Revivals are outbursts of religious enthusiasm in which there are numerous conversions. In this book the phenomenon of revival is set in its broad historical and historiographical context. David Bebbington provides detailed case-studies of awakenings that took place between 1841 and 1880 in Britain, North America and Australia, showing that the distinctive features of particular revivals were the result less of national differences than of denominational
variations. These revivals occurred in many places across the globe, but revealed the shared characteristics of evangelical Protestantism. Bebbington explores the preconditions of revival, giving attention to
the cultural setting of each episode as well as the form of piety displayed by the participants. No single cause can be assigned to the awakenings, but one of the chief factors behind them was occupational structure and striking instances of death were often a precipitant. Ideas were far more involved in these events than historians have normally supposed, so that the case-studies demonstrate some of the main patterns in religious thought at a popular level during the
Victorian period. Laymen and women played a disproportionate part in their promotion and converts were usually drawn in large numbers from the young. There was a trend over time away from traditional
spontaneity towards more organised methods sometimes entailing interdenominational co-operation.
Revivals are outbursts of religious enthusiasm in which there are numerous conversions. In this book the phenomenon of revival is set in its broad historical and historiographical context. David Bebbington provides detailed case-studies of awakenings that took place between 1841 and 1880 in Britain, North America and Australia, showing that the distinctive features of particular revivals were the result less of national differences than of denominational
variations. These revivals occurred in many places across the globe, but revealed the shared characteristics of evangelical Protestantism. Bebbington explores the preconditions of revival, giving attention to
the cultural setting of each episode as well as the form of piety displayed by the participants. No single cause can be assigned to the awakenings, but one of the chief factors behind them was occupational structure and striking instances of death were often a precipitant. Ideas were far more involved in these events than historians have normally supposed, so that the case-studies demonstrate some of the main patterns in religious thought at a popular level during the
Victorian period. Laymen and women played a disproportionate part in their promotion and converts were usually drawn in large numbers from the young. There was a trend over time away from traditional
spontaneity towards more organised methods sometimes entailing interdenominational co-operation.
1: The Trajectory of Revival: The Pattern of Awakenings from the
Seventeenth to the Twenty-First Centuries
2: The Interpretation of Revival: Religious Awakenings and Modern
Historiography: Religious Awakenings and Modern Historiography
3: The Struggle for the Soul of Texas: Baptist Revival at
Washington-on-the-Brazos, 1841
4: The Spontaneous and the Planned: Wesleyan Methodist Revival in
Cornwall, 1849
5: Fanaticism and Sound Learning: Primitive Methodist Revival in
Weardale, County Durham, 1851
6: Experience and Good Order: Presbyterian Revival in North
Carolina, 1857
7: A Clash of Cultures: Revival in Forfarshire, Scotland, 1859
8: Tradition and Innovation: Revival in South Australia, 1875
9: The General and the Particular: Baptist Revival in Nova Scotia,
1880
10: Conclusion: Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts
An undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge (1968-71), David
Bebbington began his doctoral studies there (1971-73) before
becoming a research fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
(1973-76). Since 1976 he has taught at the University of Stirling,
where since 1999 he has been Professor of History. He has also
taught at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, at Regent College,
Vancouver, at Notre Dame University, Indiana, at the University of
Pretoria, South
Africa, and at Baylor University, Texas.
every individual story is fasinatingly different, and every revival
is a unique event. This delightful volume, a Bebbington
masterpiece, helps us to see them up close with a clarity and
variety like never before
*Andrew Atherstone, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Churchman*
This labour of love (p. vi), as Bebbington describes it, provides a
convincing corrective to a myriad of careless generalizations about
revivals. This monograph is a model of careful, in-depth, and
insightful scholarship and will undoubtedly inspire further work in
this field.
*Joanna Cruickshank, Deakin University.*
This richly textured study should prove both authoritative and
provocative to all working in the field.
*Martin Wellings, Theology*
^i Victorian Religious Revivals^r is an excellent piece of
scholarship, well researched, well written, and insightful in its
interpretation.
*Clive D. Field, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society*
a groundbreaking work of scholarship that will likely exert
considerable influence on the field.
*Nathan A. Finn, Themelios*
Victorian Religious Revivals is an enjoyable read, and could serve
both as an introduction to revivalism and as a resource for
established scholars.
*Torsten Löfstedt, Religion*
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