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

In The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, Daniel G. Hummel illuminates how dispensationalism, despite often being dismissed as a fringe apocalyptic movement, shaped Anglo-American evangelicalism and the larger American cultural imagination.
 
Hummel locates dispensationalism’s origin in the writings of the nineteenth-century Protestant John Nelson Darby, who established many of the hallmarks of the theology, such as premillennialism and belief in the rapture. Though it consistently faced criticism, dispensationalism held populist, and briefly scholarly, appeal—visible in everything from turn-of-the-century revivalism to apocalyptic bestsellers of the 1970s to current internet conspiracy theories.
 
Measured and irenic, Hummel objectively evaluates evangelicalism’s most resilient (and contentious) popular theology. As the first comprehensive intellectual-cultural history of its kind, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is a must-read for students and scholars of American religion.

Reviews

London Lyceum

"The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is a well-conceived work and offers an overall compelling argument...This book deserves a wide consideration and will appeal to a variety of readers."

The Gospel Coalition

"The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is a monument to Hummel’s industry, spread across years and miles travelled."

Religion & Liberty (Acton Institute)

"Hummel’s Rise and Fall is certainly the definitive survey of dispensationalism as an evangelical and fundamentalist movement, not to mention a dizzying array of other closely associated factions of modern evangelicalism."

Christianity Today

"Hummel is never contemptuous toward his subjects, but he makes no attempt to salvage ideas from ties to dispensationalism that their adherents might find embarrassing. Rise and Fall is a workmanlike book, and its 'great contribution,' as Scandal of the Evangelical Mind author Mark A. Noll writes in a glowing foreword, 'is to take a story that ‘everyone knows’ and show that what 'everyone knows' has barely scratched the surface.'"

First Things

"[An] invaluable new book...the story Hummel relates badly needs telling."

​Christian Century

"The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is long overdue. Daniel Hummel explains in great detail and with great clarity the forces that have shaped dispensationalism, leading up to the rise of the religious right and beyond. He helps readers understand what dispensationalism is while dispelling myths that have stymied research into dispensationalism as a potent force in American public life."​

Library Journal

"This is an exceptional resource for readers looking to understand conservative Christianity. The book also illuminates much of U.S. religious history in general." (starred review)

Publisher's Weekly

"Hummel leaves no stone unturned in this rigorous offering."

Editorial Praise​

"A landmark study of the rise and fall of dispensationalism."
—Scot McKnight, author of Revelation for the Rest of Us​

“Daniel Hummel has written the best and most comprehensive history of dispensationalist theology currently in existence.” 
—Daniel K. Williams, author of God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right​

"A tremendous achievement, based on meticulous research and bold synthesis. Thanks to Dan Hummel, we can finally understand how these influential ideas moved through North American culture and politics.” 
—Molly Worthen, author of Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism​

"The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism is the essential guide to a perplexing subject. Combining painstaking scholarship with an accessible style, Hummel shows how Christian theology influenced American culture—but also how American culture transformed Christian theology. Both experts and students will learn from this important book.” 
—Samuel Goldman, author of God's Country: Christian Zionism in America