A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South - Reviews - Book Review

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2002

A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South. Philip N. Mulder. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]32.50. 233 pages. ISBN 0-19-513163-0. In this study the author looks at 'elements of piety and ideals among Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists . . . and explores the formation of evangelicalism out of awakenings, religious traditions, Revolution, religious freedom and denominational interaction' in the Southern states.

He shows how American Methodists 'founded in the awakenings, fell into the same pattern [as other Evangelical Protestant sects] in their pursuit of converts'. In his first three chapters he traces the development of Evangelical denominations, how the older sects -- Baptists and Presbyterians -- incorporated the 'new light' revivalism that was part of American religious life and how the newest group, the Methodists, related to the older two. He then discusses the effect of the American revolution and the abolition in time of the established church in all the former colonies. After this he discusses the competition among denominations for converts and shows how they accommodated themselves to cultural norms. Finally he looks at how the various sects reacted against this and sought to return to their ideological roots, especially the Methodists who were losing out to the Baptists in the religious marketplace.