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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
Mark Hutchingson, and John Wolffe, A Short History of Global Evangelicalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). xiv + 306 pp., 96 paperback $34.99.
This book stands out in a few ways: First, to my knowledge this is the first comprehensive analysis of global evangelicalism from its post-Reformational roots to the year 2010 in a sin- gle volume. Chapters one to five read like an abridged version of IVP Academic’s 3-volume evangelicalism history by David Bebbington (2005), John Wolffe (2007), and Mark Noll (2010), and a 2-volume evangelical history by R. W. Ward (Cambridge University Press, 2002; 2006). Against a popular understanding of evangelicalism as a monolithic movement, the book clarifies that evangelicalism from its inception was already a “fluid and diverse phe- nomenon” (p. 18). Contrary to a fourfold/fivefold definition of evangelical characteristics, Hutchinson and Wolffe show that “evangelicalism’s unity paradoxically lies in its diversity,” and complicities of social, political, and ecclesial factors (p. 23). For instance, evangelicals differ on their stances concerning war, science, and politics (pp. 98-100, 105-109, 111, 151-157). Evangelical perspectives on religion and state are also not in uniformity. Since the 1840s-1870s, some would “co-opt” and be “adopted” as state religion while others “resisted” and “bypass[ed] artificial walls of status quo and state religion” (p. 94). How politics became an extension of evangelicalism varies between cities (p. 100). Between the 19th and 20th century, evangeli- cals disagreed on whether to accommodate, appropriate, or separate from the general cul- ture, even as evangelicals influenced Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Methodism, and the Baptists. In many ways, the volume dispels any notion that evangelicals were united doctrin- ally, both in its early and later history. Still, many evangelicals had within their conscious- nesses the “first reflex to preserve unity in its diversity” especially when they engaged controversial issues. However, historians Hutchingson and Wolffe show how these qualities unfortunately developed into an ethos that rarely respected diverging views (pp. 138-140).
Second, this volume is also the first to comparatively examine western evangelicalism— not merely in the context of global evangelical voices (which is already a remarkable achieve- ment in itself) — with evangelicalism in the Australian region. This quality adds as a unique feature of the book given the scarcity of scholarly treatment on Australian evangelicalism, with the notable exceptions of Stuart Piggin (Oxford University Press, 1996) and Peter Barnes (Edwin Mellen Pr, 2008). How often do we read of the embroilments of evangelical liberal- ism in the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, the influence of Scottish Presbyterians on Protestantism in Australia, and Christian interaction with the aboriginals or evangelical politics in the Howard era? PNEUMA readers familiar with Allan Anderson’s now standard Pentecostalism text subtitled Global Charismatic Christianity (2004), and the review essays in PNEUMA two years back would recall the “hazardous” nature of writing a global history of a Christian movement. Nonetheless, I am delighted that the volume includes some of the more important and yet obscured resources on evangelicalism in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The list includes Indian Sundar Singh’s (1889-1929) mystical contributions, Bishop Azariah’s appeal for co-equal friendship and gospel partnership at the Edinburgh Confer- ence in 1910, the escalation of foreign missions in China resulting in the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, and overseas Christian missions’ shift from a primary focus on China and India to Africa in the early twentieth century (pp. 167-170). The historians also show the contextual differ- ence between U.S. evangelicals’ political fervor and evangelicals’ avoidance of politics and
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2013 DOI: 10.1163/15700747-12341289
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Book Reviews / Pneuma 35 (2013) 87-156
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media in the United Kingdom and Australia, and how evangelical development in the vari- ous hemispheres differs from each other. Thus, readers will walk away appreciating how indigenous questions have played out in evangelicalism’s multifaceted voices on a similar set of doctrinal concerns. This volume helps explain why some continue to be enchanted by, whilst others remain disenchanted with evangelical Christianity.
This volume makes for a good companion to the study of Renewal Christianity. Hutchin- son and Wolffe conceive their project as a complement to Edith Blumhofer’s Short History of Pentecostalism. They claim that Pentecostalism’s similarities with evangelicalism should not be obscured, especially since both Pentecostalism and evangelicalism share common histo- ries (p.21). Ironically, the Keswick movement as a theological root of early Pentecostalism, eventually followed Reformed Benjamin Warfield in rejecting early Pentecostalism (p. 151). Amid these tensions, passion for the gospel, search for truth against modernity, and compas- sionate social outreach often revealed more about their common faith in Christ than their doctrinal differences. The chapter on “Towards Global Trans-Denominationalism” raises questions as to whether Pentecostals and Evangelicals are alike in their use of cultural media to communicate the gospel. The authors engage a broad-range of primary and secondary sources, and narrate its historical developments; and as a renewal and evangelical scholar, I delight in the authors’ detailed historical retrievals. They track this widely diverse evan- gelical movement past and present, and show the continuities and discontinuities between Pentecostals/Charismatics and evangelicalism as far back as post-Reformational Christian- ity. I offer my appraisal of this book despite the fact that it does not contain substantial treatment of Pentecostal history found in works by social scientist David Martin (1990; rpr. 2001), and historians Donald Dayton (Baker Academic, 1987), Vinson Synan (Eerdmans, 1997), Grant Wacker (Harvard University Press, 2003), and Cecil M. Robeck Jr (Thomas Nel- son, 2006). Given the complementary scholarly background of both historians writing the volume (Hutchingson, a committed evangelical historian teaching in Australia, and Wolffe, a sociological historian from of the North Atlantic), it is my estimation this Short History will soon become one of the most important single volume written on global and historical evangelicalism. I would also suggest that no one reading this book would ask about the value of reading a history book. I highly recommend this book for students of Pentecostalism in all disciplines. May the Spirit of the Church inspire readers to new heights in future Christian imaginations, and surpass in excellence our evangelical forebears’ legacies as we await the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Reviewed by Timothy Lim T.N.
PhD Candidate and Adjunct Lecturer
Regent University Divinity School, Virginia Beach, Virginia;
Honorary Research Tutor, King’s Evangelical Divinity School, London, UK [email protected]
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