A study of religious revival in its broad historical and historiographical context. David Bebbington provides detailed case-studies of religious awakenings that took place between 1841 and 1880 in Britain, North America and Australia, looking at pre-conditions, causes, and trends for the phenomenon.

"This book is a discussion of the part played by religious revivalism, and by the American professional religious revivalist, in the religious world of nineteenth-century England. It was during the Victorian period that popular Protestantism began to lose its grip on English society. This was true despite the strength of the denominations. It is therefore against a background of slowly changing popular religion that the role of the professional revivalist has to be studied." --From the First Chapter

Schlossberg (senior research associate, the Ethics and Public Policy Center) argues that by the time Victoria became queen in 1837, Victorian culture was already in place. Focusing on the period between the 1790s and the 1840s, he shows how the religious revival that took hold of England's culture constituted a "silent revolution" that formed the basis of Victorian culture. He describes various manifestations of the religious revival, focusing on the main renewal movements in the Church of England and the spread of evangelicalism to dissenting religious groups. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Explores the revival and impact of evangelicalism within the Church of Scotland after the Disruption of 1843 The Revival of Evangelicalism presents a critical analysis of the evangelical movement in the national Church. It emphasises the manner in which the movement both continued along certain pre-Disruption lines and evolved to represent a broader spectrum of Reformed Presbyterian doctrine and piety during the long reign of Queen Victoria. The author interweaves biographical case studies of influential figures who played key roles in the process of revival and recovery, including William Muir, Norman MacLeod and A. H. Charteris. Based on a diverse range of primary sources, the book places the chronological development of 'established evangelicalism' within the broader context of British imperialism, German biblical criticism, European Romanticism and Victorian print culture. Andrew Michael Jones is Visiting Assistant Professor of European and World History at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

This title was first published in 2001. 'An age of faith or an age of doubt?'- the question has dominated study of Christianity in the Victorian era. Reinventing Christianity offers a fresh analysis of the vitality and variety of Christianity in Britain and America in the Victorian era. Part One presents an overview of some of the main varieties of Christianity in the west ranging from the conservative - Protestant evangelicalism and 'fortress' Catholicism - to the radical - Theosophy, Swedenborgianism and Transcendentalism; Part Two reviews negotiations between Christianity and the wider culture. The conclusion reflects on general trends in the period, showing how many of these prefigured later developments in religion. This book highlights the creativity and diversity of 19th century Christianity, showing how developments normally associated with the late 20th century - such as the reassertion of tradition and the rise of feminist theology and alternative spirituality - were already in train a century before.