“Whitefield’s early years of itinerant ministry in particular were marked with both incredible success and contention. Kidd carefully traces the Calvinist Whitefield’s tortured relationship with the Arminian Wesleys, who openly opposed the theological tenets that Whitefield held dear. Whitefield also broke with the Moravians, whose Pietism he had once admired.”

In time for the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of George Whitefield (pronounced Whit-field), my co-blogger Thomas Kidd has just published a biography of the man he terms America’s Spiritual Founding Father. [Yale University Press identifies October 28 as the book’s release date, but it is already shipping].

Kidd’s George Whitefield is an eminently readable and informative book. It begins with a simple yet critical argument: “George Whitefield was the key figure in the first generation of Anglo-American evangelical Christianity.” Wesley started what became a major denomination. Edwards made far more serious and sustained theological contributions. Whitefield, though, tied together two continents and — with less success — a host of Protestant movements for the common cause of spreading “the new birth.”

Whitefield’s early years of itinerant ministry in particular were marked with both incredible success and contention. Kidd carefully traces the Calvinist Whitefield’s tortured relationship with the Arminian Wesleys, who openly opposed the theological tenets that Whitefield held dear. Whitefield also broke with the Moravians, whose Pietism he had once admired. And, of course, Whitefield made many other enemies: Dissenting colonial ministers he termed unconverted, Scottish Presbyterians who rejected him when he refused to embrace their ecclesiology, and Anglican leaders in the southern United States who tried to sanction him for his itinerant threat to their own authority.

This is not a book designed only for academics. It should gain a broad readership. For instance, evangelicals of all sorts will find Whitefield’s ministry both inspiring and — at times — troubling. Kidd succinctly and sympathetically outlines Whitefield’s understanding of the “new birth”:

A renovation of the heart was required for people to become fit for heaven. Religious duties — attending church, praying, and fasting — were important and could help put a person in the path of grace. But to Whitefield, observing churchly rituals had nothing to do with securing the new birth, which required a miraculous infusion of faith, effected by the Holy Spirit. Nothing short of a soul-transforming conversion would save people.

Whitefield himself struggled mightily for years until he felt convinced that God had wrought this work of regeneration in his own soul, and he spent the rest of his life trying to bring others to that same point of blissful assurance. On his last trip to Charleston, Whitefield preached at a large meeting house. A free African American apprentice and musician named John Marrant was there. He went inside intending to interrupt the meeting by blowing his french horn. Instead, he saw Whitefield point directly at him and declared the words of Amos: “Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.” Marrant collapsed. When he revived, Whitefield continued to preach. “Every word I heard from the minister was like a parcel of swords thrust into me,” he recalled. Eventually, Whitefield visited Marrant after the service. “Jesus Christ has got thee at last,” Whitefield promised him. Marrant became an evangelical preacher himself, minsitering to black Nova Scotians. While most did not become preachers themselves, tens of thousands of men and women on both sides of the Atlantic had similar spiritual experiences through Whitefield’s preaching. Whitefield, Kidd notes, did not hesitate to use either media publicity, dramatic speaking techniques, or his own celebrity in order to bring more individuals into a salvific relationship with Jesus Christ.

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