The evangelical popular press to
this day prints hagiographical biographies of Whitefield along with selections from
his published writings for devotional use.
These biographies present Whitefield as an evangelical icon, a hero of the
faith, someone to be emulated and admired. The Whitefield portrayed in such
filiopietistic literature is a saintly figure, a model of evangelical zeal and
devotion. Whitefield is presented through rose-coloured spectacles while the authentic,
deeply flawed, human being is hidden from view. Such biographers nostalgically romanticise the eighteenth-century
revivals and idealise the leaders of the Methodist revival as heroes of the faith
– a methodology reflective of Thomas Carlyle’s maxim that the ‘history of the
world is but the biography of great men’.
This is especially true of the semi-popular biographies of Whitefield published
during the nineteenth century which ‘feed the late Victorian appetite for
larger than life historical heroes’.
Though Whitefield has been the victim of hagiography, there have been more
scholarly and critical biographies in recent years – especially those of the
American Academy. This literature aims to
capture the authentic Whitefield through a careful and critical analysis of the
source material on George Whitefield. The following discussion aims to navigate
the literature on Whitefield from the earliest filiopietistic literature
published following the evangelist’s death to contemporary scholarly critiques
of his life and ministry.
The historiography of George Whitefield begins with
John Gillies. Gilles magnum opus was his Historical Collections
Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel (1754). This
account attempted to chart the success of the Gospel from the closing of the
Book of Acts in the New Testament down to the contemporary revivals which
Gilles himself had experienced first-hand. In addition to this compendium,
Gilles published the first account of Whitefield’s life and ministry, Memoirs of the Revered George Whitefield M.A. (1772), and also edited his published writings – sermons,
tracts, and letters – in a six-volume edition of his collected works. According
to David Ceri Jones, ‘Gilles biography furnished the evangelical reading public
with a detailed picture of the quintessential evangelical’.
George Whitefield was presented as a role model for devout evangelicals to
emulate and admire. Gillies sources were
mostly all from Whitefield’s pen – some 1500 letters, published sermons, and
most of his shorter published pieces. The result is a decisively pro-Whitefield
biography designed to answer the objections of critics in the late eighteenth
century. Not surprisingly, Gilles
biography laid the foundation stone for subsequent generations of
hagiographers.
Robert Phillip
was inspired to write a new life of Whitefield – updating Gilles account – by
the congregational philanthropist Thomas Wilson, a member of Whitefield’s
Tabernacle and a founding member of both the Religious Tract Society and the
London Missionary Society. In his preface to The Life and Times of George
Whitefield MA (1837), Phillip writes, ‘This work is chiefly from
Whitefield’s own pen. So far as it is mine, it is in his own spirit’. Despite claims
to capture the authentic Whitefield, the result is a filiopietistic
biography designed to promote evangelical religion. The real Whitefield is
hidden behind hagiography. Phillip depends heavily upon George Whitefield’s Journals
and the account of his life by John Gilles – quoting extensively from both.
The name of Luke
Tyerman dominates the scene of nineteenth century historiography. His Life
of John Wesley runs to some 1,857 pages. It provides a wealth of material
on the evangelical revivals of the eighteenth century, particularly as they
concern life and ministry of John Wesley. Tyerman’s interest in Wesley emerged
from his personal commitment to Wesleyan Methodism as both a minister and historian
of early Methodism. Martin Wellings suggests that ‘the Methodism in which
Tyerman was raised often displayed an uncritical and uninformed adulation of
its founder’.
Though Tyerman’s approach to the history of Methodism was rigorous, making a
careful and studious use of sources, he nonetheless held Wesley in high esteem
and eclipsed to some extent the role of Whitefield in the evangelical revivals.
Even so, Tyerman’s two volume biography The Life of
the Rev. George Whitefield B.A. of Pembroke College, Oxford, 2 vols (1876–7) was ‘the most ambitious to that
point … [it] was a testimony to his rigorous approach and contained much that
had evaded Gilles’ grasp’.
Tyerman’s personal commitment to Wesleyanism leads him to a personal distaste
for Whitefield’s Calvinism – a fact leading
Jones and Hammond to suggest that Tyerman’s ‘real hero’ was John Wesley. As
Wellings observes, ‘Tyerman’s Wesleyanism also placed him firmly on the
Arminian side in the debates which fractured the evangelical movement in the
eighteenth century’.
