In Volume 5, Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening, Old brings the story of preaching up through the eighteenth century, showing how, after the tumultuous age of the Reformation, preaching in the eighteenth century was driven in several very different directions. The book’s first chapter considers moderatism, an inevitable reaction against the high tensions of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. In the second chapter Old discusses pietism, examining the contributions of Philipp Jakob Spener, Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, John Wesley, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, and other preachers. The remaining seven chapters delve into a variety of national or denominational schools of preaching.
Studying these volumes is like walking around a great cathedral [. . . ] every section, however distinctive, unites in a grand design whose aim is to restore preaching to its rightful place. This multivolume work is easily the best history of preaching ever written, one that will serve generations of those whose faith comes by hearing.
—William Edgar, Westminster Theological Seminary
Old has bequeathed to the church of the twenty–first century the definitive history of preaching, a spiritual feast for scholars and preachers alike for years and years to come.
—James F. Kay, Princeton Theological Seminary
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Glenn Crouch
5/17/2017