Origins Of Salvation Army - Softcover

Murdoch, Norman H.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870499556 ISBN 13: 9780870499555

Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press, 1996

Synopsis

History. First paperback printing. Book near fine and clean, inside and out.

About this title

From Booklist:

In a fascinating and thoroughly documented social history of the origins of the Salvation Army, Murdoch focuses on the founders, William and Catherine Booth, and their remarkable ability to speak both the religious and social languages of the Victorian Age. He traces their work from revivalist roots imported to Britain by American evangelists in the middle of the nineteenth century, whose purpose was to aid the urban poor. Murdoch's is a critical history, an appreciative account of the Booths' contributions that is also a painstakingly clear description of the failure to convert the urban masses to the Wesleyan gospel of nineteenth-century revivalism. The book is relevant not only to those with specific interest in Salvation Army history, but also to those with more general interests in the social history of Victorian England, the interrelationship of religious and social movements in the Anglo-American world of the nineteenth century, the interrelationship of Christian evangelicalism and Anglo-American imperialism, and the relationship between theological and social dimensions of religious organizations. Recent political and religious developments in the U.S. make this case study of the transformation of an urban revivalist mission into a movement that is also explicitly social and political particularly timely. Steve Schroeder

From Library Journal:

This revisionist history of the Salvation Army, from its genesis to around 1900, attempts to debunk several myths about the religious sect. Murdoch (history, Univ. of Cincinnati) shows that the Salvation Army's founders, William and Catherine Booth, were heavily influenced by American revivalists and that the army was actually a failure in the London slums from which it had arisen. The author also stresses how William Booth's autocratic control of the organization naturally led to schisms. The author closely examines the evolution of the army's ministry from a strictly evangelistic emphasis to its more practical social services program. His treatment is comparable to another, more localized history, R.G. Moyles's The Blood and Fire in Canada (1977). Murdoch has imbued the army's saga with the fervor and intrigue of its proponents to create a balanced, well-researched, yet intriguing history. Recommended for all adult collections.
Jonathan Jeffrey, Western Kentucky Univ., Bowling Green
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ Tennessee Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0870499556
• ISBN 13: 9780870499555
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256