Assembling details of Evangelical Revivals in South Australia. 1835 to 1885.

Revivals are outbursts of religious enthusiasm in which there are numerous conversions. In this book the phenomenon of revival is set in its broad historical and historiographical context. David Bebbington provides detailed case-studies of awakenings that took place between 1841 and 1880 in Britain, North America and Australia, showing that the distinctive features of particular revivals were the result less of national differences than of denominational variations. These revivals occurred in many places across the globe, but revealed the shared characteristics of evangelical Protestantism. Bebbington explores the preconditions of revival, giving attention to the cultural setting of each episode as well as the form of piety displayed by the participants. No single cause can be assigned to the awakenings, but one of the chief factors behind them was occupational structure and striking instances of death were often a precipitant. Ideas were far more involved in these events than historians have normally supposed, so that the case-studies demonstrate some of the main patterns in religious thought at a popular level during the Victorian period. Laymen and women played a disproportionate part in their promotion and converts were usually drawn in large numbers from the young. There was a trend over time away from traditional spontaneity towards more organised methods sometimes entailing interdenominational co-operation.

For more than half a century, the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne was unquestionably the most rigorously evangelical and missions-oriented diocese in Australia. The Diocese of Sydney, in that same period, was decidedly broader in theological and liturgical practice. How and why did Melbourne move in one direction, while Sydney in the other? This study suggests that the answers are to be found in four vital contributors: local churches, evangelical societies, theological colleges, and diocesan bishops. For three broad periods of history between 1847 and 1937, the presence of these four contributors is uncovered, described, and evaluated for the Diocese of Melbourne. Evangelical activism, theological reflection, and leadership are each shown in their contemporary contexts to help us understand how people with gospel passion sought to respond faithfully to their times. This is the question of vision, leadership, and strategy at the heart of this study: “What makes for long-term evangelical continuity over a hundred-year period?”

Historical accounts of religious movements in Victoria. 1836 to 1886