Capitalism

Abstract This chapter explores the spread of evangelicalism in continental Europe and the British Empire against the backdrop of the rise of capitalism in the eighteenth century. Starting from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, it briefly surveys different attitudes to religious tolerance across northern Europe to highlight the often-overlooked contribution of Huguenot, millenarian, and commercial networks to the emergence of evangelicalism. All of these groups either influenced early evangelicals theologically or supported their missions logistically and financially. Accordingly, this chapter surveys the economic foundations and teachings of Halle Pietists, the Moravians, and Methodists, as well as how their religious discourses evolved over the eighteenth century to adapt to the rise of capitalism. Overall it is argued that, although early evangelicals shared millenarian beliefs and experimented communal lifestyles, they rapidly reinvented themselves to become economically and theologically competitive on the religious marketplace. The support of wealthy bankers and merchants proved essential in this process and suggests that eighteenth-century capitalists helped finance early evangelicalism.