In the early
twentieth century Albert D. Belden’s biography George Whitefield–The
Awakener: A Modern Study of the Evangelical Revival (1930) offered a
uniquely social perspective on Whitefield’s life and ministry. His biography opens
with a forward by J. Ramsay Macdonald, Britain’s first Labour prime minister, a
passionate advocate of Christian socialism. Macdonald is not an altogether
unusual advocate for Whitefield, especially as one considers Whitefield’s
philanthropy and care of the Georgia orphan house. Belden approaches Whitefield’s
biography and influence both from the perspective of evangelicalism and
Christian socialism. He therefore gives special consideration to Whitefield’s
evangelism, philanthropy, and concern for the education of children and future
evangelical minsters. Belden goes so far as to describe Whitefield as ‘the
pioneer of modern philanthropy’ who made ‘continuous association of the Gospel
with practical charity’. Belden
sees the early Methodist societies as anticipating the social organisation of
trade unionism. For Belden, the collective organisation of Methodist societies
brings with it a sense of spiritual life and wellbeing: ‘By Methodism a
newly-oppressed, bewildered, and miserable proletariat … received a new
infusion of Life from spiritual sources’. The
concluding chapters explore Whitefield’s social impact and consider the
evangelical revival in the light of today from theological, psychological, and
sociological perspectives – adopting a theologically and socially liberal approach.
According to Belden, a revival for the modern world will inevitably be
political: ‘Politics will therefore become … for the socially minded the medium
of such an active collectivist ethic, the expression of a religion that sees a
passionately social God as the centre of a divinely-human kingdom, as the
Father of a divinely human family’.
For Belden, the new evangelical revival will espouse not only the new birth,
but a social Gospel – one that actively transforms society for the betterment
of humankind.
By far the most
comprehensive study during the twentieth century was written by Arnold
Dallimore, a Canadian Baptist pastor. Dallimore approaches Whitefield’s life and
ministry from the sympathetic perspective of Reformed evangelicalism. The
result is a comprehensive but filiopietistic biography – more akin to a
hagiography than an honest life of Whitefield. Though Dallimore suggests he
makes known Whitefield’s faults, he nonetheless confesses that he can hardly
find anything to criticise about him:
I have
endeavoured to give my portrait of Whitefield both reality and depth. I make
known not only his accomplishments and abilities, but also his foibles and
mistakes. I must confess, however, that I had almost wished his faults had been
more pronounced, lest by reason of their fewness and feebleness, I should be
charged with favouritism.
He inevitably smooths over some of
the rough patches in his life and career – not least his appalling treatment of
women. However, Dallimore does sharply criticise Whitefield for his advocacy
and personal ownership of slaves, though he commends him for treating his
slaves well and instructing them in the Gospel.
Written to counter
the dominance of the Wesleyan perspective in Methodist studies, Daillimore’s
account is careful to present Whitefield in the light of his moderate Calvinism,
attempting to present eighteenth-century Methodism as originally Calvinistic in
theology as opposed to Wesleyan. Ian Hugh Clary suggests that ‘His didactic
method aimed to stir up evangelical readers to deeper devotion and more zealous
mission, and to warn them against false notions concerning conversion, revival,
and charismatic gifts’. The
narrative is shaped by his commitment to Reformed soteriology and is very much
the work of an evangelical pastor concerned to present Whitefield as a spiritual
role model for contemporary evangelicals. The design of Daillimore’s biography
is to explain the evangelical awakening as a supernatural work of the Holy
Spirit – a work of divine providence: ‘Whitefield’s life teaches us that
Revival is a sovereign work of God, a supernatural work, a mighty out-pouring
of the Holy Spirit’. Though
commendable for drawing attention to Whitefield’s evangelical Calvinism, this
study nonetheless is part of an attempt by Reformed evangelicals during the
twentieth century to claim early evangelicalism as originally Calvinistic
rather than Wesleyan or Arminian.
From Dallimore
onwards, the literature on George Whitefield takes a more scholarly and
critical turn. This critical approach begins with Harry S. Stout’s biography: The
Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism
(1991). Stout presents Whitefield as ‘Anglo-America’s first modern celebrity’, a
larger than life figure whose early acting experiences paved the way for his
dramatic presence in the pulpit.
According to Stout, Whitefield synthesised evangelical religion with the language
and techniques of the stage – he became an ‘actor-preacher rather than a
scholar-preacher’.
These techniques allowed Whitefield to popularise evangelical religion on both
sides of the Atlantic, attracting thousands to hear his sermons. Though commendable
for drawing attention to Whitefield’s dramatic style and oratory, Stout’s
biography neglects the substance behind his preaching – particularly his
evangelical Calvinism. It is debatable whether Whitefield’s childhood
experiences in acting can be properly extended to cover his entire preaching
career. Perhaps Whitefield’s listeners were as much captivated by the content
of his sermons as the eloquence of his preaching.
