The foreign missionary impetus generated by Britain's eighteenth century Evangelical Revival included a concern for Francophone Europe. Seeds of this concern had been sown by the influx to Britain of Huguenot refugees after 1685, royalist sympathizers after 1789 and prisoners captured in conflicts with Napoleonic France. British supporters of agencies for Gospel extension, whether missionary, tract or Bible societies, viewed Francophone Europe as blighted successively by political absolutism, Enlightenment scepticism and Revolutionary upheaval. Viewing its indigenous Christianity as downtrodden and largely nominal, they embarked on schemes to renovate Francophone Christianity. In these initiatives, some British persons and agencies mistakenly proceeded on the assumption that their own efforts were the solitary reliable efforts underway in pursuit of evangelical renewal. In fact, a considerable segment of Francophone Protestantism, aided by Pietism and Moravianism, had retained a vital Christianity; spiritual awakening was in progress in advance of any British initiatives. The failure of some British individuals and agencies to accept this reality ensured that a substantial portion of their endeavour would tend to sectarianism. While the outflow of British aid to Francophone Christianity in the period 1816-1849 was massive, British Christianity itself received the impress of a renewed Francophone Protestantism. Preachers, dogmaticians and historians from within France and Switzerland became highly influential voices in Britain's Victorian era.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:662469 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Stewart, K. J. |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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