The emergence of neo-Evangelical Protestantism as a globalised social reality after World War II has, since the 1980s, produced a flourishing literature. Ignoring the partisans (theological justifications of, and attacks on, Evangelicalism, as this book notes, have a long history), the literature by the friends and enemies alone is now too large for most scholars of religion to comfortably command (see Hutchinson and Wolffe, A short history of global Evangelicalism, Cambridge 2012, 266–7). For this reason, a thematic, introductory text to the history of Evangelicalism in the Routledge Research Companions series is welcome. Andrew Atherstone (Wycliffe) and David Ceri Jones (Aberystwyth), whose previous productions include Making Evangelical history: faith, scholarship and the Evangelical past (London 2019), are an ideal partnership for bringing such a work together. Their introduction provides a solid summary of the definitional issues which point to the problems (if, for lack of space, few of the solutions) in defining the term ‘Evangelicalism’ itself. Intending researchers will find such a problematisation helpful, as it opens up the dynamism and contextuality of Evangelicalism as it has spread around the world and produced varying hyphenations. With the closing chapter by Philip Jenkins (‘Evangelicals and globalization’), it is a useful counterpoint to the tendency among historians (particularly in the Anglosphere) to project a particular national or historical form of Evangelicalism as normative. The range of contributors represents some of the best in the field: Mark Noll (Evangelicals and the Bible), Michael McClymond (Evangelicals, revival and revivalism), Tim Grass (Evangelicals and Eastern Christianity), Michael Gladwin (Evangelicals and mission in the Global South), Linda Wilson (Evangelicals and gender) among them. The fact that all the authors, except Wilson and Gladwin, are Anglo men located in the global North points to the problems of literature in general, and the study of Evangelicalism in particular. Those who have attempted to reverse the lens and work from within the contemporary majority global Southern reality of Evangelicalism recognise the problems of producing alternate narratives, problems entangled in the ‘northern’ concentration of publishing houses. The fact that this is a Research companion to the history of Evangelicalism is part of the useful problematisation posed by the book – the past of the movement has been a European, and thence a transatlantic reality (as perhaps is recognised by the book's staggering £135 price tag). Its current reality, as Jenkins points out, is otherwise. In another couple of decades, there is no doubt that the Hispanic/Lusophone, Asian, African and Oceanic realities will bear more heavily upon that history.

The collection does more than just summarise and problematise, however. The fact that the chapters are written by engaged, leading scholars means that many of them present sparkling additions to knowledge. Noll's chapter points out that Evangelicalism is a processual identity: it starts with an affection for the Bible, and then applies ‘a mixture of modern, pre-modern, quasi-modern and anti-modern’ (p. 38) approaches, as the situation calls for it. The salience of place and politics is as critical to understanding Evangelicalism as their theological identities -- Evangelicals are habitually people of their times, organising within flexible boundaries, around ecclesiology, public reputation and conscience. Maiden provides a very helpful timeline and link to context, explaining Evangelical-Catholic relationships within the ebbs and flows of ‘Protestant’ states. As with many of the contributions, his chapter is very helpfully transnational in its approach. Grass steps outside the traditional Protestant-Catholic divide altogether, and (with Atherstone's chapter on relations with Islam) points out that there are alternative comparison points for developing understandings of Evangelical histories. The long-running engagements between Evangelicals, Islam and Orthodox communities interactively submerge and then reemerge depending on political and cultural flows, an observation which suggests a variety of questions for further research. The rediscovery of Orthodoxy (along with communitarianism and other submerged historical resources in the Christian tradition) by disconnected Evangelical and charismatic youth revivalists from the 1960s is a fascinating study not only in globalisation, but in the unpredictabities inherent in the relationship between modernisation and religiosity. Forcing high level summaries together with new research proves, in this volume at least, to be a solid justification for the Research Companion form. I commend the work.