UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE ARNOLD DALLIMORE (1911-1996): REFORMED EVANGELISCALISM AND THE SEARCH FOR A USABLE PAST A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY IAN HUGH CLARY 2014 Promotor: Prof. Dr. Adriaan C. Neele Co-Promotor: Prof. Dr. Michael Haykin © Ian Hugh Clary, 2014 2 For Vicky 3 “Nowadays the present and the future are too terrifying to be escaped from, and if one bothers with history it is in order to find modern meanings there.” George Orwell 4 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….16 The search for a usable past Method: Signposting the narrative 2. STATUS QUAESTIONIS: THE DEBATE OVER CHRISTIAN HISTORY……24 Introduction: A twenty-first century illustration History wars: “Natural” vs. “supernatural” historiography The history of history writing: Historical background on historical thinking The supernaturalist perspective The naturalist perspective Arnold Dallimore, Harry S. Stout, and the writing of Whitefield Tertium quid: An alternative proposal Conclusion 3. ARNOLD DALLIMORE: LIFE AND THE WRITING OF WHITEFIELD……74 “Fix my attention on things eternal”: Adolescence and conversion Arthur and Mabel Dallimore’s early life The call to ministry “Joy and Sorrow”: Toronto Baptist Seminary Mourning the death of Mabel 5 An “Ordinary” Pastor La Belle Provence On the road in the Maritimes Orangeville and meeting May Surviving the Pastor Killer Cottam: Years of construction and growth “Integrity and dignity”: Dallimore as pastor Dallimore’s philosophy of ministry The birth of a denomination Isolation and retirement Pastor as historian: Writing the life of Whitefield Love for church history Poverty and providence: Writing as tent-making Meeting the Doctor Visiting the valleys of green The struggles of writing S. M. Houghton: The critic John Wesley: Friend or fiend? Praiseworthy reception Whitefield and the Calvinist international Final years and passing “Without a struggle” Conclusion: Dallimore, suffering and perseverance 6 “The goings of heaven upon the soul”: Following the call “New strength”: Perseverance of the called through suffering 4. GEORGE WHITEFIELD ACCORDING TO ARNOLD DALLIMORE……...145 Whitefield and the power of celebrity Of heroes and not liking them Celebrity and hero “That might hint of boasting”: Canadian anti-heroes “Saw him as their champion”: Whitefield as celebrity Dallimore on Whitefield’s celebrity Celebrity and ego Conclusion Whitefield and the problem of slavery “Yet to understand”: Twentieth-century historians on slavery Dallimore on Whitefield and slavery Conclusion Whitefield and the question of revival Revival and revivalism? Mapping two approaches Dallimore on revival Charismata and conversion Whitefield, revival and the usable past Dallimore’s Whitefield: Meeting historical standards 5. EDWARD IRVING AND CHARLES SPURGEON: ANACHRONISTIC AGENDAS……………………………………………………………………..226 7 The lesser biographies Canadian charismatics Canadian Baptist reactions Edward Irving: Proto-charismatic? “Instructions and warnings”: Irving and lessons from the past Historical bias: Sources, charismata, Coleridge and the sinlessness of Christ Source selection Dallimore on the charismatics Irving as forerunner Coleridge and christology Conclusion: Irving and the usable past Charles Spurgeon: Remembered but forgotten Reasons for writing: Links to the Dallimore past Spurgeon and source material The problem of the “forgotten Spurgeon” Conclusion: Spurgeon the Calvinist preacher? 6. CHARLES AND SUSANNA: THE GOOD WESLEYS; JOHN WESLEY: THE BAD…………………………………………………………………………….282 Charles Wesley: A heart set free Charles Wesley’s charismatic conversion Conversion hymn Susanna Wesley: Mother of Methodism Source material 8 Conclusion John Wesley the bad Conversion, Methodism, and theology Conversion: Genuine or not? John Wesley and the founding of Methodism The problem of perfection Conclusion 7. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………329 Using Dallimore’s usable past Dallimore and the discipline of history Conclusion 8. APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………..341 A Preacher’s Sunday Night WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………343 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study was originally conceived in 2010 as a short, popular biography of Arnold Dallimore that was sidelined by the publisher due to a struggling economy. Since then it has undergone a number of transformations and has happily wound up as a doctoral dissertation focusing on problems in historiography. The process of metamorphosis has been carried along by many hands that deserve many thanks. Importantly, thanks are due to my Doktorväter, Profs. Adriaan Neele and Michael A. G. Haykin. Prof. Neele dutifully halved his time between Yale Divinity School and my own, the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein), while I wrote and he provided informative and encouraging direction for this study. He has been of great help and I am deeply privileged to have been his student. Prof. Haykin has been more than a supervisor to me, but a friend. As a personal acquaintance of Arnold Dallimore, he took care to ensure that I appropriately remembered Dallimore’s legacy while being true to history. As well, an interview that Prof. Haykin conducted with Dr. Dallimore in the 1990s proved to be an indispensable source for chapter three. Any good in this study would not be what it is were it not for his guidance. I would also like to thank Prof. Dolf Britz of the University of the Free State for his input and support—especially for his helpful suggestion of following the chronology of Dallimore’s published work to make this a proper intellectual history. One of my earliest conversations about a book on Dallimore was with Tim Challies, the plan was for us to write it together. I am thankful to Tim for his willingness to allow me to embark on my own and for his own interest in Dallimore expressed through his popular blog Challies.com. I was initially contracted with Evangelical Press in England to 10