Larsen, Timothy 1967-

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Larsen, Timothy 1967-

PERSONAL:

Born September 4, 1967; married; wife's name Jane (a physician); children: Lucia, Theo, Amelia. Education: Wheaton College, B.A., 1989, M.A., 1990; University of Stirling, Scotland, Ph.D., 1997.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Wheaton College, 501 College Ave., Wheaton, IL 60187-5593. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL, Carolyn and Fred McManis Chair of Christian Thought, 2002—. Visiting Fellow Commoner, Trinity College, Cambridge, 2007. Member, Conference on Faith and History.

MEMBER:

Royal Historical Society (elected fellow), Ecclesiastical History Society, American Academy of Religion, American Society of Church History, United Reformed Church History Society, Evangelical Theological Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Book of the Year, Books & Culture, 2006, for Crisis of Doubt; CCCU Initiative Program Grant, 2007-09.

WRITINGS:

Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England, Boydell Press (Rochester, NY), 1999.

Christabel Pankhurst: Fundamentalism and Feminism in Coalition, Boydell Press (Rochester, NY), 2002.

(With Jon Vickery) For Christ in Canada: A History of Tyndale Seminary, Tyndale University College and Seminary (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2004.

Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Context of Victorian Theology, Baylor University Press (Waco, TX), 2004.

Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

EDITOR

(With David Bebbington) Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations, Sheffield Academic Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, InterVarsity Press (Downers Grove, IL), 2003.

(With Jeffrey P. Greenman) Reading Romans through the Centuries: From the Early Church to Karl Barth, Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 2005.

(With Jeffrey P. Greenman and Stephen R. Spencer) The Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries, Brazos Press (Grand Rapids, MI), 2007.

(With Daniel J. Treier) The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(With Mark Husbands) Women, Ministry and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms, IVP Academic (Downers Grove, IL), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Timothy Larsen is a theologian and educator. "My primary intellectual interests are in the areas of British history, historical theology, Christian thought, and intellectual currents and controversies," he remarked in his curriculum vitae posted on the Wheaton College Web site. He further commented that his academic research and writing "explore theological and intellectual ideas as they were appropriated and wrestled with in specific cultural, social, and historical contexts."

Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England is Larsen's examination of religious nonconformity in Britain during the middle of the nineteenth century. "This important book fills a significant chronological gap in the history of British church-state relations, for Timothy Larsen is the first modern historian to write systematically about the political ideas, ambitions, and actions of Evangelical nonconformists during the crucial period between the 1847 general election and the 1867 Reform Act," commented D.G. Paz in the Journal of Church and State. The author asserts that nonconformists were not interested in imposing their religion on others, but were in fact secretly interested in legal equality for religious minorities such as Jews, Roman Catholics, secularists, and others. He also suggests that a broad understanding and serious approach to theology is necessary in order to completely comprehend the nonconformists' political activities. Paz concluded that the work is a "well-researched, thought-provoking book" that is "well worth the reading." Peter Nockles, writing in the English Historical Review, stated that "Larsen's book represents an original and stimulating addition to a plethora of recent studies on nineteenth-century English Nonconformity."

Christabel Pankhurst: Fundamentalism and Feminism in Coalition is a religious biography of Pankhurst, who lived from 1880 to 1958 and was a "leader of the Women's Social and Political Union in England, the group that waged a militant campaign for women's suffrage," reported Betty A. DeBerg in Church History. Larsen focuses the book on Pankhurst's Christian thought and her efforts at Christian ministry. He examines the social and political forces that helped mold Pankhurst's religious attitudes, such as her disillusionment after the Great War and her stunted optimism about humankind. She was politically astute and observant, in both American and European venues, and was knowledgeable of but "not preoccupied with social, familial, and sexual mores of the times," DeBerg reported. However, she was also convinced that the events of the day were signs of the end times, the imminent return of Christ and the end of the world. In addition to being a religious fundamentalist, Pankhurst was also an early feminist, but Larsen "argues that Christabel's fundamentalism did not mean a disavowal of her earlier feminism," commented Albion reviewer Karen Hunt. Indeed, Pankhurst "was enormously successful in her religious work and was greatly respected in the Christian fundamentalist movement," and was equally successful in her secular pursuits, Hunt reported. With this book, "Larsen has equipped future biographers of Christabel Pankhurst to explore more sensitively the personal and political connections between her suffragist and her Adventist years," Hunt concluded.

Larsen's Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals contains biographical and historical sketches of more than four hundred men and women "who have significantly influenced the theology, pastoral practice, and piety of evangelicals in the English-speaking world," commented Booklist reviewer Mary Ellen Quinn. Larsen marks the 1730s as the decade that launched the Evangelical movement, but includes material on early figures who influenced evangelism, including Martin Luther, John Wesley, and John Calvin. He also includes other figures in the Evangelical movement, such as Cotton Mather, Oliver Cromwell, Frances Crosby, Dwight Moody, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. Gerald H. Anderson, writing in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, called the book a "handy reference tool," while Quinn found it to be "comprehensive, balanced, and fairly priced."

Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Context of Victorian Theology contains twelve essays by Larsen on the background of the Victorian church in England. Larsen "paints vivid pictures of the struggles for rights, the battle for faith, and the fight by Nonconformists in regard to church polity," commented Ralph Waller in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. Larsen covers topics such as the struggles of Baptist and Methodist churches to gain acceptance; the influence of secularism; the position of biblical criticism; and other important background and history of churches and Christianity in Britain during the nineteenth century. In total, he finds considerable "vitality and range of religious thought" in the churches of the Victorian period, remarked Mark Knight in Victorian Studies. "Well-researched and provocatively argued, his book deserves a wide readership," concluded Edward Short in a Books & Culture review.

In Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, Larsen considers the reacquisition of religious belief by individuals who had abandoned their Christian faith in favor of atheism. He writes that there are several noted writers and intellectuals who originally held Christian beliefs, but who discarded them when education and the acquisition of secular knowledge made such beliefs unattractive or unnecessary. He cites Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, and George Eliot as examples of people who left their religious faith behind. Larsen, however, asserts that there are also many examples of converts to atheism who later recovered and renewed their former Christian beliefs, with some becoming notable church figures of their time period. He disputes the implication that the acquisition of secular education and knowledge always leads to the abandonment of religious beliefs. His "aim is to attack that view of 19th-century England by showing that a ‘crisis of doubt’ makes at least as much sense in characterizing the period as a ‘crisis of faith’" during which religious faith was abandoned with regularity, related David Hempton in Books & Culture.

Larsen profiles seven prominent nineteenth-century secular leaders—William Hone, Frederic Rowland Young, Thomas Cooper, John Henry Gordon, Joseph Barker, John Bagnall Bebbington, and George Sexton—and explores how they reconverted back to Christianity. All were leading proponents of the secular cause, but would return to earlier religious observance. "The point of such an emphasis is to insist that these seven figures looked seriously into the gaping mouth of secularism yet returned to Christianity via a serious, honest, and careful evaluation of the respective merits and demerits of faith and infidelity," Hempton observed. Larsen explores the reasons behind such reconversion and how each of these individuals came to reasoned conclusions about the value of spiritual faith and involvement. Hempton called the book "an impressively researched, clearly written, and forcefully, even polemically, argued work of scholarship." In assessing the book, a Christian Century reviewer called Larsen a "learned guide to the world of Victorian British church and academe."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, Karen Hunt, review of Christabel Pankhurst: Fundamentalism and Feminism in Coalition, p. 177.

American Historical Review, April, 2004, Kathryn Gleadle, review of Christabel Pankhurst, p. 616.

Booklist, January 1, 2004, Mary Ellen Quinn, review of Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 910.

Books & Culture, July-August, 2006, Edward Short, "The Liveliest Way with Dissenters," review of Contested Christianity: The Political and Social Context of Victorian Theology, p. 12; July-August, 2007, David Hempton, "Reconversion," review of Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, p. 9.

Choice, July 1, 2003, H.L. Smith, review of Christabel Pankhurst, p. 1927; January, 2004, G. Holloway, review of Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 874.

Christian Century, July 24, 2007, review of Crisis of Doubt, p. 41.

Christianity Today, November, 2007, John Wilson, review of The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology, p. 80.

Church History, September, 2000, review of Friends of Religious Equality: Nonconformist Politics in Mid-Victorian England, p. 676; December, 2003, Betty A. DeBerg, review of Christabel Pankhurst, p. 901; June, 2005, Paul Friesen, review of Contested Christianity, p. 371.

English Historical Review, June, 2000, Peter Nockles, review of Friends of Religious Equality, p. 664; February, 2005, Martin Pugh, review of Christabel Pankhurst, p. 258.

International Bulletin of Missionary Research, January, 2004, Gerald H. Anderson, review of Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals, p. 38; April, 2005, Andrew Porter, review of Contested Christianity, p. 106.

Journal of Church and State, spring, 2002, D.G. Paz, review of Friends of Religious Equality, p. 356.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, July, 2004, Doreen Rosman, "Modern Christianity and Cultural Aspirations," p. 605; April, 2005, Ralph Waller, review of Contested Christianity, p. 408.

Journal of Religion, October, 2004, Priscilla Pope-Levison, review of Christabel Pankhurst, p. 622; July, 2006, David M. Thompson, review of Contested Christianity, p. 476.

Journal of Religious History, February, 2002, M.J.D. Roberts, review of Friends of Religious Equality, p. 108.

Times Literary Supplement, June 1, 2007, Anthony Kenny, "Lost Faith in Doubt," review of Crisis of Doubt, p. 33.

Victorian Studies, winter, 2005, Mark Knight, review of Contested Christianity, p. 297.