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 PrintableVersion Evangelical Anglicans in a revolutionary age 1789-1901C of E heroesEVANGELICAL ANGLICANS IN A REVOLUTIONARY AGE 1789-1901 It has been often said that if we do not learn from the mistakes of history we are doomed to repeat them. By the same token if we do not learn from the achievements of history we shall fail to emulate them. This important book by Dr. Nigel Scotland deserves a fuller review than is possible here. Earlier generations were brought up on Balleine's History of the Evangelical Party. That great book, still worth reading, is hard to come by. Bebbington and Hylson-Smith have made important contributions, but I judge that this new work by Dr. Scotland, although packed with detailed information, is more accessible and is the book we have needed for some time. Without being hagiographic it is made clear that there were 'giants in those days'. The energy and initiatives of so many of the evangelical leaders were truly prestigious. The chief heroes who emerge, sometimes predictably, are Charles Simeon, William Wilberforce, the Sumner brothers (the chapter on evangelical bishops is especially fascinating, though curiously Edmund Knox is omitted, perhaps because he was only translated from Coventry where he was suffragan, to Manchester in 1903), and Francis Close. Close was indeed a hero, but maybe Dr. Scotland's association with Cheltenham inevitably inclines him to record a great many of Dean Close's achievements. The issues of the day both within and outside the church are well described, and these Victorian giants are portrayed, first and foremost, as contending for the evangelical gospel and also promoting social justice and amelioration. For them, social conditions never deflected them from the priority of evangelism. It has been well said that when evangelicals have been truest to the biblical gospel of salvation from hell by the grace of Christ's substitutionary death, they have at the same time been at the forefront of movements promoting social reform, but they may not have talked about it all that much. Today we might jib at the way these leaders are always referred to as evangelical Anglicans (as opposed to Anglican evangelicals (there is a difference), but it has to be said that for the most part they were staunch 'churchmen', principally because they were convinced that the Church of England's formularies were essentially evangelical. I was slightly surprised by Dr. Scotland's fairly sharp division between those he calls 'moderates' (Simeon and Wilberforce), with whom he naturally sympathises, and the 'Recordites' (their title taken from their newspaper), whom he refers to as 'extremists' (Ryle, Haslam, Close). The issue for Dr. Scotland was the infallibility of Scripture. It has sometimes been said that the infallibility debate only emerged at the end of the 19th century. I think it is fairer to say that the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible were simply accepted. (even by Roman Catholics at the time of the Reformation), and it was with the rise of German liberalism that evangelicals were prompted to contend for what they called 'the fundamentals', and the 19th-century fundamentalists were in no way ant-science. In fact many of them were sympathetic to Darwin and to some form of evolutionism. My own view is that Simeon and Wilberforce ('moderates') would have stood shoulder to shoulder on this issue with Ryle, Moule and Spurgeon ('extremists'). One of the discoveries in this book that delighted me most concerned the Gorham judgment. Bishop Phillpotts of Exeter refused to institute or induct George Gorham into his living in the Exeter diocese, because Gorham denied that baptism automatically conferred regeneration. The case went before several courts until eventually Gorham was victorious. (The Church of England does not believe in automatic baptismal regeneration, that's official!). The Archbishop of Canterbury proceeded to institute Gorham into his living, whereupon Bishop Phillpotts excommunicated the Archbishop of Canter-bury! Well, there's a thought! For this, and many other vignettes as well as the great overall picture, this is a book to read, reflect on and recognise what lessons are relevant for today, and could be repeated. Jonathan Fletcher,
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