George Whitefield and New Birth Preaching

Abstract As an antidote to the supine faith that they believed had infected British Christianity, early Methodists framed their message around the concept of a “New Birth.” Its most vibrant version was manifest in the proclamations of the eighteenth-century’s most famous Anglophone preacher, George Whitefield. The three decades of his public ministry added a cutting edge to the Christian message, which both sharpened an appeal for individuals’ radical inward conversion and contributed a serious challenge to traditional patterns of ecclesiastical practice. In the process, Whitefield drifted from his Anglican moorings, clearly revealed by his open castigation of a number of Church of England clerics, including bishops. Although participating extensively in utilizing the printing press to disseminate his sermons and other writings, it is clear that his message was most effectively conveyed through his robust and notably dramatic preaching. Moreover, his arresting use of literary devices, such as metaphor and simile, together with homely anecdotes, made Whitefield’s public proclamations highly attractive, a dramatic demonstration of his central new-birth message. However, following his death, in Whitefield’s absence evangelical Christianity began to adopt a perhaps more balanced appeal to a Christian’s, and Christianity’s, life and work.