Transatlantic Revivalist.

George Whitefield was an Anglican minister who scorned theology for whatever message would spark the conversion of people of all religious persuasions in England, Scotland, Ireland, and America. He used the increased ease of travel and the communications network of the eighteenth century to spread his message through a series of transatlantic revivals that became the Great Awakening in America. He preached the same sermons wherever he traveled, polishing them after each performance according to the reactions of his audiences. One of the first to capitalize on the emerging transatlantic press, he published his journals, sermons, and letters; directed his secretary to send press releases to newspapers, publicizing his tours and then giving his version of what had transpired on them; and inspired evangelical magazines that sprang up to extol his amazing successes. In public he subsumed his privately sweet and...