18th AND 19th CENTURIES: EVANGELICAL MOVEMENT

INTRODUCTION:

Defining Evangelicalism:

The term "Evangelicalism" is a wide-reaching definitional "canopy" that covers a diverse number of Protestant groups. The term originates in the Greek word evangelion, meaning "the good news," or, more commonly, the "gospel." During the Reformation, Martin Luther adapted the Greek term, dubbing his breakaway movement the evangelische kirke, or "evangelical church"-a name still generally applied to the Lutheran Church in Germany.In the English-speaking world, however, the modern usage usually connotes the religious movements and denominations which sprung forth from a series of revivals that swept the North Atlantic Anglo-American world in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Key figures associated with these revivals included the itinerant English evangelist George Whitefield (1715-1770); the founder of Methodism John Wesley (1703-1791); and, the American philosopher and theologian, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). These revivals were particularly responsible for the rise of the Baptists and Methodists from obscure sects to their traditional position as America's two largest Protestant denominational families.

In Western cultural usage, the word Evangelical[1] has usually referred to Protestantism, in intended contrast to Roman Catholicism. At different times, the name has developed nuances according to the controversies of the age, although many Catholics consider themselves "Evangelical" in the sense that they must spread the Gospel message in their daily life, as well as to the world.

• In Europe since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Lutheran churches have been called Evangelical churches, in contradistinction to the Reformed churches of Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and their associates.[2]

• In the 17th century and onward, the Puritan party in the Church of England[3] who sought to identify that church with the Reformed movement of the Reformation, who later withdrew from that Communion and became known by the derogatory names of "Non-Conformists" and "Dissenters", were also called the evangelical party.

• In the 18th century, the Wesleyan revival within the Church of England influenced the formation of a party of pietistic Anglicans, whose descendant movement is still called the "Evangelical party".

• In North American experience, particularly the United States of America, in the "Great Awakenings", the term distinguished the supporters of revivalism. As compared to those who emphasized conversion as a prolonged process, and a result of Christian nurture, evangelicals looked for a single experience to mark the starting point of the Christian life.

The earliest meanings continue to be current, depending on the context.[4] In the name Evangelical Orthodox Church, for example, the word in the title of this Old Catholic group simply means "Christian". Several churches have Evangelical in their title, meaning evangelical in the sense of "Protestant," but not necessarily part of the modern evangelical movement per se. For most of Protestant history the term 'evangelical' for a self-description has been used by both modernists and fundamentalists. However, in common contemporary parlance, the name has been all but relinquished to the "moderates," rather than liberals or fundamentalists.

In foreign languages, words derived from evangelion do not automatically equate with "evangelical(ism)". In the German language, the word "evangelisch" means protestant, contrasted to "evangelikal" (borrowed from English). Germany's national Protestant church, formed by the state-mandated union of Lutheran and Reformed churches, is not called "Union of Evangelical Churches", but Union of Protestant Churches.

Indeed, by the 1820s evangelical Protestantism was by far the dominant expression of Christianity in the United States. The concept of evangelism and the revival-codified, streamlined, and routinized by evangelists like Charles G. Finney (1792-1875)-became "revivalism" as evangelicals set out to convert the nation. By the decades prior to the War Between the States, a largely-evangelical "Benevolent Empire" (in historian Martin Marty's words) was actively attempting to reshape American society through such reforms as temperance, the early women's movement, various benevolent and betterment societies, and-most controversial of all-the abolition movement. After the war, the changes in American society wrought by such powerful forces as urbanization and industrialization, along with new intellectual and theological developments began to diminish the power of evangelicalism within American culture. Likewise, evangelical cultural hegemony was diminished in pure numeric terms with the influx of millions of non-Protestant immigrants in the latter 19th and early 20th-centuries.[5] Nonetheless, evangelical Protestantism remained a powerful presence within American culture (as evidenced by the success of evangelists like Dwight L. Moody and Billy Sunday). Going into the 20th-century evangelicalism still held the status of an American "folk religion" in many sectors of the United States-particularly the South.

