Renewed by the Word: The Bible and Christian Revivial Since the Reformation

by Morris, J. N.

• ISBN13: 9781565635333
• ISBN10: 1565635337
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-30
• Publisher: Hendrickson Pub

Summary

Sometimes it seems as it there are almost as many different Christian churches as there are Christian people. There is a huge diversity of language spoken by Christians, of forms of worship used, of structures of organization, and of interpretations of belief. This diversity has been long in the making. It leaves us often bewildered. Yet Christianity in the modern world has also been fashioned by certain common experiences. One of the most powerful and vibrant of these has been revivalism. In order to understand why the churches in America and Britain are as they are today, we must review the history of revival. The need of the church to seek revival, to renew itself, comes from the convictions that called it into being in the first place. Understanding revivalism means understanding not only what the church is and where it's going, but the very nature of what it means to believe. Of the three main divisions in Renewed By the Word the first covers the "classic" Evangelical revival, starting with Methodism in Britain and America, proceeding to the appearance of a general Evangelical ethos and style which then came to dominate the English-speaking Protestant churches by the middle of the nineteenth century. This also considers the emergence of Evangelical culture, and concentrates on styles of worship, music, architecture and doctrine. Second is the Catholic revival of the nineteenth century, which encompassed Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and certain elements of other Protestant churches. As well as being a compelling narrative, it dwells on the visible impact of this movement on Christianity today. Finally there is the "pentecostal" or "charismatic" movement, which is having such a continuing worldwide influence. Renewed By the Word captures the restless, endlessly self-regenerating character of Christianity, rooted as it is in a particular body of texts witnessing to Jesus Christ but lived out in real human communities, or churches. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Reverend Dr. Jeremy Morris is Dean and Lord Robert Runcie Fellow in Ecclesiastical History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	6	(12)
1. WARS OF RELIGION	18	(22)
2. A FRESH SPRING: THE EUROPEAN ORIGINS OF THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL	40	(10)
3. NEW FRONTIERS OF THE HEART AMERICA AND BRITAIN	50	(18)
4. EVANGELICALISM TRIUMPHANT	68	(18)
5. CATHOLICS AND HERETICS	86	(18)
6. THE TRANSFORMATION OF TRADITIONAL WORSHIP	104	(20)
7. A MISSION TO CONVERT THE WORLD	124	(10)
8. THE PENTECOSTAL REVIVAL	134	(17)
CONCLUSION	151	(3)
BIBLIOGRAPHY	154	(4)
INDEX	158