The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation

In this comprehensive account, Hummel (Covenant Brothers), the director of university engagement at Christian study center Upper House, chronicles the history of dispensationalism and the “ideas, institutions, and individuals” that shaped it. Known primarily for its views of the end-times, including a belief in premillenialism (the idea that Jesus will return twice before ruling on Earth for 1,000 years), the theological system traces its roots to the 18th century, when Irish curate John Nelson Darby brought his writings to North America. Darby set out a theology that read the Bible as the story of God’s “redemption of all things through... Israel and the church,” reflecting a belief that hallmarked dispensationalism: the idea that Jews would be saved separately from Christians, during a “tribulation” period before Christ’s earthly rule. Later, the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible, annotated by premillenialist pastor Cyrus Scofield, made the religious framework of dispensationalism accessible to laypeople. Hummel discusses how 20th-century social critic Philip Mauro coined the term dispensationalism as a moniker for what he felt were “wrong beliefs,” and examines the system’s influences on 20th-century pop culture, such as Hal Lindsey’s 1970 The Late Great Planet Earth. Hummel leaves no stone unturned in this rigorous offering, and though his prose can get bogged down in jargon, those with a specific fasciation in end-times systems will find the detail valuable. This is well-suited to scholars of religious history. (May)