From Awakening to Secession: Radical Evangelicals in Switzerland and Britain, 1815-35

Description

A major study of the impact of the Swiss RTveil (Awakening) on British evangelicals in the 1820s. This book provides an important synthesis of a variety of tendencies and movements which have usually been treated and understood as separate. By resisting the temptation to read back into the 1820s the partisan labels of later decades, Timothy Stunt rediscovers the common ground which was shared by a wide spectrum of Christians who were later seen as mutually hostile. The author considers the influence of the Awakening on radical attitudes to mission and ecclesiastical radicalism in Ireland, pre-Tractarian Oxford, and Scotland. In dealing with the reluctant movement towards secession from the established church, Stunt illuminates and reinterprets the origins of the early Catholic Apostolic Church and the Brethren.

Timothy Stunt has taught History in Switzerland, Britain, and the United States. He has contributed numerous articles to The New Dictionary of National Biography, including biographies of J. N. Darby and H. B. Bulteel.

'...a work of great importance.' Professor Andrew F Walls, University of Edinburgh 'This original, well-documented study fits new pieces into the jigsaw of Evangelical history. It describes the network of radical movements as far apart as Dublin, Glasgow, Devon and Geneva, whose members were fired by similar charismatic and millennial hopes into abandoning their established churches and forming new religious movements. Stunt's book illustrates the international aspects of the great Evangelical awakening after 1789.' Dr John Walsh, University of Oxford '...a significant contribution to scholarship at the highest level.' Professor D. W. Bebbington, University of Stirling 'This is a detailed and fascinating study of revival and rediscovery. [. . .] 'Only connect' is good advice in church history as well as literature, and this excellently researched and annotated work does this and intrigues me to want to enquire further.' Derek Murray, The Baptist Quarterly "a significant contribution to scholarship at the highest level." - D.W. Bebbington "This is a detailed and fascinating study of revival and rediscovery." --The Baptist Quarterly 39.1 (January 2001) "This is a fascinating book...The writer has drawn on a great variety of sources to bring together much detailed information otherwise inaccessible to the general reader...[F]or those who want to know more about the spiritual dynamics that lead to secessions and the formation of new movements, this is an illuminating study by an author deeply immersed and highly qualified in his subject." --Evangelical Times, May 2001 "This is a magnificent piece of work - magisterial in its competence, comprehensive in its reference, assured in its grasp. Already well-known as an expert on the history of the Brethren Movement, Timothy Stunt in this volume that has been gestating for 30 years, assembles his vast learning to produce a study of radical Evangelicalism in Switzerland, Oxford, Scotland, Ireland and Plymouth, altogether adding a new dimension to our knowledge of the ecclesiastical history of the early nineteenth century...In addition to all its other qualities, this book has an extensive bibliography, exemplary annotation and a comprehensive index. It is a long time since I have read a contribution to church history with so much profit and delight."-- Churchman "Timothy Stunt's From Awakening to Secession is a gold mine. The research is well documented, the writing clear, and the presentation first-class...Readers are indebted to T&T Clark for producing such a fine volume...Stunt has left historians and others interested in this period in his debt. From Awakening to Secession is academic and rigorous, while at the same time being an accessible and enjoyable read." - Irish Theological Quarterly, 2001 "a magisterial volume...This book opens up new facets of the ecclesiastical history of both Switzerland and the British Isles and the wealth of information packed into it will help others to probe further into the international evangelical awakening of the early nineteenth century."--The Reformed Theological Review, August 2001 "This is a first class piece of scholarship and a pleasure to read."--Baptist Union of Scotland News, March 2001 "this book is a detailed study...Stunt's work will certainly be a prime point of reference for scholars for decades to come...reading his work is both a broadening and a deepening experience."--Themelios, Autumn 2001 "Reference has been made to the impressive research that has gone into a book that adds a welcome new dimension to existing studies of evangelicalism in Britain and Switzerland. Stunt writes engagingly with a keen eye for the telling anecdote." --The Journal of Religious History Volume 26 No 1 Feb.2002