Arnold Dallimore

371 Pages·2015·0.99 MB·English

UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE

ARNOLD DALLIMORE (1911-1996): REFORMED
EVANGELISCALISM AND THE SEARCH FOR A USABLE PAST

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THEOLOGY
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

BY

IAN HUGH CLARY

2014

Promotor: Prof. Dr. Adriaan C. Neele

Co-Promotor: Prof. Dr. Michael Haykin
© Ian Hugh Clary, 2014
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For Vicky
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“Nowadays the present and the future are too terrifying to be escaped
from, and if one bothers with history it is in order to find modern
meanings there.”
George Orwell
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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...10
CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………….16
The search for a usable past
Method: Signposting the narrative
2. STATUS QUAESTIONIS: THE DEBATE OVER CHRISTIAN HISTORY……24
Introduction: A twenty-first century illustration
History wars: “Natural” vs. “supernatural” historiography
The history of history writing: Historical background on historical
thinking

The supernaturalist perspective
The naturalist perspective
Arnold Dallimore, Harry S. Stout, and the writing of Whitefield
Tertium quid: An alternative proposal
Conclusion
3. ARNOLD DALLIMORE: LIFE AND THE WRITING OF WHITEFIELD……74
“Fix my attention on things eternal”: Adolescence and conversion
Arthur and Mabel
Dallimore’s early life
The call to ministry
“Joy and Sorrow”: Toronto Baptist Seminary
Mourning the death of Mabel
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An “Ordinary” Pastor
La Belle Provence
On the road in the Maritimes
Orangeville and meeting May
Surviving the Pastor Killer
Cottam: Years of construction and growth
“Integrity and dignity”: Dallimore as pastor
Dallimore’s philosophy of ministry
The birth of a denomination
Isolation and retirement
Pastor as historian: Writing the life of Whitefield
Love for church history
Poverty and providence: Writing as tent-making
Meeting the Doctor
Visiting the valleys of green
The struggles of writing
S. M. Houghton: The critic
John Wesley: Friend or fiend?
Praiseworthy reception
Whitefield and the Calvinist international
Final years and passing
“Without a struggle”
Conclusion: Dallimore, suffering and perseverance
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“The goings of heaven upon the soul”: Following the call
“New strength”: Perseverance of the called through suffering
4. GEORGE WHITEFIELD ACCORDING TO ARNOLD DALLIMORE……...145
Whitefield and the power of celebrity
Of heroes and not liking them
Celebrity and hero
“That might hint of boasting”: Canadian anti-heroes
“Saw him as their champion”: Whitefield as celebrity
Dallimore on Whitefield’s celebrity
Celebrity and ego
Conclusion
Whitefield and the problem of slavery
“Yet to understand”: Twentieth-century historians on slavery
Dallimore on Whitefield and slavery
Conclusion
Whitefield and the question of revival
Revival and revivalism? Mapping two approaches
Dallimore on revival
Charismata and conversion
Whitefield, revival and the usable past
Dallimore’s Whitefield: Meeting historical standards

5. EDWARD IRVING AND CHARLES SPURGEON: ANACHRONISTIC
AGENDAS……………………………………………………………………..226
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The lesser biographies

Canadian charismatics
Canadian Baptist reactions
Edward Irving: Proto-charismatic?
“Instructions and warnings”: Irving and lessons from the past
Historical bias: Sources, charismata, Coleridge and the sinlessness
of Christ

Source selection
Dallimore on the charismatics
Irving as forerunner
Coleridge and christology
Conclusion: Irving and the usable past
Charles Spurgeon: Remembered but forgotten
Reasons for writing: Links to the Dallimore past
Spurgeon and source material
The problem of the “forgotten Spurgeon”
Conclusion: Spurgeon the Calvinist preacher?
6. CHARLES AND SUSANNA: THE GOOD WESLEYS; JOHN WESLEY: THE
BAD…………………………………………………………………………….282

Charles Wesley: A heart set free

Charles Wesley’s charismatic conversion
Conversion hymn
Susanna Wesley: Mother of Methodism
Source material
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Conclusion
John Wesley the bad
Conversion, Methodism, and theology
Conversion: Genuine or not?
John Wesley and the founding of Methodism
The problem of perfection
Conclusion
7. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………329
Using Dallimore’s usable past
Dallimore and the discipline of history
Conclusion
8. APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………..341
A Preacher’s Sunday Night
WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………343

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was originally conceived in 2010 as a short, popular biography of Arnold
Dallimore that was sidelined by the publisher due to a struggling economy. Since then it
has undergone a number of transformations and has happily wound up as a doctoral
dissertation focusing on problems in historiography. The process of metamorphosis has
been carried along by many hands that deserve many thanks. Importantly, thanks are due
to my Doktorväter, Profs. Adriaan Neele and Michael A. G. Haykin. Prof. Neele dutifully
halved his time between Yale Divinity School and my own, the University of the Free
State (Bloemfontein), while I wrote and he provided informative and encouraging
direction for this study. He has been of great help and I am deeply privileged to have
been his student. Prof. Haykin has been more than a supervisor to me, but a friend. As a
personal acquaintance of Arnold Dallimore, he took care to ensure that I appropriately
remembered Dallimore’s legacy while being true to history. As well, an interview that
Prof. Haykin conducted with Dr. Dallimore in the 1990s proved to be an indispensable
source for chapter three. Any good in this study would not be what it is were it not for his
guidance. I would also like to thank Prof. Dolf Britz of the University of the Free State
for his input and support—especially for his helpful suggestion of following the
chronology of Dallimore’s published work to make this a proper intellectual history.
One of my earliest conversations about a book on Dallimore was with Tim Challies,
the plan was for us to write it together. I am thankful to Tim for his willingness to allow
me to embark on my own and for his own interest in Dallimore expressed through his
popular blog Challies.com. I was initially contracted with Evangelical Press in England to
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