Andrew Fuller and the Evangelical Renewal of Pastoral Theology: 36 (Studies in Baptist History and Thought) - Softcover

Grant, Keith S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842277790 ISBN 13: 9781842277799

Publisher: Paternoster, 2013

Synopsis

An exploration of the pastoral theology of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) suggests that evangelical renewal did not only take place alongside the local church - missions, itinerancy, voluntary societies - but also within the congregation as the central tasks of dissenting pastoral ministry became, in the words of one diarist, 'very affecting and evangelical'. How did evangelicalism transform dissenting and Baptist churches in the eighteenth century? Is there a distinctively congregational expression of evangelicalism? And what contribution has evangelicalism made to pastoral theology? renewal did not only take place alongside the local church - missions, itinerancy, voluntary societies - but also within the congregation as dissenting pastoral ministry became, in the words of one diarist, 'very affecting and evangelical'.

About this title

Review:

This solidly researched and clearly developed study rescues an important eighteenth-century evangelical leader from undeserved obscurity. Andrew Fuller was the key figure in delivering English Baptists and a wider circle of nonconforming Protestants from the intellectual dead ends and spiritual immobilization of rigorously high Calvinism. Keith Grant s investigation of key terms like affections, voluntarism, and congregational ecclesiology shows how important Fuller s pastoral theology was in turning evangelicals outward to the world and for giving them spiritual confidence in the converting power of the Gospel. This is a very good book on a very important turning point in Baptist and Calvinist history. --Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

In our focus on itinerants, missions, and voluntary societies, we may forget that the historic center of evangelical renewal was the local church. In this lucid and learned study, Keith Grant explains how Andrew Fuller, one of the leading English Baptists of his generation, developed affecting and evangelical principles of pastoral theology in order to advance heartfelt piety in the church. Anyone interested in the history of Anglo-American evangelicalism will want to read this book. --Thomas S. Kidd, Professor of History, Baylor University

Keith Grant has done in this book what few historians manage to do at all or to do very well. He tells the story of his subject s life as a pastor not from the outside but from the inside. ... The story he has to tell here is of the way the ordinarytasks of the pastor were transformed from the inside-out through Fuller s embrace of a thoughtful evangelical religion of the heart. ... Though Grant has done a depth and breadth of original research, including time in the archives, he writes with a clarity and grace that suits his subject and makes the book a pleasure to read for the professional historian or the lay reader, for the pastor or the student. The book makes a significant contribution to the biography of Fuller and to the history of the Baptists in England, but it does much more than this: it provides one of the best accounts available of evangelical pastoral theology among English Dissenters in the eighteenth century. Moreover, it illuminates the history of evangelicalism more generally by demonstrating the way congregational polity was renewed as an expression of evangelical voluntary religion in a way distinct from, but parallel to the religious societies of Methodism and the evangelical parishes in the Church of England. --Bruce Hindmarsh, James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College

In our focus on itinerants, missions, and voluntary societies, we may forget that the historic center of evangelical renewal was the local church. In this lucid and learned study, Keith Grant explains how Andrew Fuller, one of the leading English Baptists of his generation, developed affecting and evangelical principles of pastoral theology in order to advance heartfelt piety in the church. Anyone interested in the history of Anglo-American evangelicalism will want to read this book. --Thomas S. Kidd, Professor of History, Baylor University

Keith Grant has done in this book what few historians manage to do at all or to do very well. He tells the story of his subject s life as a pastor not from the outside but from the inside. ... The story he has to tell here is of the way the ordinarytasks of the pastor were transformed from the inside-out through Fuller s embrace of a thoughtful evangelical religion of the heart. ... Though Grant has done a depth and breadth of original research, including time in the archives, he writes with a clarity and grace that suits his subject and makes the book a pleasure to read for the professional historian or the lay reader, for the pastor or the student. The book makes a significant contribution to the biography of Fuller and to the history of the Baptists in England, but it does much more than this: it provides one of the best accounts available of evangelical pastoral theology among English Dissenters in the eighteenth century. Moreover, it illuminates the history of evangelicalism more generally by demonstrating the way congregational polity was renewed as an expression of evangelical voluntary religion in a way distinct from, but parallel to the religious societies of Methodism and the evangelical parishes in the Church of England. --Bruce Hindmarsh, James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College

About the Author:

Keith S. Grant is a PhD Candidate in history at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, studying evangelicalism and print culture in the Atlantic world. He is the author of Andrew Fuller and the Evangelical Renewal of Pastoral Theology. He lives with his family near Fredericton, New Brunswick.

About this edition

• Publisher: Paternoster
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1842277790
• ISBN 13: 9781842277799
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176