Frank Lambert’s
work builds on the critical perspective of Stout, particularly by considering
Whitefield’s innovations.
Lambert approaches Whitefield from the perspective of the marketplace and
commerce during the eighteenth century. Whitefield is described as a trend-setter
who drew upon the techniques of commerce to sell his brand of evangelical
Calvinism in marketplace of ideas. Lambert draws attention to Whitefield’s
aggressive use of print media to publicise his awakenings on both sides of the
Atlantic – selling his divinity in newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets. The
epilogue concludes by comparing Whitefield to Charles Finney, Dwight L. Moody,
and Billy Graham, his innovative counterparts in revivalism. Though not sharing
the same theological perspective as Charles Finney, Whitefield’s use of print
media to advertise his revivals anticipates the pioneering techniques of
subsequent revivalism. The parallel with Finney is somewhat undermined by
Whitefield’s commitment to the doctrine of predestination – theologically
speaking, they are diametrical opposites. Nonetheless, Whitefield use of the
press did unite evangelicals throughout the colonies, arguably paving the way
for the collective consciousness of the Revolution.
Taking up the
political theme of collective consciousness, Jerome Dean Mahaffey explores
Whitefield’s influence in forming a cohesive American identity through a
‘rhetoric of community’.
This study pays particular attention to the language of Whitefield’s sermons, especially
the rhetoric of the new birth and its influence in forming a community of
like-minded evangelicals throughout the American colonies. By carefully
analysing the rhetoric of George Whitefield’s sermons, Mahaffey shows his
influence in the emergence of a collective and distinctively American religious
identity. A religious rhetoric that would eventually be transformed into the
political rhetoric of the American Revolution. Whitefield, for Mahaffey, should
be seen as an American patriot and as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the
nation itself.
Thomas S. Kidd
approaches Whitefield both as a sympathetic evangelical and an as academic
historian.
The result is a carefully balanced biography locating Whitefield within his
evangelical context while also drawing attention to his failings such as his
‘appalling behaviour in relationships with women … his advocacy of slavery and
his personal ownership of slaves’.
Kidd attempts to show how Whitefield helped to establish an interdenominational
religious movement, theologically committed to ‘the gospel of conversion, the
new birth, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the preaching of revival across
Europe and America’.
George Whitefield emerges from this study not only as an evangelical leader,
but as America’s spiritual founding father. The study highlights the
charismatic nature of Whitefield’s life and ministry. Whitefield emerges almost
as a prototype of the modern Pentecostal.
Broadening the
approach slightly, Jessica Parr considers Whitefield as a ‘religious icon of
the British Atlantic world’, while also considering his ‘understudied influence
on evangelical beliefs about slavery, race, and religion’.
As a religious icon, Whitefield was a symbol in the post-Reformation struggle
for religious tolerance. With respect to slavery, Whitefield inspired
abolitionists with his early antislavery sentiments and his preaching of
equality before the eyes of God. He also, somewhat paradoxically, was a ‘model
of proslavery’ as his personal ownership of slaves suggests. He apparently saw ‘no
contradiction between slave owning and his faith’. According
to Parr, Whitefield emerges as a crucial figure in the debate over religious
culture and liberty in early modern Atlantic world. The final chapter considers
Whitefield posthumous role as a transnational icon – highlighting the morbid
fascination of evangelicals with the bones and skull of Whitefield in the
Newburyport crypt. It was after all the tomb of an American icon.
The most
important critical study of twenty-first century is the collaborative volume edited
by Geordan Hammond and David Ceri Jones: George Whitefield: Life, Context,
and Legacy (2016). This study brings together a team of professional
historians working at universities across the globe to present new and creative
research regarding the life, ministry, and impact of George Whitefield. The
editors open with a consideration of Whitefield’s biographers – giving
particular attention to Gilles, Tyerman, Dallimore, Stout, Lambert, and
Mahaffey. For Hammond and Jones, there is a general transition in the
historiography on Whitefield from hagiography to scholarly criticism.
Boyd Stanley
Schlenther opens with a consideration of Whitefield’s personal life and
character.
He narrates aspects of Whitefield’s biography – his involvement in the Holy
Club at Oxford, his difficulties in forming personal relationships, his
appalling treatment of women (particularly his own wife), as well as his
tendency towards boastfulness, judgementalism, and pride. Schlenther also
considers the financial clouds that haunted his life and ministry, particularly
with respect to his oversight of the Bethesda Orphanage. Schlenther closes with
an account of Whitefield’s physical decline and final years – noting his corpulent
appearance and his irascibility in the final years.
