Mark R. Stevenson (PhD, University of Wales) is Professor of Bible and Theology at Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa.
Mark Stevenson's groundbreaking study offers a challenging and
richly resourced reminder of what many Brethren, and historians of
evangelicalism, have forgotten--that the movement that gave birth
to dispensationalism was a movement of vigorous and emphatic
Calvinists.
--Crawford Gribben, Queen's University Belfast With no official
creed or confession, the Brethren movement presents a daunting
challenge to those interested in inquiring into its original
beliefs. From the writings of the movement's earliest leaders, Dr.
Stevenson has produced a first-rate study of their soteriological
convictions--specifically, their views on what are commonly known
as the doctrines of grace. While his conclusions might surprise
some, his scholarly insight will prove edifying to all.
--J. Stephen Yuille, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Stevenson provides a fascinating narrative strewn with ironies. The
Brethren 'fathers' charted a doctrinal course that they believed to
lie somewhere between Calvinism and Arminianism, the formal study
of which they eschewed. Spurning doctrinal articles, they supposed
(mistakenly) that their own periodic writings could suffice to
guard the form of the gospel as they preached it. They lived to see
their own mildly Calvinistic teaching undermined by new emphases
traceable to the 1859 Revival and the Moody campaigns. Here, in
microcosm, is the story of nineteenth-century evangelical
Protestantism.
--Kenneth J. Stewart, Covenant College The Brethren, the vigorous
Evangelical movement that sprang into existence in the years around
1830, repudiated systematic Calvinism as mere human speculation.
They were insistent that they embraced the teaching of the Bible
alone. But, as Stevenson shows clearly in this volume,
nineteenth-century Brethren leaders normally professed beliefs that
are recognizably Calvinistic. He has indeed demonstrated the
existence of the doctrines of grace in an unexpected place.
--David Bebbington, University of Stirling Stevenson demonstrates
irrefutably by the abundance of evidence he accumulates that the
early Brethren were Calvinists. He lucidly explicates the nuances
present in their convictions about salvation that enabled them to
maintain the doctrines of grace while remaining passionate
evangelists. His work succeeds in both filling a gap in Brethren
historiography and being a thought-provoking work of historical
theology with implications for contemporary developments in
evangelicalism.
--Neil Dickson, Editor, Brethren Historical Review
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