DEFINING THE TERM IN MODERN-DAY TIMES

There are three senses in which the term "evangelical" is used today as we enter the 21st-century. The first is to see as "evangelical" all Christians who affirm a few key doctrines and practical emphases. British historian David Bebbington approaches evangelicalism from this direction and notes four specific hallmarks of evangelical religion: conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicism, a particular regard for the Bible; and crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. A second sense is to look at evangelicalism as an organic group of movements and religious tradition.[6] Within this context "evangelical" denotes a style as much as a set of beliefs. As a result, groups as disparate as black Baptists and Dutch Reformed Churches, Mennonites and Pentecostals, Catholic charismatics and Southern Baptists all come under the evangelical umbrella-demonstrating just how diverse the movement really is. A third sense of the term is as the self-ascribed label for a coalition that arose during the Second World War. This group came into being as a reaction against the perceived anti-intellectual, separatist, belligerent nature of the fundamentalist movement in the 1920s and 1930s. Importantly, its core personalities (like Harold John Ockenga and Billy Graham), institutions (for instance, Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College), and organizations (such as the National Association of Evangelicals and Youth for Christ) have played a pivotal role in giving the wider movement a sense of cohesion that extends beyond these "card-carrying" evangelicals.

ROOTS AND DEVELOPMENT

18th century

The contemporary evangelical movement has its origins in the 18th century. In that period, the First Great Awakening was deeply influencing American religious life, while at the same time John Wesley[7] and the Methodist movements were renewing British Christianity. Much of this religious fervour was a reaction to Enlightenment thinking and the deistic writings of many of the western philosophical elites.

The chief emphases of the fledgling Methodist movement as well as the Awakening were individual conversion, personal piety and Bible study, public morality often including Temperance and family values, and Abolitionism, a broadened role for lay people and women in worship, evangelism and teaching, and cooperation in evangelism across denominational lines (that is, interdenominational).

In its early years, what was to become known as evangelicalism was largely a hybrid of the Reformed emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy, and the pietist emphasis on the heart and a "personal relationship" with God. The movement saw a variety of liturgical styles and ministry approaches, though strong preaching, personal conversion (similar to Wesley's Aldersgate experience), and evangelism were common features.

Other key figures include: Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan preacher/theologian; George Whitefield, British Methodist preacher; Robert Raikes, who established the first Sunday School to prevent children in the slums entering a life of crime; popular hymn writer Charles Wesley; American Methodist bishop, Francis Asbury, and Anglican minister, John Stott.[8]

19th century

Evangelical Christians were a diverse group; some were at the forefront of movements such as abolition of slavery, prison reform, orphanage establishment, hospital building, and founding educational institutions.

In 1846, eight hundred Christians from ten countries met in London and set up the Evangelical Alliance. They saw this as "a new thing in church history, a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches." However, the Alliance floundered on the issue of slavery. Despite this difficulty it provided a strong impetus for the establishment of national and regional evangelical fellowships.

Evangelicals, along with trade unionists, Chartists, members of cooperatives, the self-help movement and the Church of England were involved in setting up the temperance movements in the U.S.A., Ireland, Scotland and England.

William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the Christian Mission in London, England on July 5, 1865. This became The Salvation Army in 1878 as it took on a quasi-military style.

MODERN PERIOD

Evangelicals today are at least as varied as ever. Some work entirely within their own denominations, others pay less heed to denominational differences and may be members of less formal and locally based, independent churches.[9] Many of these nondenominational churches have grown to large sizes and are often called Mega churches. There is a long-standing evangelical tradition of taking to needy areas for practical assistance (e.g. medical, educational) along with the gospel, though eschewing attempts, at home or abroad, to influence society by means other than the gospel.

Others, particularly in the USA, are engaged in attempts at social improvement through political means. Evangelical activism might be expressed in literacy training, inner-city relief and food banks, adoption agencies, marriage counselling and spousal abuse mediation, day-care centres for children, and counsel and care for unwed mothers, or any number of other help and advocacy works. The popular perception seems to locate all of evangelicalism on the 'right' of political controversies, such as abortion, or the expansion of the legal definitions of "family", "marriage", or "civil union" to include same-sex couples. This supposed uniformity is not actually the case; however there is some correspondence between theological and religious conservatism, and social conservatism.

The World Evangelical Fellowship (now Alliance) (WEA) was formed in 1951 by believers from 21 countries. It has worked to support its members to work together globally. Within the broad denominations (often called "mainline denominations") evangelical movements are organizing within various structures, which are often referred to as the Confessing Movement. The theological call for the mainline churches to return to their evangelical roots is known as Paleo-Orthodoxy, especially within Methodism, where Thomas Oden is one of its best known spokesmen.

CONCLUSION

The movement represents a range of Protestant understandings of the Bible, liturgical forms, and church traditions - some of which are very non-traditional, and artistically conceived or innovative. On the average, evangelicals tend to be distrustful of reliance upon historical definitions of belief, if they are not qualified as being subordinate to the Bible; and yet, they may be inclined to refer to these documents of faith in defence of their understanding of the Bible. In controversies with those who favour a more highly structured liturgy, the evangelical party is usually the one in favour of a relatively more simple, casual and participatory form of worship, centred on preaching and sometimes the Lord's Supper (Eucharist), rather than more elaborate ceremony.[10]

Especially toward the end of the 20th century, the secular media tended to describe traditional Christian believers as fundamentalists, including most evangelicals. However, in both movements, these terms fundamentalist and evangelical are not synonymous; the labels represent very distinct differences of approach which both groups are diligent to maintain.

In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there has been a marked rise in the evangelical wing of Protestant denominations, especially those that are more exclusively evangelical, and a corresponding decline in the mainstream liberal churches. In the post–World War I era, Liberalism was the faster growing sector of the American church. Liberal wings of denominations were on the rise, and a considerable number of seminaries held and taught from a liberal perspective as well. In the post–World war II era, the trend began to swing back towards the conservative camp in America's seminaries and church structures. Those entering seminaries and other postgraduate theologically related programs have shown more conservative leanings than their average predecessors.

The neo-Evangelical push of the 1940s and 1950s produced a movement that continues to have wide influence. In the southern U.S., the more moderate neo-Evangelicals, represented by leaders such as Billy Graham, have experienced a notable surge displacing the caricature of the pulpit pounding country preachers of fundamentalism. The stereotypes have gradually shifted. Some, such as Jerry Falwell, have managed to maintain credibility in the eyes of many fundamentalists, as well as to gain stature as a more moderate Evangelical.

Evangelicalism is not a single, monolithic entity. The Evangelical churches and their adherents cannot be easily stereotyped. Most are not fundamentalist, in the narrow sense that this term has come to represent; though many still refer to themselves as such. There have always been diverse views on issues, such as openness to cooperation with non-Evangelicals, the applicability of the Bible to political choices and social or scientific issues, and even the limited inerrancy of the Bible.

However, the movement has managed in an informal way, to reserve the name Evangelical for those who adhere to an historic Christian faith, a paleo-orthodoxy, as some have put it. Those who call themselves "moderate evangelicals"(although considered conservative in relation to society as a whole) still hold fast to the fundamentals of the historic Christian faith. Even "Liberal" Evangelicals label themselves as such not so much in terms of their theology, but rather to advertise that they are progressive in their civic, social, or scientific perspective.

There is some debate as to whether Pentecostals are considered to be Evangelical. Their roots in Pietism and the Holiness movement are undisputedly Evangelical, but their doctrinal distinctiveness differ from the more traditional Evangelicals, who are less likely to have an expectation of private revelations from God, and differ from the Pentecostal perspective on miracles, angels and demons. Typically, those who include the Pentecostals in the Evangelical camp are labelled neo-evangelical by those who do not. The National Association of Evangelicals and the Evangelical Alliance have numerous Trinitarian Pentecostal denominations among their membership. Another relatively late entrant to wide acceptance within the Evangelical fold is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Although there exists a diversity in the Evangelical community worldwide, the ties that bind all Evangelicals are still apparent. A "high view" of Scripture, belief in the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and the bodily resurrection of Christ, to mention a few.

Bibliography

Bebbington, David. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Unwin Hyman (London), 1989.

Green, John, Guth, James, et.al. Akron Survey of Religion and Politics in America 1992. As quoted in Noll, Mark. Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Eerdmans, 1994.

Nichols, J.H. History of Christianity 1560-1950 Secularization of the west. The Ronald Press Company, New York, 1956.

Webliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity.htm (28-07-06)

[1] History of the Church Missionary Society, vol. ii, p.337

[2] Ibid p.339

[3] Ibid p.75

[4] The English Church in the Nineteenth Century, p.87. quotes the opinion of Dean Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, vol. ii, pp.359 f., which was equally favourable. The testimony of Overton and of Burgon is not likely to have been swayed by any sympathy with the Evangelical views.

[5] Movements of Religious Thought in Britain during the Nineteenth Century, p.13.

[6] Ibid p. 46

[7] The laxity of the times is surely some excuse for Wesley’s various breaches of Church order.

[8] Amongst others who had some knowledge of the Fathers was, strangely enough, Lord Palmerston, a man of wide and eccentric learning.

[9] Quoted by Overton, The English Church in the Nineteenth Century, p.54, note 2.

[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity.htm (28-07-06)