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The Advent of Evangelicalism: Exploring Historical Continuities. Edited by Michael A. G. Haykin and Kenneth J. Stewart. (Nashville: B & H Academic, 2008, Pp. 432. $24.99, paper.)
Two decades after its original publication, David Bebbington's Evangelicalism in Modern Britain remains one of the most influential and discussed books in the field of modern religious history. Bebbington's description of the distinguishing characteristics of evangelicalism: conversionism, activism, Biblicism, and crucicentrism, has become the standard definition of the movement. Far more controversial has been Bebbington's highly original - some might say counterintuitive - argument that the emergence of modern evangelicalism marked a distinctive break from early-modern Protestantism, and owed much to the attitudes and influences of the Enlightenment.
In a collection of well-researched and informative essays, The Advent of Evangelicalism advances the debate on Bebbington's central thesis, and offers new insight on the continuities and discontinuities in evangelical history....