A.B. Simpson and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism

by Daryn Henry

Overview

A shrewd synthesizer, gifted popularizer, and inspiring founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance movement, A.B. Simpson (1843-1919) was enmeshed in the most crucial threads of evangelical Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century. Daryn Henry presents Simpson's life and ministry as a vivid, fascinating, and paradigmatic study in evangelical religious culture, during a time when the conservative wing of the movement has often been overlooked. Simpson's ministry, Henry explains, fused the classic evangelical emphasis on revivalist conversion with the intensification of that sensibility in the quest for the deeper Christian life of holiness. Recovering the practice of divine healing, Simpson emphasized a dynamically empowered and supernaturally animated Christianity that would spill over into nascent Pentecostalism. His encouragement of cross-cultural missions was part of a trend that unleashed the dramatic rise of world Christianity across the Global South. All the while, his Biblical literalism, antagonism to modernist theology, campaigns against evolution, and views on premillennialism, Biblical prophecy, and the role of Israel in the end times made Simpson a precursor of the fundamentalist melees of subsequent decades. From his upbringing in rural Canada and confessional Scottish Presbyterianism, Simpson journeyed into the heart of American evangelicalism revolving around his base in New York City. Against most previous writing on Simpson, Henry's biography presents both continuities and discontinuities in the development of modern interdenominational evangelicalism out of the denominational evangelicalism of the nineteenth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228000136
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	12/26/2019
Series:	McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Daryn Henry is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.

Table of Contents

Table and Figures xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 3

1 As for Me and My Home 19

2 Memories of Conversion 39

3 A Good and Faithful Servant 66

4 Shepherding the Flock 91

5 Parting of the Company 118

6 New Wine, Fresh Wineskins 148

7 Mysteries of the Gospel 173

8 To the Ends of the Earth 207

9 When the Day of Pentecost Came 238

10 Defending and Innovating the Faith 265

11 A Race Run 297

Notes 323

Bibliography 359

Index 387

Editorial Reviews

"Long overdue and a breath of fresh air! Through careful research, thoughtful synthesis, and skilful writing, A.B. Simpson and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism masterfully situates Simpson's entire life, work, and theology in its specific context. Daryn Henry unpacks Simpson's various contributions to show how he was both in harmony and, at times, at odds with the evangelical mainstream of his day." Bernie Van De Walle, Ambrose University

From the Publisher