Well, that would pre-suppose that the US ever WAS primarily Calvinist, which I don't believe it was. Certainly New England was, but much of the rest of the movement was Methodist and Pietists. Certainly there were various flavours of Calvinists in the middle and south, but I don't think they were a majority...What if Evangelical Christianity in the US had remained primarily Calvinist and Puritan in orientation rather than Arminian, Pentecoastal, and Charismatic in direction? How could this happen? Post-1900 PODs especially welcome.
Well, that would pre-suppose that the US ever WAS primarily Calvinist, which I don't believe it was. Certainly New England was, but much of the rest of the movement was Methodist and Pietists. Certainly there were various flavours of Calvinists in the middle and south, but I don't think they were a majority...
Ummm... No.Methodists came over here only in the 1800s (John Wesley was Anglican all his life). And the South was a mix of Presbyterianism and Anglicanism I think.
Ummm... No.
Methodism AS A DENOMINATION was founded in the US because of the revolution. John Wesley laid hands on and 'ordained' Coke (or was it Asbury) and another guy and sent them across to set up clergy, since most of the episcopal parishes in the colonies were without leadership. (Every priest outside of Virginia swore loyalty to the Crown as part of the ordination - so were Tory be default.) Yes, John and Charles remained Anglican until their deaths, and Methodism in the UK couldn't properly start until then. But Methodism in the US was thriving by then.
Methodists, especially in the early days, were very Evangelical (in the sense of passionately religious and spreading the gospel - although it wasn't the anti-intellectual 'Evangelical' movement you often see today).
Whitfield, who did a lot of the early stumping (even before Wesley) in the colonies, was one of the big proponents of the 'big revival meeting' kind of evangelism.