Several years ago Collin Hansen and I coedited a debate-book on evangelicalism.
David Bebbington’s famous quadrilateral features prominently in our book (cf. pp. 70, 73, 75, 95, 106, 119, 121, 122, 128, 151, 153, 157, 169–76, 182, 188, 196, 209–10), so I was eager to see what Bebbington thinks of our book in his review. I read his review in December 2012, and I’ve been checking regularly since then for this review to become available online. It’s now available as a PDF:
David W. Bebbington. “About the Definition of Evangelicalism . . . .” Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals 83 (2012): 1–6.
Overall, his review is favorable and generous. I’m grateful.
Andy, thanks for sharing this. I thought his comment about being surprised to see only two references to Calvin while finding seventeen references to himself was interesting–an example of wry humor there for sure.
I’m curious about his suggestion that including non-baptistic interlocutors would have altered the outlook of the book. When the book was conceived, was there any discussion of potentially including an evangelical Church of England representative, or a charismatic? Or anything else? I benefited from the book as it stands, but I thought that was an intriguing suggestion.
We discussed all sorts of options. Originally, I was going to co-edit this book with John Woodbridge, but that didn’t work out mainly because he wanted to frame the book differently (e.g., by including a Pentecostal view). I don’t think that one’s denomination is a significant factor for what this book addresses. E.g., a Presbyterian could represent any one of those four views on the spectrum.