George Whitefield: America's Spiritual Founding Father - Softcover

Kidd, Thomas S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300223587 ISBN 13: 9780300223583

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Winner of Christianity Today's 2016 Book Award for History/Biography: an engaging, balanced, and penetrating narrative biography of the charismatic eighteenth-century American evangelist George Whitefield

"The most authoritative yet readable book on the eighteenth century’s greatest preacher."—Marvin Olasky, World Magazine

"Kidd’s theologically sympathetic approach gives the book a depth that a more detached treatment might not: He misses none of the biblical allusions that peppered Whitefield’s utterances, and he is an excellent guide through the tangled doctrinal controversies that dogged Whitefield’s career."—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal

In the years prior to the American Revolution, George Whitefield was the most famous man in the colonies. Thomas Kidd’s fascinating biography explores the extraordinary career of the most influential figure in the first generation of Anglo-American evangelical Christianity, examining his sometimes troubling stands on the pressing issues of the day, both secular and spiritual, and his relationships with such famous contemporaries as Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley.
 
Based on the author’s comprehensive studies of Whitefield’s original sermons, journals, and letters, this excellent history chronicles the phenomenal rise of the trailblazer of the Great Awakening. Whitefield’s leadership role among the new evangelicals of the eighteenth century and his many religious disputes are meticulously covered, as are his major legacies and the permanent marks he left on evangelical Christian faith. It is arguably the most balanced biography to date of a controversial religious leader who, though relatively unknown three hundred years after his birth, was a true giant in his day and remains an important figure in America’s history.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas S. Kidd is research professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and senior research scholar at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author of many books, including Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300223587
• ISBN 13: 9780300223583
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344