Product Description
Marrying careful historical research to popular and relevant presentation, Revival & Revivalism traces the spiritually epoch-making events of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the eyes of those who lived at their centre.
Fundamental to the book’s thesis is a rejection of the frequent identification of ‘revival’ with ‘revivalism’. The author demonstrates that a common understanding of the New Testament idea of revival was prevalent in most denominations throughout the period 1750-1858. Revivalism, on the other hand, is different both in its origin and in its tendencies. Its ethos is mancentred and its methods too close to the manipulative to require a supernatural explanation.
Iain Murray argues that an inability to recognize this distinction has led many to ignore the new and different teaching on evangelism and revival which began to be popularized in the 1820s. While the case against that teaching was argued almost universally by the leaders of the Second Great Awakening their testimony was submerged beneath propaganda which promised a ‘new era’ if only the churches would abandon the older ways.
Today, when that propaganda is largely discredited, there is a great need to rediscover the earlier understanding of revival possessed by those who most intimately experienced it. Revival & Revivalism will do much to aid this rediscovery. Powerfully presented, it contains a message of major importance for contemporary Christians.
Clothbound, 480 pages
Publication Date: January 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Introduction xiii
1 Samuel Davies and the Meaning of 'Revival'
2 Princeton and the First Fruits of 'A Glorious Plan’
3 Glory in Virginia
4 When Theology Took Fire
5 The Age of the Second Great Awakening
6 Kentucky: 1800
7 The Emergence of Revivalism
8 Five Leaders in the Northeast
9 'New Measures' and Old Revivals?
10 Origins of a Great Division
11 ’The Illusion of a New Era'
12 The Baptists in Transition
13 James Waddel Alexander and the New York Awakening of 1857-58
14 Old and New, Past and Future
APPENDICES
1: Revivalism in Britain
2: Revivals in the South
Title Index
General Index
Endorsement
‘In Revival & Revivalism Iain H. Murray has produced yet another historical study of outstanding quality. This is not merely a record of the church’s past. Rather, those who read it will soon realize that it provides a key to understanding contemporary evangelicalism and its deep needs. It may not be too much to claim that this volume is essential reading for Christians who desire true revival in the churches of our own day.’
— DR. SINCLAIR B. FERGUSON
Author
Born in England in 1931, Iain Murray studied history and philosophy at the University of Durham and considered becoming an English Presbyterian Church minister. While at the university, though, he read material written by the Puritans and began assisting at St. John’s Free Church in Oxford. While there, he served as the first editor of The Banner of Truth magazine. From 1956-1959, he served as assistant to D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones at Westminster Chapel and, in 1957, he co-founded the Banner of Truth Trust. Iain Murray books include J.C. Ryle: Prepared to Stand Alone, giving Christians the opportunity to discover more about this influential 19th century evangelical author who had been largely forgotten; a two-volume biography titled D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (with individual volumes also available separately: 1 and 2); Forgotten Spurgeon in which he focuses on clearing up misconceptions about Spurgeon and delineates his spiritual beliefs; and a biography of a remarkable woman, Amy Carmichael.
