1st Edition
The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism
This comprehensive investigation into the involvement of ordinary Christians in Church activities and in anti-clerical dissent, explores a phenomenon stretching from Britain and Germany to the Americas and beyond. It considers how evangelicalism, as an anti-establishmentarian and profoundly individualistic movement, has allowed the traditionally powerless to become enterprising, vocal, and influential in the religious arena and in other areas of politics and culture.
Biography
Deryck Lovegrove lectures in church history at St Mary's College, University of St. Andrews, and has written extensively on themes including the church and war, the role of the church in industrialisation, and Scottish evangelicalism. He is the author is Established Church, Sectarian People, Itinerancy and the Transformation of English Dissent, 1780-1830 (CUP, 1988).
'It is a book which all Methodists still interested in what they are doing ... ought to read and ponder carefully ... there is a splendid essay by Andrew Walls ... Buy the book and soak it up ...' - W.R. Ward, Epworth Review
' ... here is a significant and important contribution to the study of evangelicalism, ably demonstrating that evangelical religion and lay Christianity have proved a powerful impetus to each other.' - International Christian College