Conclusion

Reviewing the arguments of the preceding chapters, it is possible to see evangelical devotion in all its intensity as an episode in the longer history of Christian spirituality, one that appears uniquely now in a society that is modernizing and naturalizing. We cannot do justice to the experience of eighteenth-century people by offering reductionist explanations of their religion that depend upon the modern, naturalist assumptions they were contesting. This would be to beg the question of what is the meaning of religious experience in the modern world by simply erecting an agnostic firewall against the very possibility. Instead, we may see the evangelicals of the eighteenth century as bearing witness in their lives and writings to the continued experience of God’s presence in the modern world. The perdurance of evangelical religion across three centuries and five continents suggests the evangelical quest for “true religion” will not slow anytime soon.