Keith Grant’s has a new book entitled Andrew Fuller and the Evangelical Renewal of Pastoral Theology (Paternoster, 2013).
This is the latest addition to Paternoster’s acclaimed series Studies in Baptist History and Thought. It is the third volume in the series dedicated to Fuller; earlier contributions were made by Peter Morden (Offering Christ to the World: Andrew Fuller 1754 – 1815 and the Revival of Eighteenth Particular Baptist Life) and Michael Haykin (At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist).
Description:
An exploration of the pastoral theology of Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) suggests that evangelical renewal did not only take place alongside the local church – missions, itinerancy, voluntary societies – but also within the congregation as the central tasks of dissenting pastoral ministry became, in the words of one diarist, ‘very affecting and evangelical’.
How did evangelicalism transform dissenting and Baptist churches in the eighteenth century? Is there a distinctively congregational expression of evangelicalism? And what contribution has evangelicalism made to pastoral theology? renewal did not only take place alongside the local church – missions, itinerancy, voluntary societies – but also within the congregation as dissenting pastoral ministry became, in the words of one diarist, ‘very affecting and evangelical’.
Endorsements:
This solidly researched and clearly developed study rescues an important eighteenth-century evangelical leader from undeserved obscurity. Andrew Fuller was the key figure in delivering English Baptists and a wider circle of nonconforming Protestants from the intellectual dead-ends and spiritual immobilization of rigorously high Calvinism. Keith Grant’s investigation of key terms like affections, voluntarism, and congregational ecclesiology shows how important Fuller’s pastoral theology was in turning evangelicals outward to the world and for giving them spiritual confidence in the converting power of the Gospel. This is a very good book on a very important turning point in Baptist and Calvinist history.
Mark Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame
In this lucid and learned study, Keith Grant explains how Andrew Fuller, one of the leading English Baptists of his generation, developed “affecting and evangelical” principles of pastoral theology in order to advance heartfelt piety in the church. Anyone interested in the history of Anglo-American evangelicalism will want to read this book.
Thomas S. Kidd, Associate Professor of History, Baylor University
In this book Keith Grant shows that Andrew Fuller was a creative writer of pastoral theology, forging a fresh understanding of ministry for his age. It was Fuller’s achievement to reconcile the ordering of Dissenting congregations with the imperatives of Evangelical Revival.
David Bebbington, Professor of History, University of Stirling, Scotland
Details:
[via Christian Thought & Tradition]