Jonathan Edwards and Scripture: Biblical Exegesis in British North America. Edited by David Barshinger and Douglas Sweeney. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Abstract

(236). These art forms and the people who produced and consumed themeven if those people shared something that distant observers could call a common faith-are not the same. They cannot be lumped together in a discussion of "evangelicals and culture" without their most salient and interesting characteristics being lost. In sum, this book is not a comprehensive review of scholarly literature on the history of evangelicalism, broadly conceived. It mostly surveys the history of a tradition that hangs portraits of Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, William Wilberforce, and Billy Graham on its walls, then spends hours looking for family resemblances among them. (These are the names with the longest entries in the index, along with David Bebbington, who is cited in nearly every chapter.) The evangelicals in this book read their Bibles, ponder the cross and the apocalypse, and try to convert other people at home and abroad. Sometimes they sing hymns or attend revival meetings. They do not, however, vote, rear children, eat, seek physical healing, migrate, or wage war. They do not abuse others or suffer abuse. The more complicated, context-bound evangelicals who do these things must be sought out in other books.