J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism

by Crawford Gribben

Overview

J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism describes the work of one of the most important and under-studied theologians in the history of Christianity. In the late 1820s, John Nelson Darby abandoned his career as a priest in the Church of Ireland to become one of the principal leaders of a small but rapidly growing religious movement that became known as the “Plymouth Brethren.” Darby and other brethren modified the Calvinism that was common among their evangelical contemporaries, developing distinctive positions on key doctrines relating to salvation, the church, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the end times.

After his death in 1882, Darby's successors revised and expanded his arguments, and Darby became known as the architect of the most influential system of end-times thinking among the world's half-a-billion evangelicals. This “dispensational premillennialism” exercises extraordinary influence in religious communities, but also in popular culture and geopolitics. But claims that Darby created this theological system may need to be qualified -for all his innovation, this reputation might be undeserved. This book reconstructs Darby's theological development and argues that his innovations were more complex and extensive than their reduction into dispensationalism might suggest. In fact, Darby's thought might be closer to that of his Reformed critics than to that of modern exponents of dispensationalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190932343
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/08/2024
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Crawford Gribben is Professor of History at Queen's University Belfast. He writes about the religious history of Britain, Ireland, and North America, focusing on the literary cultures of puritanism and evangelicalism, with special interests in millennial and apocalyptic thought.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Soteriology
Chapter 2: Ecclesiology
Chapter 3: Pneumatology
Chapter 4: Eschatology
Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism is the definitive work on Darby's theology of salvation, the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and eschatology. Among the book's many achievements is the demonstration that Darby's eschatological speculations, which have often been treated in isolation, were deeply embedded in his views of salvation, the church, and the Holy Spirit-and that later 'dispensationalists' rarely or never followed Darby on those matters. No one has even come close to the depth and insight of this book on how John Nelson Darby constructed his own theology." — Mark Noll, Author of America's Book: The Rise and Decline of America's Bible Civilization, 1794-1911

"John Nelson Darby is both vastly influential and vastly under-recognized. One of the most voluble of Victorian doctrinal writers, he is the voice behind much of radical evangelicalism in the United States and, indeed, worldwide. The question long has been: did Darby, who had myriad doctrines, actually have a theology? Crawford Gribben answers that question in the affirmative with a coherent, comprehensive, and sympathetic exposition of Darby's underlying systematic theology. This a fine, often heroic, book." — Donald H. Akenson, A.C. Hamilton Distinguished University Professor & Douglas Professor of Canadian and Colonial History, Queen's University

"This book is, no doubt, the definitive, concise study of the theology of J. N. Darby, particularly of his eschatology and of the role it played in the creation of modern dispensationalism. It establishes the author's surprising judgment that Darby "contributed some of the system's [dispensationalism's] key ideas: he saw the roots, but not the birth, ofdispensationalism"." — Protestant Reformed Theological Journal

From the Publisher