Mark K. Olson
explores Whitefield’s conversion and early theological formation – considering
his progression from Oxford Methodism, to evangelical Methodism, and eventually
Calvinistic Methodism. Whitefield’s early association with High Church
sacramentalism and holy living theology was gradually replaced with evangelical
convictions regarding justification by faith and the new birth. Eventually
developing into a moderate Calvinism emphasising the electing love of God and
the final perseverance of the saints. In
chapter three, William Gibson considers Whitefield’s difficult relationship to
the Church of England – examining the attitudes of the clergy and Anglican
bishops towards Whitefield and their specific concerns regarding ecclesiastical
authority, popery, Jacobitism, and antinomianism.
Frank Lambert
explores Whitefield’s complex interaction with the Enlightenment.
Lambert assumes there were ‘many competing Enlightenments’ throughout the
Atlantic world during the eighteenth century and that Whitefield spiritual
enlightenment may be considered a part of them. Whitefield
formulated his own distinctively religious response to the Enlightenment in
which human reason must first be ‘illuminated by God’s grace’. Whitefield’s
opposition to John Tillotson’s theology is explored in considerable depth as
well as his more promising relationship to Benjamin Franklin. ‘For Whitefield,
there could be no true enlightenment without the transforming grace of God that
wrought a new nature in the minds, hearts, and wills of men and women’. In
chapter five, Carla Gardina Pestana explores Whitefield’s engagement in the
culture of empire – noting how he travelled extensively through the British
empire and represented it to his readers in his published journals and letters.
He also ‘embraced its characteristic institutions of religious diversity and
slavery’, and was instrumental in reshaping its religious culture.
Geordan Hammond
focuses on the early relationship between Whitefield and John Wesley.
He gives particular consideration to the tensions that characterised the
‘chaotic beginnings’ of the revival and Wesley’s use of the lot in making
decisions.
Hammond explores the fascinating correspondence between Wesley and Whitefield
from their early friendship and deferential relationship to the emerging
Calvinist-Arminian conflicts between them. In chapter seven, Kenneth P. Minkema
explores the relationship between Whitefield and the philosopher-theologian
Jonathan Edwards.
He focuses on their interactions in 1740 and the ‘virtually ignored visit’ of
1745, noting especially the frictions between them as well as their shared
interests in revival and religious experience. Minkema particularly considers
Edwards’ criticisms of impulses, impressions and dreams, of which Whitefield
had made much in the early editions of his published journals.
Keith Edward
Beebe and David Ceri Jones (co-authors) consider Whitefield’s engagement with
the revivals in the ‘Celtic’ nations of the British Isles – Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland.
Beebe and Jones explore Whitefield’s involvement in creating a British-wide
evangelical Calvinist network. The chapter does much to address Whitefield’s
role as a ‘unifier of evangelicals in each of the four constituent nations of
the British Isles’. In chapter nine, Brett C. McInelly explores
the criticism and controversy surrounding Whitefield’s life and ministry.
McInelly argues that Whitefield’s ‘public clashes’ reveal much about his
‘character and conviction’, while his apologetic for the evangelical awakening
became part of the ‘media machine by which … [he] advanced the Methodist cause’. Whitefield
revelled in criticism – taking persecution as a mark of assurance for his
ministry and labours, recognising that even ‘bad publicity is good publicity’.
Braxton Boren
explores whether it would have been physically possible for Whitefield to
preach to the vast crowds supposedly attending his public sermons.
The chapter draws upon Benjamin Franklin’s account of Whitefield’s incredible
voice and the estimated crowd that could have reasonably heard him – amounting
to some 30,000 listeners – similar to the vast crowds that would gather before
army generals in ancient history. Using modern simulation techniques and
Franklin’s data, as well as the largest crowd estimates for Whitefield’s
preaching services, Boren suggests that Whitefield ‘could perhaps have been
heard intelligibly by a crowd of 50,000 people’ under ideal acoustic conditions’. In
chapter eleven, Emma Salgard Cunha offers a close reading of Whitefield’s
sermon ‘Abraham’s Offering up his Son Isaac’, highlighting the similarities
between the use of affective language in contemporary poetry and the affective
rhetoric of George Whitefield’s preaching.
Cunha compares the British dramatist and critic John Dennis (1658–1734) to
Whitefield, highlighting the poetics of eighteenth-century evangelicalism with
its peculiar concentration on heart religion and the religious affections.
