CH011-612 - History of Evangelical Christianity

  • 2,940 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 12
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 6
    AQF level
  • Category developing unit
    B
  • Christianity in History Unit Discipline

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

Demonstrate Developing level knowledge and understanding of the history of evangelical Christianity.

B. Be able to

1. Analyse major phases and developments of of evangelical Christianity in their political and social contexts

2. Comment Critically on the contribution of selected people to the development of evangelical Christianity

3. Utilise data from selected primary and secondary source to formulate historical perspectives on of evangelical Christianity

4. Present Analytical evidence-based perspectives on evangelical Christianity

C. Be in a position to

1. Applying perspectives from ‘History of Evangelical Christianity’ to inform ministry practice

Content

Section A: The Evangelical Movement in its Historical Contexts

1.    Legacy of the Reformation: Puritanism and Pietism
2.    Birth of the Modern World: Enlightenment and the Affective Turn
3.    Evangelical Revival: The Methodists
4.    Great Awakening: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and Sarah Osborn
5.    Mission in a New Nation (the USA), e.g. Charles Finney and Second Great Awakening
6.    Mission in a Renewed Empire, e.g. Wilberforce, Newton, Carey, Simeon and Hannah More
7.    Mission in a Settler Society: Australian colonies, civilising agenda, and Commonwealth
8.    Engaging with the Victorian Age, e.g. Romanticism, Oxford Movement, science, criticism and theological liberalism, gender, missions
9.    Commitment to a Supernatural World, e.g. Holiness, Moody, Phoebe Palmer, Pentecostalism
10.    Ministering in an Apocalyptic World, e.g. fundamentalism, Billy Sunday, Semple Macpherson
11.    Surviving in a Totalitarian World, e.g. Barth, Bonhoeffer, Cold War, China
12.    Realignments in a Globalised World, e.g. CS Lewis, Graham, Stott, Lausanne, IFES
13.    Evangelicalism in Today’s World, e.g. Evangelical Christianity in Multicultural Australia, Evangelicalism in the Global South, sexuality and gender

Section B: The Evangelical Movement – Primary Sources

The study and analysis of a selection of 4-8 primary documents, chosen from the following (or equivalent primary texts):

Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Booth, Catherine, On Female Preaching
Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens
Johnson, Address To the Inhabitants of the Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island (1792)
Edwards, “Heaven is a World of Love,” or Religious Affections (Selections)
Finney, Lectures on revivals (Selections)
Henry, Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism 
Lang, The question of questions 1841
Lausanne Covenant (1974)
Machen, Christianity and Liberalism
More, Slavery
Noll (ed), The Princeton Theology 1812-1921 (Selections)
Packer, Fundamentalism and the Word of God
Simeon, “Preface” to the Horae Homileticae
Stott, A plea for evangelical unity
Spurgeon, Lectures to my students (Selections)
Wesley, “The New Birth”
Wilberforce, A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System (Selections)

Set Readings

Recommended Readings

Barclay, O. R., Evangelicalism in Britain 1935-1995: A Personal Sketch (Leicester: IVP, 1997).

Bebbington, D., Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989).

Bebbington, David W. The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The Age of Spurgeon and Moody. A History of Evangelicalism. Leicester: IVP, 2005.

Brekus, Catherine A. Sarah Osborn’s World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

Brekus, Catherine A., ed. Sarah Osborn’s Collected Writings. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.

Chilton, Hugh. Evangelicals and the End of Christendom: Religion, Australia and the Crises of the 1960s, New York: Routledge, 2019.

Dahle, Lars, Margunn Serigstad Dahle and Knud Jørgensen, eds. The Lausanne Movement: A Range of Perspectives.  Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014. 

Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. Yale: University Press, 1989.

Hindmarsh, Bruce. The Spirit of Early Evangelicalism: True Religion in a Modern World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Hutchinson, Mark and John Wolffe. A Short History of Global Evangelicalism. Cambridge: University Press, 2012.

Marsden, G. M., Fundamentalism and American culture: the shaping of 20th century Evangelicalism. 2nd ed. Oxford: OUP, 2006.

Marsden, G. M., Jonathan Edwards: A Life. New Haven: Yale University, 2003.

Noll, M. A. The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys. Downers Grove: IVP, 2003.

Noll, M. A., A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Piggin, Stuart and Robert D. Linder. The Fountain of Public Prosperity: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1740-1914. Clayton: Monash University Publishing, 2018.

Piggin, Stuart, and Robert D. Linder. Attending to the National Soul: Evangelical Christians in Australian History 1914-2014. Clayton: Monash University Press, 2020.

Rack, H. D., Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism. 3rd ed.; London: Epworth, 2002.

Stanley, Brian. The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott. Nottingham: IVP, 2013.

Treloar, Geoff. The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond. Downers Grove: IVP, 2017.

Walker, Pamela J., Pulling the Devil's Kingdom Down: The Salvation Army in Victorian Britain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

Ward, W. R., The Protestant Evangelical Awakening. Cambridge: CUP, 1992.

Wolffe, John. The Expansion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers and Finney. Downers Grove: IVP, 2007.