Alec Ryrie - Protestants - The Radicals Who Made the Modern World

Copyright

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Alec Ryrie 2017

Alec Ryrie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Map by Martin Brown

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007465033

Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008182137

Version: 2018-02-09

Praise for Protestants:

‘Ryrie offers an admirably “long view” of the development of the Protestant faith’

Literary Review

‘A treat. Ryrie has a gift for showing how the history of religion is the history of the people … This book’s scholarship showcases one of the leading historians of Protestantism writing today, but the delight of it is the crisp prose, cool wit, wise judgements and sheer scope from the gates of Wittenberg to the streets of Seoul’ DIARMAID MACCULLOCH

‘Informative and stimulating’

Financial Times

‘This is a book of breathtaking range and penetrating insight. It will shape our perception of the Reformation and its long shadow for years to come’

ANDREW PETTEGREE, author of Brand Luther

‘Remarkably open-minded and delightfully light-hearted’

The Times

‘To cover the history of Protestantism in just 514 pages might seem a reckless task [but] Ryrie … has succeeded magnificently … A learned, humane and entertaining book’

Sunday Times

‘Ryrie guides us sure-footedly along the broad paths of Protestant history without neglecting its many fascinating by-ways. He writes with empathy but without illusions; his trademark combination of wit and erudition makes the journey as enjoyable as it is enlightening’

PROFESSOR PETER MARSHALL, University of Warwick

‘Ryrie’s agile mind, pithy style and energetic narrative bring 500 years of Protestant history to life and into the present global era. Profound and capacious, Protestants is scintillating, shrewd, incisive and proceeds at an astonishing pace. If you wish to buy one book to understand the impact Martin Luther has had on the modern world, this is it’

THE RIGHT REVEREND DR GRAHAM KINGS,

Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion

‘A learned, lively look at the various faiths lumped together as Protestant, from Martin Luther in the sixteenth century to today’

Kirkus Reviews

Dedication

In memory of Bill Ryrie (1928–2012)

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Map

Introduction

PART I: THE REFORMATION AGE

Chapter 1. Luther and the Fanatics

The Call of Reform• An Accidental Revolutionary• “Captive to the Word of God”• The Fanatics’ Reformation

Chapter 2. Protectors and Tyrants

Taming the Reformation• The Two Kingdoms• Chaos and Order• Revolutionary Saints

Chapter 3. The Failure of Calvinism

Parallel Reformations • Calvin’s Contribution • Lutheranism in Search of Concord • Dreams of Union • The Unravelling of Calvinism

Chapter 4. Heretics, Martyrs and Witches

Martyrdom and Heresy • Turning the Tide • The Luxury of Intolerance • The Devil’s Minions

Chapter 5. The British Maelstrom

An Unlikely War • Winning the Peace • Journeys into the Unknown • Quakers and Anglicans

Chapter 6. From the Waters of Babylon to a City on a Hill

An Age of Exiles • American Pilgrimages • Preaching to the Nations

PART II: THE MODERN AGE

Chapter 7. Enthusiasm and Its Enemies

The Pietist Adventure • Moravian Riders • Methodism: Pietism’s English Stepchild • The Revivals’ New World

Chapter 8. Slaves to Christ

The Emergence of Protestant Slavery • Living with Slavery • The Road to Abolition • The Gospel of Slavery • Slavery’s Lessons

Chapter 9. Protestantism’s Wild West

Big-Tent Protestantism • The Communitarian Alternative • The Narrow Way • Witnessing for Jehovah • Latter-Day Protestants

Chapter 10. The Ordeals of Liberalism

The Liberal Project • God’s Successive Revelations • The Book of Nature • Liberalism in the Trenches

Chapter 11. Two Kingdoms in the Third Reich

Making Peace with Nazism • Dejudaizing Christianity • Shades of Opposition • The Limits of the Possible

Chapter 12. Religious Left and Religious Right

Saving Civilization in the Age of the Second World War • The Gospel of Civil Rights • Prophetic Christianity in the 1960s • The Crisis of the Religious Left

PART III: THE GLOBAL AGE

Chapter 13. Redeeming South Africa

Settlers and Missionaries • Blood River • “Separate Development” • The Trek to Repentance • The Independent Witness

Chapter 14. Korea in Adversity and Prosperity

Missionary Beginnings • Revival and Nationalism • South Korea’s Journey • Full Gospels • Northern Fears and Hopes

Chapter 15. Chinese Protestantism’s Long March

Dreams and Visions • Protestants and Imperialists • Death and Resurrection in the People’s Republic • Believing in Modern China • China’s Protestant Future

Chapter 16. Pentecostalism: An Old Flame

A Tangle of Origins • The Pentecostal Experience • Becoming a Global Faith • The Politics of Pentecostalism

Epilogue: The Protestant Future

Old Quarrels and New • Protestants in the World

Plate Section

Glossary

Notes

Illustration Credits

Index

Acknowledgements

Also by Alec Ryrie

About the Author

About the Publisher

Introduction

In 1524, Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote a blistering attack on a fanatical new cult that was spreading across northern Europe like a plague. These people claim to be preaching the Bible’s pure message, he said, but look at how they actually use the Bible, twisting it to mean whatever they want:

They are like young men who love a girl so immoderately that they imagine they see their beloved wherever they turn, or, a much better example, like two combatants who, in the heat of a quarrel, turn whatever is at hand into a missile, whether it be a jug or a dish. 1

This book is about that cult and how it became one of the most creative and disruptive movements in human history. At present, around one-eighth of the human race belongs to it, and it has decisively shaped the world in which the other seven-eighths live. My aim is to convince you that we cannot understand the modern age without understanding the dynamic history of Protestant Christianity.

It turns out that Erasmus was right: Protestants are fighters and lovers. They will argue with anyone about almost anything. Some of these arguments are abstruse, others brutally practical. If we look at the great ideological battles of the past half millennium – for and against toleration, slavery, imperialism, fascism, or Communism – we will find Protestant Christians on both sides.