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In his very brief preface, Balmer describes evangelicalism as a uniquely North American mix of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and Puritanism. His three-and-a-half-page evangelicalism entry glances at these three ancestral strains, then sketches a quick history from the First and Second Great Awakenings, to the Civil War, to the fundamentalist/modernist debate, and finally to the rise of Christian conservatism.

None of this explains where Pentecostals, who are very well represented in the book, fit in. Nor does it explain why a school like Calvin College, which identifies itself as Christian Reformed but not as evangelical, receives prominent mention.

Of course, most evangelicals don't need such explanations. They've seen enough Pentecostals and Calvin alumni around the family table to see the resemblance. But an outsider who merely catches Oral Roberts on TV might not get it.

Furthermore, the only evangelical beliefs noted in the evangelicalism entry are revivalism, biblical inerrancy, and dispensationalism. The much shorter evangelical entry highlights emphasis on conversion and a tendency to interpret the Bible literally, then shifts to a pronunciation lesson. (Balmer suggests that evangelicals usually use a short e in their name for themselves, while non-evangelicals usually use a long e.)

Gaps in this definition of evangelicals correspond to gaps in Balmer's entries. Most significantly, Balmer slights evangelicals' passion for missions and evangelism. The book has no entry for missions, just two sentences on witnessing, and three sentences on evangelism. There is also no mention of such widespread evangelistic formulas as the Four Spiritual Laws, Evangelism Explosion, or Contagious Christianity.

Balmer also gives short shrift to evangelicals' recent attempts to forge a more intellectually rigorous worldview. He does list many institutions of Christian higher education and more than a few scholars, particularly in his own field (American religious history), but the organization of the book relegates them to the fringes.

Specifically, the half-page neo-evangelicalism entry points out the intellectual contributions of such people as Harold John Ockenga and Carl F. H. Henry, but neither of these individuals nor neo-evangelicalism as a whole is ever mentioned in the evangelicalism entry. And while evangelical pop culture permeates the book, evangelical thought culture barely appears. Creationism is in; Intelligent Design is out. Tyndale House Publishing, home of the Left Behind series, has an entry. Eerdmans, Baker, InterVarsity Press, and Zondervan do not.

This book gives readers a lot of undifferentiated fringe. It is unclear why some entries are in the book at all. TV nun Mother Angelica apparently made it in because she has appeared on The 700 Club. There is no obvious reason for including Edward Hine, a 19th-century propagandist who believed that the British were the ten lost tribes of Israel.

By contrast, Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, 18th-century founder of the renewed Moravian Church, certainly deserves his entry, but the way it is written hardly suggests why. The entry has no cross-references and fails to link Zinzendorf to John Wesley, whom he strongly influenced in the areas of inner piety and exuberant missions. Zinzendorf comes across as a fringe figure, largely because his contributions to the evangelical core are not mentioned.

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January 2003, Vol. 47, No. 1