PROTESTANTS
The radicals who made the modern world
By Alec Ryrie (Professor of History at Durham
University)
William Collins. 528 pages. £8.56
ISBN 978 0 008 210 007
A delightfully readable overview of the last 500 years that really helps one understand the historical and worldwide context in which we live our faith.
Starting with Luther and the fringes of the Reformation, this book moves via Calvin to the Reformation in England. We encounter the bewildering growth of various movements, with the Anglican church’s uncertain start (Elizabeth, Puritans and the Commonwealth) before settling into a broad accommodation with state theological positions.
We see the slow start in America, leading to tremendous growth in the church (together with cults such as the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses).
Meanwhile the whole world opens to missions, pioneered by godly, sacrificial believers.
Slavery
Christendom’s compromise with slavery is a sobering read, with the establishment opposing the heroic struggles of a few to change the mood of the age. We are helped to understand the rise of liberalism, the effect of the First World War, and then the sad fact of the silence of so many in the Second World War. May God help us to learn when to keep our heads down, so that we can carry on normal church life, and when to go against the tide. He is of course looking at all Protestants, so evangelicals will need to pick out for themselves their opposite numbers in a scene that gets more complex with evangelicals less prominent.
Sacrifice and Pentecostalism
More recent evangelical movements and involvement are given a very helpful broad context: the growth of the religious right; the difficult issue of churches supporting apartheid in South Africa; dedicated missionaries in Korea giving the Bible in the national script and allowing local leadership, giving rise to revival and the incredible growth of the full-gospel churches, with their unique emphasis; the incredible cost paid by the church in China, followed by the explosion of the gospel in many parts.
There is a chapter on the rise of Pentecostalism and its spread across the world. The final chapter is an interesting look at which aspects of Protestantism might become prominent in the future.
Thrilling reading
A book of extraordinary breadth, which makes thrilling reading. By not taking sides, Ryrie helps us appreciate the way people thought and were motivated. Reading it as an evangelical, one sees much to give thanks for, things to regret, and some salutary lessons.
To see the footprints of Bible-based believers requires mentally joining the dots, but shows we have a vital place in the amazing story of the church!
