In chronological terms this is the final instalment in the five-volume series on Evangelicalism in the English-speaking world that is being published by the Evangelical Inter-Varsity Press. While the volume on the first half of the twentieth century is yet to be published, this book maintains the very high standards set by earlier writers. In researching this book, Brian Stanley took on a serious challenge. The volume does not profess to be a comprehensive world history of the movement, but against the backdrop of globalisation (and Stanley makes the point that the globalisation of the English language meant that to a large extent Evangelicalism operated within ‘an English-speaking world’) it goes beyond the scope of previous volumes in the series, engaging with the wider international context of Evangelicalism since the 1940s. As a global movement, Stanley argues, Evangelicalism has diversified significantly in terms of geographical distribution, cultural orientation and theological emphasis. Stanley's ambitious approach reaps rich rewards. He provides a remarkable distillation of extensive primary and secondary material; offers a global perspective which assesses transnational networks, influences and controversies; and ultimately presents a wide-ranging, but remarkably coherent, analysis.

The volume's coherence largely rests on two, often intertwined, historical trajectories. The first, in relation to North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, is the gradual emergence (in contradistinction to both ‘fundamentalism’ and liberalism) of a more theologically informed, socially engaged and denominationally orientated ‘new’ or ‘conservative’ evangelical consensus between the mid-1940s and the 1960s (the dates vary depending on context). For example, in the United States, this shift was bound up with the National Association of Evangelicals (1943), the establishment of Fuller Theological Seminary (1947), the influence of Billy Graham's ecumenism, and the launch of the magazine Christianity Today (1956); while in the Church of England it was achieved under the leadership of John Stott, who succeeded in establishing a ‘radical’ conservative consensus, of which the National Evangelical Anglican Congress of Keele in 1967 provided a clear statement. However, from the late 1960s this consensus appeared increasingly fragile, with, for example, fiercely contended debates over biblical inspiration, and later the emergence of the Christian Right in the United States; a wider Reformed/‘quasi-fundamentalist’ backlash against neo-Evangelicalism; and the growing influence of charismatic renewal. The book is particularly insightful on the ways in which different understandings of the inspiration of Scripture, and varying approaches to its interpretation – such as the charismatic emphasis on the evidence of personal spiritual experience and divergent attitudes towards biblical hermeneutics – brought disunity. The two causes célèbres of this were, of course, debates over the ordination of women and homosexuality. By the end of the century, Stanley's analysis points towards a diffusion of Evangelical identity and theology.

The second trajectory is the internationalisation of Evangelicalism and interaction between its historic heartlands and the majority world. Here, where the historiography is sparser, Stanley's research is particularly helpful. There is analysis of the post-war globalisation of US Evangelicalism; the influence of Commonwealth networks, particularly the growth of Scripture Union in Ghana and Nigeria; and the wider impact of the East Africa Revival and the Evangelical Fellowship of India. The Lausanne Conference of 1974, attended by delegates from 150 countries, receives close attention, and is presented as a defining moment for voices of the global south. At Lausanne, René C. Padilla objected to the influence of American ‘culture Christianity’; Samuel Escobar and Orlando Costas called on the movement to challenge socio-economic structures; and John Gatu, a Kenyan leader, appealed for Africa to be sending, rather than ‘always receiving’, missionaries. In Stanley's words, a ‘decentring of the geographical and cultural identity of evangelicalism’ was underway.

Alongside these parallel trajectories are valuable assessments of trends in scholarship and preaching, different approaches to apologetics, the emergence and development of new charismatic and Pentecostal movements and the rise of post-conservatism and ‘post-Evangelicalism’. For all its considerable strengths, there are, unavoidably, some significant gaps in the survey. Readers will find little, for example, on the growth and significance of the Black Majority Churches in the United Kingdom and elsewhere; or, surprisingly, on the role of Evangelicals in the ‘culture wars’ of the United States and other English-speaking contexts; or on Evangelical responses to Communist religious persecution. Furthermore, there are, inevitably, moments where the analysis is very brief. This, for instance, is apparent in the chapter on Evangelical charismaticism, where the internationalisation of charismatic renewal is passed over very quickly. However, this is an important and skilfully written book that deserves to reach a wide audience. There are broad arguments here which will be engaged with by historians of religion for many years; but Stanley's study will also be accessible to non-experts with a specific interest in the topic. The book concludes with the question of whether its global diffusion also means the global disintegration of Evangelicalism. Anyone interested in this question, which is vital to the future of the movement, should read this book.