This volume offers an exploration of two major strands of English and Welsh religious history: Evangelicalism and Protestant Dissent. Spanning from the late seventeenth century to the twentieth century, the volume presents a collection of essays that describe these movements’ historical trajectories, intersections, and influence on British society (despite the title, there are some passing references to Ireland and marginally to Scotland).

The book is organised chronologically, allowing readers to trace the evolution of Evangelical and dissenting traditions over time. Early chapters examine the origins of the Evangelical revival, highlighting figures like George Whitefield and Isaac Watts and their connections to dissenting traditions. Subsequent essays explore the development of Wesleyan Methodism, the role of Anglican seceders (it is enough to think of Thomas Kelly’s legacy in Ireland, and then of John Nelson Darby and the so-called Plymouth Brethren), and the theological anxieties of Congregationalists. Later chapters address the intersection of Evangelicalism with social movements, such as feminism in the early twentieth century, and the challenges posed by secularisation in the post-war era.

One of the book’s strengths is its dual focus on individual biographies and broader denominational movements. For example, a chapter on John Stott’s engagement with dissenting Evangelicals (projected on an international front) offers an illuminating case study of ecumenical relationships (or lack thereof) during the mid-twentieth century. However, the heavy reliance on biographical sketches sometimes detracts from a deeper analysis of social, political or cultural dynamics at play, leaving readers with a somewhat fragmented understanding of the larger picture. The book also makes a commendable effort to highlight diversity. A chapter on ‘Black majority churches’ enriches the narrative by addressing the contributions of ethnic minority communities to the religious landscape of England and Wales. Most Old and New Dissent denominations are taken into consideration, with the obvious exceptions of Quakerism and Unitarianism, and the understandable but less obvious absence of Presbyterianism. Whilst of course many Presbyterians turned Unitarians during the long eighteenth century, it would have been stimulating to explore the remaining orthodox Presbyterians who had kept their faith if not their buildings, and the impact that Scottish revivalism might have had on them (they were mostly located in Northumberland).

Overall, the ambition of the book to intertwine two scholarships – that on Evangelicalism and that on the history of Dissenters – which, albeit cognate, have long been separated, succeeds. Whilst one is quite clear about who the Dissenters are, the category ‘Evangelicalism’ is sometimes stretched in various directions, and one does not exactly know when a Revival starts or exactly when it ends. The volume adopts a sort of continuity approach from the seventeenth to the twentieth century: a convincing one, but perhaps identifying some turning points would have been useful too. In sum, if not entirely novel or groundbreaking, this is a good, solid and helpful book.

One question is left nevertheless lingering in the mind of the reader. From the non-conformist conscience to the history of toleration, the life of dissenting communities has been pivotal in the social, political, and religious history of Britain. But with their numeric decline, their importance among academic scholars of Christianity has declined too. In other words: those who engage with a book like this are in some way already aware of why Dissent and evangelicals mattered, whether for specificity of research interest, personal faith, or cultural upbringing. This is far from calling this scholarship ‘confessional’: it is not, or not just, that. But, in this age of global history challenges, of crisis for our discipline, and of religious history limited to cultural and social approaches, we can only imagine an undergraduate student looking at the godly old white men highlighted in this book, thinking: ‘why should I care?’. I strongly believe we should care a great deal about all this, but, alas, I was already convinced before approaching the book. How to make all this relevant for the historians and students of the twenty-first century is, I feel, a big challenge for us all.