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Product Description

The Dictionary of Evangelical Biography will help broaden your perspective on the players in the English-speaking world’s evangelical movement during the first 150 years of its development.

This “who’s who” directory features 3,570 biographies of English-speaking evangelical figures from every continent. Researched and written by 344 historians from around the world, this wide-ranging text explores even minor evangelical figures whose biographies are found in no other modern work.

It describes individuals from a wide array of denominational backgrounds, including Adventist, Anglican, Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Church of Scotland, Congregational, Episcopal, Free, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, Quaker, Reformed, Wesleyan, and more.

This edition includes an index of subjects arranged by country and denomination and provides resources for further study of individuals associated with the evangelical movement of 1730–1860.

Reviews

“It is hard to think of other works in English of similar scope, treating any other ‘slice’ of Protestantism.

“One of the great virtues of this work is its ability to shed light on the historic continuity of the movement. From the early American preaching tours of the Wesleys and Whitefield and onward through countless other examples, a full understanding of the genesis and growth of evangelicalism requires the sort of trans-Atlantic perspective which is evident throughout.

“The Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730–1860 will undoubtedly point the way to further scholarly inquiry, bringing back from oblivion scores of earlier evangelicals who are worthy of further study. In this it will also have an effect on the larger quest for historical and theological identity within evangelicalism.

“For all students of church history and historical theology there are at least two reasons why the Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730–1860 will prove a great asset. First, its working definition of ‘evangelical’ happens to embrace many, if not most, of Christianity’s leading figures from the English-speaking world . . . along with a fascinating array of lesser lights. Second, methodologically the patience and perseverance, the breadth of scholarly expertise, the ambitious quality which characterizes the volume make it an admirable achievement, which will serve libraries well for years to come.”
–ATLANTIS Reference Reviews

“An impressive number of leading scholars were involved in the preparation of this volume. Since evangelicalism was one of the first movements that attempted to attain global influence, this project was the result of international scholarly cooperation.

“The value of this volume rests with the identification of a broad range of individuals who either shaped or were shaped by evangelical religion.”
—Canadian Historical Review

“Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730–1860, . . . under the editorship of Donald Lewis, has opened up the personal interconnections within the movement as never before.”
—Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2004), p. 25

“The Dictionary is a good research tool and worthwhile in academic libraries where information on Protestant Church history is needed.”
—American Reference Books Annual

"I want to know about my heritage and I enjoy history so to come across the two volume Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, 1730-1860 was something of a delight. . . . As a reference tool it is exhaustive work on North American and European evangelicals."
—Leadership Resources, Christian Marketplace (UK)

“The two volumes which together make up the Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1730-1860, with their 3,570 entries contributed by 344 historians from across the world, are nothing short of a treasure trove to anyone with an interest in evangelicals who lived within the first 130 years of the evangelical movement. The preface is very helpful in clearly defining the aim of the dictionary, that of providing biographical treatment of figures of historical, literary or religious significance who flourished in the stated time period and were associated with the evangelical movement in the English-speaking world, together with an indication of the sources for further study of them. . . . [The volumes] should be seen as an indispensable resource in the library of anyone who has any degree of interest in the history of the Church or in the area of historical theology.”
—Midwestern Journal of Theology

“All librarians and researchers will love this unique and authoritative encyclopedia that includes signed entries on thousands of men and women committed to the cause of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world. Although there are entries on famous men and women, one will use the work mostly for finding information and bibliography on minor, little-known figures whose names cannot be found in the Dictionary of National Biography and similar resources.”
—International Review of Biblical Studies

“The story behind this two-volume work, related in brief in the preface, is itself a snapshot of evangelicalism’s history from 1960s to the date of the original publication by Blackwells in 1995 with a “substantial subvention,” with help to run the project given by the Canadian government and the wider evangelical world. It was the idea of Andrew Walls, the éminence grise of modern world missionary studies, half-executed by a “British Evangelical” committee and Andrew Brockett, then recast as treating English-speaking evangelicals in the same period and the labor of love of the Regent College, Vancouver, church historian, Don Lewis. He has done an impressive job in searching out and assembling a talented team to trace lives whose movements and influences criss-crossed the oceans and other boundaries.
“Such works of reference are meant to be dipped into rather than read from A to Z (incidentally, the last entry is not that on Zinzendorf, who had a big impact on Englishspeaking evangelicalism, but on the South Carolina–based J. J. Zubly, who gave up writing in German for English only to become an important theologian of the American Revolution). Judgments of relative significance of the characters can be gauged by the amount of space devoted to them, and the editor, for the most part, seems to have done this well: the average short entry would be a third of a column, but Francis Asbury gets almost six columns, Isaac Backus two, and Robert Dabney one.

