4
II.
Leaders of the eighteenth century revival, notably John Wesley, were especially
influenced by the High Church (i.e. non Puritanical) theological tradition in the Chruch of
England. Evidence of strong continuity with the preceding century's Puritan tradition is
very small indeed.
11
This is an interesting and important point made forcefully as long ago as 1966 by John Walsh of
Oxford University. In his Essay "Origins of the Evangelical Revival" Walsh demonstrated quite
convincingly that the evidence simply was not there in support of a theory supposing that Methodism was
Puritan theology parading in new dress.
12
The eighteenth century Evangelical dependency on Puritan and
Reformation theology was real and substantial
once the renewal movement was on its way but quite
inconsequential as to the
origin of the movement itself. Bebbington then, on this matter, is following a
scholarly trend of longer-standing than his 1989 book.
III.
The Evangelicalism of the Eighteenth century openly assimilated influences from
continental Protestantism i.e. the Scriptural commentaries of Luther and the theological
emphases of the Moravians were especially significant.
13
This particular assertion seems, in the judgement of this observer, to do as much harm as help to
the Bebbington thesis. These are the very borrowings and indebtednesses which go far to strengthen
the argument of those (cited above) who contend for evangelical successionism. That one Wesley heard
and was moved by hearing Luther's exposition of Galatians read while his brother similarly profited by
use of the Reformer's Romans commentary
14
is hardly an indication of discontinuity. There were other
indebtednesses to continental Christianity by the 18
th
century English among them being those owed to
the Moravians led by Count Zinzendorf. Indeed, Bebbington can go so far as to admit that in the
decades preceding the Wesley era "German Pietism had already achieved in Lutheranism what these men
(i.e. Whitiefield and the Wesleys) were to undertake in the English-speaking world".
15
Yet Bebbington's
objective here is primarily to argue that 18
th
century Evangelicalism in England did not merely continue
native principles or approaches, and thus he is unrestrained in admitting foreign dependency.
10
Bebbington, p. 35.
11
Bebbington, p. 36
12
The important essay by Walsh was published in the G.V. Bennett and J.D. Walsh, editors. Essays in Modern
Church History in Memory of Norman Sykes , (London, A&C Black, 1966).
13
Bebbington, pp. 38,9.
14
Bebbington himself alludes to these events at page 38.
15
Bebbington p. 39