Andrew Fuller and the Evangelical Renewal of Pastoral Theology (Studies In Baptist History And Thought Series)

Publisher Description

How did evangelicalism transform dissenting and Baptist churches in the eighteenth century? Is there a distinctively congregational expression of evangelicalism? And what contribution has evangelicalism made to pastoral theology? Renewal did not only take place alongside the local church - missions, itinerancy, voluntary societies - but also within the congregation as dissenting pastoral ministry became, in the words of one diarist, 'very affecting and evangelical'. 'This solidly researched and clearly developed study rescues an important eighteenth-century evangelical leader from undeserved obscurity. Andrew Fuller was the key figure in delivering English Baptists and a wider circle of nonconforming Protestants from the intellectual dead-ends and spiritual immobilization of rigorously high Calvinism. Keith Grant's investigation of key terms like affections, voluntarism, and congregational ecclesiology shows how important Fuller's pastoral theology was in turning evangelicals outward to the world and for giving them spiritual confidence in the converting power of the Gospel. This is a very good book on a very important turning point in Baptist and Calvinist history.' Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History,University of Notre Dame, USA