The Genevan Réveil in International Perspective

Jean D. Decorvet, Tim Grass, and Kenneth J. Stewart

Reviewed by: Ben Westerveld

The Genevan Réveil in International Perspective, by Jean D. Decorvet, Tim Grass, and Kenneth J. Stewart. Pickwick, 2023. Paperback, 546 pages, $66.00. Reviewed by Ben Westerveld, minister in the Reformed Church of Quebec.

Calvin’s Geneva is well known to Reformed believers. Much less known is the nineteenth-century Réveil (“Revival”) whose center was the same Swiss city. This movement of the Spirit, which spread across the European continent to North America, is rarely spoken or written about in the English-speaking world.

To rectify this, an international team of scholars has produced a remarkable collection of essays published simultaneously in English and French. Their finished product, The Genevan Réveil in International Perspective, is truly a feast, to borrow the words from Mark Noll’s foreword.

The volume begins with an introduction to the Genevan Réveil, exploring the definition of revival. Different from American revivalism with its conversion techniques, preachers associated with the Genevan Réveil deliberately sought to revive an orthodox and living Calvinism, as opposed to the rationalism that had impregnated the state church. In this sense, the Genevan Réveil was truly evangelical.

Section two traces the missional spread of the Genevan Réveil to France, Canton of Vaud, Germany, the Low Countries, Italy, and the Atlantic coast states, reaching all the way to Ohio and French-speaking Canada. This evangelical movement also gave rise to several French-speaking missionary societies. North American and British believers were active in supporting these missionary endeavors on the post-Napoleonic European continent.

In the third section, readers delve into the biographies and ministries of nine leading figures of the Réveil. The names of some preachers and authors may be familiar: Adolphe Monod, whose sermons on his death bed, Les Adieux, are still read in French and English; and Jean-Henri Merle d’Aubigné, well known for his History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. Many others lived in their shadows: the preacher Frédéric Monod, the song writer César Malan, the high mountain evangelist Félix Neff, the theologian Louis Gaussen, and the Calvinist Scotsman teacher Robert Haldane. To invigorate our Christian ministries, we frequently refer to the well-worn names of certain church fathers, prominent Reformers, and select Great Awakening preachers. The Genevan Réveil opens our eyes to a greater cloud of witnesses encouraging us to complete the race!

The final section explores how the Réveil affected France and Switzerland, including its impact on contemporary society. Not only did these zealous believers seek to convert others through preaching and tract distribution, but they also actively founded Christian schools and promoted social activism, including the emergence of the Red Cross.

The anthology includes very helpful indexes of names, institutions, movements, and places. For historical and ecclesiastical scholars, or even young amateur historians, each chapter includes extensive bibliographies as well as explanatory footnotes. The volume opens avenues for further academic research and writing, which one would hope new scholars will explore.

The Christian church in the Global North has become lukewarm. May our Lord be so good as to make Geneva the center of another Reformational revival!