2 of 3

The second major question Noll addresses is why evangelicalism was able to gain such rapid traction in the 18th century, often against formidable opposition. Displaying an admirable talent for multiple explanatory frameworks without confusing the reader, Noll shows how evangelicalism was both a product and a beneficiary of wider intellectual, historical, and psychological trends. Without trivializing the religious explanations offered by the evangelicals, who clearly believed they were part of an extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit, Noll shows how evangelicals were able to adapt to "the flow of history." Lockean empiricism, the rise of empire, the growth of markets and consumerism, and the evident weaknesses of older forms of establishmentarian Protestantism all contributed to the success of the new movement. Noll is at pains to point out that evangelicals in the main did not self-consciously adapt to wider historical trends, some of which they scarcely understood, but rather followed their religious intuition. Quite how that worked in practice is not fully explored, but Noll is surely correct to suggest that evangelicalism benefited from a symbiotic relationship with other important 18th-century developments.

As evangelicalism grew, it inevitably became more diverse and fragmented. It is at this point that Noll's consummate skill as a synthesizer and organizer comes into full play. In a virtuoso display of comprehensiveness, he explores evangelicalism as a movement in, out of, alongside, after, against, and beyond the establishment, before investigating evangelicalism's political and social vision through the revealing categories of patrician, plebeian, and bourgeois. This bald and attenuated survey does scant justice to the sophistication of the analysis in this section of the book; so tight is the author's prose, and so compact the content, that the best advice one can give is to read it for oneself.

Noll closes with a chapter on the nature of evangelical religion, emphasizing its theological characteristics, its prolific hymnody, and its influence on ordinary lives. The section on gender in this chapter, even allowing for the preliminary state

of research on the lives of evangelical women, is not one of the book's highlights. Noll is no doubt correct to argue that 18th-century evangelicalism was a movement led primarily by men, but he is also right to conclude that a majority of its adherents were women. Their role in the movement merits a much fuller investigation.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page