The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism

The rise to prominence of an active laity is one of the most remarkable yet least-discussed aspects of the modern Church. Despite post-Reformation Protestantism's insistence on each person's direct interior access to God, such has been the preoccupation with clerical leadership that only one or two episodes of lay participation are widely known. The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism is the first comprehensive investigation into the involvement of ordinary Christian men and women in Church activities and in anti-clerical dissent. Exploring 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. With themes ranging from the early furore over lay preaching to seventeenth-century American women's roles in religious leadership, from the difficult path of the overseas missionary to the probable future of evangelical Christianity, The Rise of the Laity in Evangelical Protestantism forms an unrivalled examination of the modern Church as an inspirational and liberating force in the lives of its many believers.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Editorial Note Introduction Part I. The priesthood of all believers: from principle to practice 1. Reformers, puritans and evangelicals: the lay connection, Carl R. Trueman 2. Lay conversion and Calvinist doctrine during the English Commonwealth, Crawford Gribben 3. The Pietist laity in Germany, 1675-1750: knowledge, gender, leadership, Hans Otte Part II. Lay religious activity during the Enlightenment 4. Reshaping individualism: the private Christian, eighteenth-century religion and the Enlightenment, Bruce Hindmarsh 5. A spiritual aristocracy: female patrons of religion in eighteenth-century Britain, Helen M. Jones 6. Taming the Spirit: female leadership roles in the American Awakenings, 1730-1830, Marilyn J. Westerkamp Part III. Tensions surrounding an active laity 7. Lay leadership, establishment crisis and the disdain of the clergy, Deryck W. Lovegrove 8. National churches, gathered churches, and varieties of lay evangelism, 1735-1859, Mark A. Noll 9. Methodist New Connexionism: lay emancipation as a denominational raison d'être, Timothy Larsen Part IV. Missions and the widening scope of priesthood 10. The missionary movement: a lay fiefdom? Andrew F. Walls 11. Industry, professionalism and mission: the placing of an emancipated laywoman, Dr Ruth Massey 1873-1963, Clyde Binfield 12. A foundation of influence: the Oxford Pastorate and elite recruitment in early twentieth-century Anglican evangelicalism, Mark Smith Part V. The church of the laity 13. 'The church itself is God's clergy': the principles and practices of the Brethren, Neil T.R. Dickson 14. Changing Baptist concepts of royal priesthood: John Smyth and Edgar Young Mullins, Malcolm B. Yarnell, III 15. The Charismatic Movement: the laicizing of Christianity? David F. Wright Index

About the Author :
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).

Review :
'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 '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 ' ... 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.' - Ecclesiastical History