Evangelical History-Writing and the Construction of Identity, 1735-1810

From the transatlantic revivals of the 1730s and 1740s through to the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, evangelicals thought a great deal about church history and the relationship of the past with recent events. In this ground-breaking study, Darren Schmidt considers the emergence and development of evangelical Protestantism in the North Atlantic context during the long eighteenth century, through the lens of history-writing by evangelicals themselves. Considering the writings of prominent early evangelicals such as Jonathan Edwards, John Newton and John Wesley, along with lesser known historians with evangelical connections, the volume asks why these individuals, amidst busy lives of pastoral ministry, study, and guidance to a fledgling religious movement, would devote their attention to the pages of the past. In so doing, Schmidt draws out new and intriguing connections between evangelicalism and the wider enlightenment world.