The question of how theology shapes a Christian historian's reading of the past has been
debated thoroughly in various academic periodicals. Should historians recognise the role of
providence in their accounts of past events? Should they sympathise with their subject's
theology? Can objectivity be lost due to theological bias? And last but not least is there a
compromise of faith if one writes natural instead of supernatural history? Such questions are
important for understanding the historian's profession. Arnold Dallimore who trained and
specialised in pastoral ministry in Canada wrote an influential biography of the revivalist
George Whitefield as well as others on Charles and Susanna Wesley Edward Irving and Charles
Spurgeon. How did his Reformed theological perspective impact his historiography? How does his
work fit into larger historiographical debates concerning the nature of Christian history?
While other books look at Christian historiography using abstract and methodological approaches
this book examines the subject precisely by looking at the life and work of an individual
historian. It does so by placing Dallimore in the context of being a minister in
twentieth-century Canada as well as his role in the development of Reformed Theology in the
Anglosphere. It also examines the quality of his various biographies focusing on key issues
such as the nature of religious revival the problem of Christianity and slavery and the
question of charismatic religious experience. His study concludes by examining the relationship
between the discipline and profession of church history and asking what is required for one to
be considered a church historian.
