The Protestant International

Abstract

Since the Reformation, the idea of internationalism has broadcast an alluring but intermittent message to Protestants, like a radio station with infectious tunes but a narrow frequency band. Although the Reformation was from its inception a continental and then a transatlantic movement spread by exiles and their books, it is important not to assume but to explain why Protestants developed consciously international structures. For much of the early modern period, ‘Protestant’ was more a heuristic term than a collective noun: the first loyalty of many Protestants was to established, territorial churches and to states rather than to an invisible church of true believers. This chapter argues that the rise of the Protestant International was intimately connected with an evangelical revival centred in the Atlantic world, which promoted and benefited from an expansion in print culture, the movement of peoples and the rise of civil society. The revival was initially not so much international as transnational, or oblivious to national boundaries. It exploited and reacted against ‘archaic globalization’: competition between states whose ethos was dynastic and multiethnic rather than national.1 Several developments made it into a genuine but unstable international community. The industrialization of communications thickened and broadened the evangelical public sphere.