Shaping Modern British Society: Recent Historical Lenses on Evangelicalism

Abstract

Since the publication in the 1980s of now-canonical texts on British evangelicalism, historians have largely been in agreement that religion, and evangelicalism in particular, played an important role in shaping modern British history. Since then, there has been much work focused on the origins of evangelicalism and exploring its characteristics, spirituality, and religious essence. Another significant trend has been literature that has set the British movement within a wider international context. This article identifies several areas of growth in recent studies of evangelicalism in Britain: network analysis grounded in manuscript as well as printed sources; emphasis on the connection between evangelicalism and Dissent; and the integration of religious history into social history. Recent works under review include two monographs on the formative “Clapham Sect” period, a collection of essays exploring the relationship between evangelicalism and Dissent, an overview of evangelical social action, and the first volume of the edited diaries of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, later seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. Areas for further scholarly exploration include a four-nations perspective that integrates the study of evangelicalism in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; the role of women in British evangelicalism; and the role of evangelicalism in shaping Britain in the twentieth century.