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Victorian Religious Revivals

Culture and Piety in Local and Global Contexts

David Bebbington author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:31st May '12

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Victorian Religious Revivals cover

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.

every individual story is fasinatingly different, and every revival is a unique event. This delightful volume, a Bebbington masterpiece, helps us to see them up close with a clarity and variety like never before * Andrew Atherstone, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Churchman *
This labour of love (p. vi), as Bebbington describes it, provides a convincing corrective to a myriad of careless generalizations about revivals. This monograph is a model of careful, in-depth, and insightful scholarship and will undoubtedly inspire further work in this field. * Joanna Cruickshank, Deakin University. *
This richly textured study should prove both authoritative and provocative to all working in the field. * Martin Wellings, Theology *
^i Victorian Religious Revivals^r is an excellent piece of scholarship, well researched, well written, and insightful in its interpretation. * Clive D. Field, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society *
a groundbreaking work of scholarship that will likely exert considerable influence on the field. * Nathan A. Finn, Themelios *
Victorian Religious Revivals is an enjoyable read, and could serve both as an introduction to revivalism and as a resource for established scholars. * Torsten Löfstedt, Religion *

ISBN: 9780199575480

Dimensions: 240mm x 162mm x 24mm

Weight: 642g

320 pages