The Growth Of The Brethren Movement National And International Experiences

The essays in this book have been contributed in honour of Dr. H.H. Rowdon, a teacher of several generations of students at the London Bible College and a historian of the Brethren movement. The book includes reflections on the historiography of the Brethren, but it is their character and growth which form the principal focus. The writers make original contributions to national, regional, or local histories and at the same time raise wider themes and issues on topics such as revivalism in New Zealand and the Orkney Islands, or paternalism and missionary endeavor in Zambia. Leading features of the Brethren are discussed through papers on several seminal figures such as Anthony Norris Groves, John Eliot Howard, and George Mÿller. Above all, the opportunities and problems represented by the worldwide growth of the movement are looked at with reference to a number of countries, among them Britain, Germany, Jamaica, and Angola, or to individual congregations in places as diverse as Birmingham, Singapore, and Tasmania. 'Over the whole world...', concludes Prof. D.W. Bebbington in his contribution, 'Brethren played a distinctive role as evangelicals of the evangelicals.'

The Handbook of Global Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions & Allegiance traces how the largest religion in the world is increasingly expressed in energetic global forms – leading to fresh modes of organisation, belonging, believing, and traditional and syncretic movements.

In this fifth volume in the History of Evangelicalism series, Brian Stanley offers an authoritative survey of worldwide evangelicalism from the 1940s to the 1990s. He makes extensive use of primary sources and covers a range of key topics, issues, trends and events, along with prominent and lesser-known figures from the era.

Timothy C. F. Stunt has gathered a range of his essays, both published and unpublished in a collection of largely biographical studies. His subjects range from discontented Quakers hesitating over their identity, to respectable Anglicans who were fascinated with the charismatic phenomena of tongue speaking and healing. Some of the characters with whom he is concerned can be described as "mavericks" on account of their strikingly individualist inclinations. Occasionally their unpredictability takes on a quasi-comic identity, which could even qualify them to be described as "loose cannons." On the other hand, some of them like Edward Irving, Norris Groves, and John Darby played a crucial part in the development of nineteenth-century evangelicalism. In their quest for the ideal church of their dreams, they were often disappointed but one cannot but admire the single-mindedness of their quest.

Apocalyptic millennialism is one of the most powerful strands in evangelical Christianity. Across many powerful evangelical groups there is general devotion to faith in the physical return of Jesus in the Second Coming, the affirmation of a Rapture heavenward of "saved" believers, a millennium of peace under the rule of Jesus and his saints, and, eventually, a final judgment and entry into deep eternity. In Discovering the End of Time Donald Akenson traced the emergence of modern apocalyptic millennialism to southern Ireland in the 1820s and '30s. In Exporting the Rapture he documents how the complex ideological construction that has come to dominate modern evangelical thought was enhulled in an organizational system that made it exportable from the British Isles to North America - and around the world. A key figure in this process was John Nelson Darby, a formative influence on evangelical apocalypticism in Ireland and the volatile central figure in Brethren apocalypticism throughout the British Isles, who ultimately became a successful missionary to the United States and Canada. Akenson emphasizes that, as strong a personality as John Nelson Darby was, the real story is that he became a vector for the transmission of a highly seductive ideological system from the old world to the new. So beguiling, adaptable, and compelling was the new Dispensational system that Darby injected into North American evangelicalism that it continued to spread widely after his death. By the 1920s, the system had become the doctrinal template of the fundamentalist branch of North-American evangelicalism. Highlighting the brilliant influence of John Nelson Darby, Exporting the Rapture documents for the first time how the complex construct of Dispensationalism was repackaged from its southern Irish roots into a system ideal for North American evangelicals.

Today, many evangelicals in the Russian-speaking world emphasize sanctification as a distinctive mark of their Christian faith. This is a unique characteristic, particularly in the European context. Their historic tapestry has been woven from a number of threads that originated in the second half of the nineteenth century. Missionary efforts of the German Baptists, a revival sparked by a British evangelist, and a pietistic awakening among the Mennonites in the South converged to form a tapestry that displays Protestant, Baptist, and Anabaptist heritage. Ivan Kargel uniquely participated in the formation and ministry of each of these threads. His life spans from Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Union. Kargel refused to adhere to a systematic view of theology. Instead, he urged believers to go to Scripture and draw from the riches of a life united with Christ. Kargel's influence today is keenly felt across the Russian-speaking evangelical world as they seek to identify the roots of their spiritual identity. This book examines the influences on Ivan Kargel and offers insights into how his life and work are expressed in the tapestry of Russian evangelical spirituality.

Does God sovereignly elect some individuals for salvation while passing others by? Do human beings possess free will to embrace or reject the gospel? Did Christ die equally for all people or only for some? These questions have long been debated in the history of the Christian church. Answers typically fall into one of two main categories, popularly known as Calvinism and Arminianism. The focus of this book is to establish how one nineteenth-century evangelical group, the Brethren, responded to these and other related questions. The Brethren produced a number of colorful leaders whose influence was felt throughout the evangelical world. Although many critics have assumed the movement's theology was Arminian, this book argues that the Brethren, with few exceptions, advocated Calvinistic positions. Yet there were some twists along the way! The movement's radical biblicism, passionate evangelism, and strong aversion to systematic theology and creeds meant they refused to label themselves as Calvinists even though they affirmed Calvinism's soteriological principles--the so-called doctrines of grace.