Takeaway: Evangelicalism seems to keep having the same battles while trying to achieve the same successes.
I try to read pretty much anything that Mark Noll writes that I come across. So when Intervarsity Press re-released this series in paperback and offered me a copy to review I picked it up. The Rise of Evangelicalism is the first of a four book series by various authors.
The early history of Evangelicalism is not unknown to me. I have read a number of accounts (primarily through biographies or brief retellings as part of other arguments.) But reading all of in together focused on telling the whole story several things rise to the top.
First, the initial revivalism that gave rise to the movement of Evangelicalism was led by very young men (primarily it was men that were the preachers and leaders, but the movement used the religious power of women to influence families and communities to a great extent.) Whitefield, Edwards and the Wesleys were all 30 or less when they were getting started (except for John who was a little older, but still single.) Whitefield traveled throughout the US on a ten month revival tour when he was just 26. Edwards was about the same age when revival broke out in his church.