Stephen R. Berry
considers the time Whitefield spent on the Atlantic and how he occupied himself
on board ship.
Remarkably, Whitefield spent approximately three years of his life on the water.
In Berry’s words, ‘The Atlantic Ocean defined Whitefield’s identity’. Berry
distinguishes four aspects to Whitefield’s life aboard – ‘the ship as parish,
the ship as wilderness, the ship as cloister, and the ship as haven’.
These headings capture Whitefield’s relationship to the ocean and the way he
utilized the journey for spiritual ends. Peter Choi’s chapter considers
Whitefield’s relationship to the colony of Georgia, particularly his quest to
establish a college on the site of the Bethesda orphanage.
According to Choi, Whitefield’s ‘concerns [for Bethesda] developed beyond
religious interests to include cultural and imperial aspirations … the Bethesda
project was one attempt by Whitefield to sketch his vision of an ascendant
Protestant empire on the fluid canvas of colonial life’.
Mark A. Noll
considers the importance of A Collection of Hymns for Social Worship
published by Whitefield in 1753.
The collection was published to coincide with the opening of the Tabernacle in
London and represented a pivotal time in Whitefield career. Noll assesses the
sensibility and the theology of Whitefield’s Collection ‘which appeared
at a transitional moment in the early history of modern evangelical
Christianity’.
Noll considers the medium in which the hymns were written, the central message
of the hymns (namely, the saving work of Christ), and the spirituality they
convey. In chapter fifteen, Isabel Rivers’ assesses the various responses to
Whitefield’s life and ministry from his death in 1770 to the centenary
celebrations in 1839.
Whitefield’s irenic interdenominationalism earned both supporters and opponents
within Dissent and the Established Church. Many of Whitefield’s supporters were
dissenters who struggled with Whitefield’s evangelical catholicism; while many
of his opponents were Anglican evangelicals who ‘regarded his influence as
extremely damaging to the Church’.
Andrew
Atherstone closes the volume with a chapter on the commemoration of Whitefield
in popular culture during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Whitefield was remembered with ‘memorial sermons, monuments, statues, churches,
colleges, institutes, re-enactments, and evangelistic campaigns’.
Atherstone zooms in on four locations – Newburyport, Victorian England,
Savannah and Philadelphia, and post-1950s England – to consider the ways in
which Whitefield was understood by successive generations.
Taking a decisively political perspective, Peter Y.
Choi’s George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire (2018) gives
particular attention to the later part of Whitefield’s career – asking the
question: ‘What happened after the revival?’
Choi portrays Whitefield as an ‘agent of British culture who used his political
savvy and theological creativity to champion the cause of imperial expansion’.
The study explores the way in which the Great Awakening became increasingly
entwined with the expansion of the British empire and culture throughout the
Atlantic world. Whitefield with his itinerating on both sides of the Atlantic –
crossing the ocean no less than seven times – was a key figure in this
development. The study follows the gradual accommodation of the evangelical
awakening to the culture of empire.
This
survey of the historiography on George Whitefield has shown that much of
literature is largely biographical in nature, with the tendency being to focus
on his life and ministry. Recent scholarly literature tends to be decisively
American in its focus and often political orientated, either focusing on
Whitefield’s role as a forgotten ‘founding father’ or his influence in bringing
the culture of empire to the American colonies. Much of the scholarly
literature has virtually ignored Whitefield’s theological development, giving
little or no attention to his published sermons – a key source for exploring
Whitefield’s theology. While political and social studies have their place in
the study of Whitefield’s life and career, a good case can be made for
exploring the theological themes that animated his preaching. No doubt many
were attracted to Whitefield by the eloquence of his preaching and his dramatic
presence in the pulpit, but perhaps what gripped them most was the life
changing doctrines he expounded – particularly the new birth and justification
by faith. If they came for the eloquence, they stayed for the doctrine. A
scholarly and critical approach to Whitefield’s theology – drawing upon the
best theological literature – is therefore needed.
Bibliography
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Parr, Jessica m., Inventing
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Pollock, John, George
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Stout, Harry S., The Divine
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See, for example, Harry S. Stout, The Divine
Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism (Grand
Rapids, MI, 1991). Frank Lambert, “Pedlar in Divinity”: George Whitefield
and the Transatlantic Revivals (Princeton, NJ, 1994). Jerome Dean Mahaffey,
Preaching Politics: The Religious Rhetoric of George Whitefield and the
Founding of a New Nation (Waco, TX, 2007).