“It is fair to say that the term “evangelical” as used here is quite generously defined, as if scoring on one or two of the four of Bebbington’s criteria would qualify someone for that label, which does in truth correspond to a fairly large group of Christians of the period, to the extent that one could view them as being “the mainstream” of Protestants of the era. The reviewer was astonished at the range of stories, cultures, and theologies in all their permutations: the impression is one of fluidity across countries and denominations. There is a great palate of living color in the tales of separatists, missionaries, millenarian preachers, established churchmen (such as the impressive entries on Charles Simeon), and evangelical women (who are given more attention than hitherto, e.g., those on Selina, Countess of Huntingdon; Elisabeth Fry—whose Bible-reading Quakerism just about qualifies her, as it did J. J. Gurney, as an evangelical; Charlotte Elliott, the author of “Just as I Am”; or Mary Martha Sherwood, the Victorian Christian novelist). Also, the stories and expressions of conviction of, say, Roly Hill, “Mad” William Grimshaw, Isaac DaCosta, and Bishop Robert Daly and the Methodist Garrettson couple are as fascinating as they are each different. Behind all the diversity color lies a structure of the special relationship between the lands of British colony and commonwealth, with links forged by language, culture, and religion despite the difficulties of politics.
“The small-scale detail of the work means that one can go for many pages without happening upon a “major” figure (in the sense of being known to those of us for whom this is not a particular research area). In other words, the dictionary will be most valuable, one suspects, to Masters or Ph.D. students beginning their dissertations and academics needing a ready reference book. So, for those already converted to the view that the church history of Protestantism is invaluable for a knowledge of the church’s being and for its well-being, this will more than serve. For those who are left with the “so what?” question, perhaps the format is too unimaginative. But the riches of information are copious. There are fine contributions on Jonathan Edwards (Marsden), Charles Finney (Johnson), and Hodge (Noll), although perhaps the word count is too small for much sense of analysis to seep through. . . .
“We have perhaps overly sparing entries on Philip Doddridge (by Geoffrey Nuttall), George Eliot (by Arthur Pollard), and Thomas Erskine (by N. R. Needham)—as well as Gladstone (by D. Bebbington), possibly on the grounds that those who departed from evangelicalism do not deserve too much space in a dictionary of evangelical biography. Yet the question of backsliding, liberal temptations, and accommodation is an important part of the evangelical life and identity: it would seem that the ideological conflicts of the age are backgrounded. The burden of the dictionary seems to be to give an account not so much of the theology (although several entries, e.g., on McCrie and Witherspoon, attest to the relationship between the Enlightenment and an emphasis on the freedom of the will within a Calvinist framework) as the ways in which evangelicalism touched society: the entry by A. G. Newell on Hannah More shows how personal connections and social reform went hand in hand. Many articles follow this theme.
“The problem with any reprint is that, however comprehensive, successful, and affordable the product, there will always be a lurking feeling that at least the bibliographies could have been up-dated for many of the entries. This dictionary offers us almost a moving picture of missionary endeavor in the light of a strong belief in the personal return of Christ and the healing properties of his gospel. It might sound like faint praise to conclude that every library should have one, but it is not meant that way.”
—Review of Biblical Literature

“This splendid dictionary, originally conceived by the missiologist Andrew Walls and first published by Blackwell, aims to set out the significance of evangelicalism during the period in question. It seeks to fill a gap and to provide sources for the study of a movement which was, as the preface notes, `the leading religious influence'' during this period in English-speaking North America, and was `in some ways responsible for some of the dominant characteristics of British society, particularly in the Victorian period''. An impressive range of scholars contributed to the achievement of the aim. The editor, Donald M. Lewis of Regent College, Vancouver, drew together twenty-nine editors with particular specialisms. There are over 3,500 entries written by over 350 authors from many countries. A number of the contributing scholars are not themselves evangelicals. The people written about were ministers, missionaries, leaders of evangelical bodies, and a variety of evangelical lay people, women and men. There is a particular focus on the British Isles, but also an international dimension. A few non-English-speaking evangelicals such as Count Zinzendorf have been covered. Denominationally, the hulk of the entries refer to figures who were attached to the major Protestant denominations, hut it is also good to see some from groups such as the Brethren and the Strict Baptists. Many largely forgotten people are included. A vivid picture of the amazing achievements of evangelicals in this period, affecting both the churches and wider society, is painted in these portraits of individuals. At times the relative length of entries seems to lack justification. For example, George Whitefield, unquestionably a massive shaping figure in eighteenth-century transatlantic has under two pages, while Francis Asbury, the leading figure in early American Methodism, has nearly three pages. Also, some of the entries appear to have been written drawing only from the Dictionary of National Biography. But in most cases the relative length of entries is well judged and in the case of many entries illuminating research has been undertaken. These two volumes have been attractively produced by Hendrickson. They represent an invaluable source of information on a crucial period in evangelical history. No doubt a number of libraries purchased the volumes when they were published, but those that did not have the opportunity to make good that deficiency by obtaining what is a vital reference work.”
—The Expository Times

Donald M. Lewis is a specialist in the history of evangelicalism in Victorian Britain. He serves as Professor of Church History and Dean of Faculty at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada.