Thomas S. Kidd on George Whitefield

Following the advice of a wise friend from years back, I always try to have a biography on the go, though they take me the longest to read. The one I’m reading – and enjoying – at the moment is Thomas S. Kidd’s George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014). It reads well to me, and feels even-handed – respectful but by no means the hagiography one finds elsewhere.

Thomas Kidd posts on a blog with Justin Taylor – ‘Evangelical History’ – which is worth checking out.

He recently re-posted there a free George Whitefield curriculum that he put together a couple of years ago for the occasion of Whitefield’s 300th birthday. He envisioned it as a three-week series to be used ‘in adult Sunday School classes, small groups, or perhaps Sunday or Wednesday evening talks’, but it strikes me it’s also useful for individual readers. Information and individual files are available to download from here, with the entire collection available as a handy pdf here.

David Ceri Jones on the Evangelical Revival

David Ceri Jones, The Fire Divine: An Introduction to the Evangelical Revival (Nottingham: IVP, 2015), 184pp., ISBN 978-1-78359-290-6.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this overview of the eighteenth-century evangelical revival. I’ve been trying to read more Church history and Christian biography recently, so this was enormously helpful for putting in place a slightly bigger picture of the period covered. It focuses particularly on John Wesley, George Whitefield, and (though to a lesser degree) Jonathan Edwards, and the revivals in Britain and America associated with their ministries – all of which have left their legacy on evangelicalism today. 

The posture of the work suited me well; it’s courteous about its subject matter, but keeps enough distance in its account to allow me to make my own value judgments. I particularly appreciated its transparency around the evident ‘flaws’ of those whose work is described. It’s respectful, but far from hagiographical, and (I think) the better for it.

I had been wondering whether to buy and read Thomas S. Kidd’s recently-published Yale biography on George Whitefield. This book persuaded me it would be a good next step to do so.

Credo Magazine 4, 3 (July 2014)

The current issue of Credo is out, this one devoted to ‘George Whitefield at 300’.

According to the editorial blurb:

‘This year, 2014, marks the 300th anniversary of Whitefield’s birth. These articles are meant to drive us back to Whitefield’s day, that we might eat up his theology, and drink deeply his passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.’

The magazine is available to read here, from where a 16.6 MB pdf of the whole issue can also be downloaded.