for the Gospel Conference (April, 2006; $7.50)
Recommended by: my brother Bob
Begun: 3/10/2007
Finished: 3/21/2007
Rating: *****

Review: Steven Lawson begins his excellent book with a dire diagnosis of modern, evangelical Christianity. His diagnosis is that in spite of all the impressive numbers, political clout, and booming press and music industries within evangelicalism, there is a spiritual famine in the land. The cause of the famine? “A dearth of biblical preaching has left the evangelical movement weak, starving for spiritual truth, and susceptible to the ravages of the enemy” (John MacArthur in the Forward, p.11). Lawson laments that many preachers use the Bible “like the singing of the national anthem before a ball game--something merely heard at the beginning, but never referenced again, a necessary preliminary that becomes an awkward intrusion into the real event” (82).

The majority of the book is an appeal for what Lawson believes to be the only effectual solution: “A return to preaching--true preaching, biblical preaching, expository preaching--is the greatest need in this critical hour. If a reformation is to come to the church, it must be preceded by a reformation of the pulpit. As the pulpit goes, so goes the church” (17).
This is truly “a passionate call for expository preaching.” The book is divided into four addresses: The PRIORITY of biblical preaching; the POWER of biblical preaching; the PATTERN of biblical preaching; and the PASSION of biblical preaching. Of special benefit is the fact that the addresses are themselves expository in nature (though thematically arranged and presented). He deals consecutively with Acts 2:42-47 (priority of preaching); Jonah 3:1-10 (power of preaching); Ezra 7:10 along with Nehemiah 8:1-8 (pattern of preaching); and 1 Timothy 4:13-16 (passion of preaching). Each text is developed contextually and applied to the modern preacher.

One of the emphases I particularly appreciated was the place that the reading of Scripture is to have in preaching (see pp. 94-95, 112-13). “The preacher, as the worship leader, should follow Paul’s instruction to read the Scriptures publicly, and not allow other activities to crowd it out” (113). He demonstrates that the practice of the public reading of Scripture is seen throughout the pages of the Bible.

If, as a pastor, you are seeking to be “fired up” about the study and preaching of God’s Word, this book will not be disappointing. It is permeated with a high view of Scripture and will bolster your faith in the God-ordained means of preaching: “One God-called man armed with one God-sent message, committed to one God-prescribed method--preaching--is always sufficient for any situation” (62).