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CHAPTER TWO HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE EVANGELICAL MOVEMENT
‘The church is the church only when it exists for others. The church must share in the secular problems of ordinary human life, not dominating, but helping and serving’ (Bonhoeffer 1971:382).
Introduction
Christianity has been plagued for over a century by a dichotomy in its praxis. Liberals have reduced the mission of God to social action and evangelicals, in response, have defined it as making individual converts through a proclamation of the ‘gospel.’ Grant and Hughes (2009: Intro) call this a ‘case, common in the history of theology, of a bad argument being countered by an equally bad one.’ Although there was never a complete polarization between evangelism and social action, there was enough suspicion generated between the two camps that social action was damned by many evangelicals for its ties to liberalism and proselytizing evangelism shunned by liberals for its association to fundamental evangelicalism.
The beginning stages and development of any movement will likely contain what may appear to be false starts and difficult to discern progress as things begin to take shape and stabilise. This chapter will define and describe the historical development of the evangelical movement from the Reformation to the present day, charting its progress and growth. It will also highlight the motives inherent within evangelicalism that have defined its character historically. These motives often resulted in behaviour that clearly demonstrated a calling through conviction. As some of these motives changed, the movement lost much of its dynamism and transformative impact. Much of this change is still being felt today as the movement seeks to recover what was lost.
Key leaders had a tremendous impact throughout this process as the evangelical movement formed. Major developments along the way played a significant role in the current composition and emphases of the modern evangelical movement. Some of these major developments will be explored to establish the trends that resulted. Overall, the evangelical movement is complicated, meaning that volumes could be written, and have been written, to chart the characteristics of the movement and its global impact. This chapter merely scratches the surface to provide background for a basic understanding of the growth of evangelicalism that contributes to its current shape and focus.
Finally, some significant issues plague modern evangelicalism. The way that these matters developed will be explored in a way that highlights the differences that have emerged between the evangelicalism of the 16th century and what has arisen in the late 19th to early 21st centuries. Cultural narrow-mindedness and shallow social perspectives converged to produce what John Oliver of Malone College has termed ‘A Failure of Evangelical Conscience.’3 The result was that evangelical Christianity rather consistently opposed or simply ignored cultural currents that demanded social justice and civil rights. The full significance of this ‘failure’ has yet to be fully understood, but it would appear that the evangelical movement has missed a great opportunity for a powerful movement of the gospel. It may still have time to recover its mandate if it wishes to do so.
Defining the Movement
‘Evangelicalism’ is not and has never been, at least according to Mark Noll, an ‘ism’ like other Christian-isms—as in Catholicism, Presbyterianism, and Anglicanism. Rather it is made up of ‘shifting movements, temporary alliances, and the lengthened shadows of individuals’ (Noll 1994:8). Therefore, discussions around the evangelical movement tend to describe the way things are as well as personal attempts to provide some order to describe a multifaceted, complex set of urges and organisations.
The word evangelical has carried several different senses throughout church history, but almost all relate in some way to its etymological meaning of ‘good news.’ Euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) is the Greek noun from which evangelical is transliterated. It is regularly employed by the New Testament writers to signify ‘glad tidings—the good news, the gospel—of Jesus who appeared on earth as the Son of God to accomplish God’s plan of salvation for needy humans’ (Noll 2003:16). ‘Evangelical’ religion has always been ‘gospel’ religion with a specific focus on salvation brought through Jesus Christ.
The term ‘evangelical’ was already in use during the English Middle Ages describing, for example, the message about salvation in Jesus or to refer to the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) which describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Moreover, in addition to these uses, medieval students of Scripture often referred to the Old Testament book of Isaiah as ‘the evangelical prophet’ based upon its prophetic reference to the life and work of Christ (Noll 2003:16)
‘Evangelical’ began to take on meanings specifically associated with the Protestant Reformation during the sixteenth century. Martin Luther proclaimed an ‘evangelical’ account of salvation in Christ in contradiction to what he considered the scandalous teachings of the Roman Church. In this way, ‘evangelical’ rapidly assumed ‘a critical cast, since it was posing a contrast between faithful adherence to the gospel message of the New Testament and Catholic perversions of that message’ (Noll 2003:16). In the midst of conflict, the positive and negative connotations of ‘evangelical’ quickly multiplied. Noll (2003:17) highlights these uses:
It stood for justification by faith instead of trust in human works as the path to salvation; It defended the sole sufficiency of Christ for salvation instead of the human (and often corrupted) mediations of the church; It looked to the once-for-all triumph of Christ’s death on the cross instead of the repetition of Christ’s sacrifice in the Catholic mass; It found final authority in the Bible as read by believers in general instead of what the Catholic Church said the Bible had to mean; and It embraced the priesthood of all Christian believers instead of inappropriate reliance on a class of priests ordained by the church.
These differences were so marked that the term ‘evangelical’ became virtually synonymous with ‘Protestant’ (Noll 2003:17).
However, it is necessary to refine the definition further. Timothy George defines evangelicals in Christianity Today—often considered by many to be the authority on evangelicalism4–as the ‘worldwide family of Bible-believing Christians committed to sharing with everyone the transforming good news of new life in Jesus Christ, an utterly free gift that comes through faith alone in the crucified and risen Savior’ (George 1999:62).
Although this definition is a very basic starting point, there has been little consensus achieved among those who have tried to describe the evangelical movement. Part of the challenge that anyone faces in seeking to define the movement more specifically lies in the evangelical movement’s great diversity.
Global Evangelicalism is immense, with men and women on every continent describing themselves as evangelical while comprising varied economic groupings, political philosophies, and denominational affiliations. The majority are Protestant, but even among Protestants, there is an incredibly diverse denominational mosaic.
However, the consensus in most academic quarters has emerged around the most oft-used general definition of the term ‘evangelical’ by British historian David Bebbington (1989:2). He has identified four qualities that have been special marks 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 what may be called crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism.
According to Larsen (2008:28), these four pillars have ‘no rival anywhere near as influential or popular and are unlikely to be replaced by an alternative structure any time soon.’ However, these compulsions have never brought about a cohesive or easily definable movement. Shifts over time change the tenets that would identify the evangelical nature of a group or organisation so that institutions considere ‘evangelical’ at one time may not be labelled the same later. However, there have continued to be denominations and local congregations that have served as organised manifestations of the evangelical movement since it was first recognised as a movement.
Tracing the Movement
Early beginnings
Evangelicalism, when seen in the wider perspective of church history, is best, as some insist, understood as a revival movement within orthodox Christianity. It has a theological centre shaped by the
‘trinitarian and Christological consensus of the early church, the formal and material principles of the Reformation, the missionary movement that grew out of the Great Awakening and the new movements of the Spirit that indicate “surprising works of God” are still happening in the world today’ (George 2008:15).
This view of evangelical history, often referred to as gospel successionism is clearly touted by evangelical theologian J.I. Packer as, ‘the Christianity, both convictional and behavioural, which we inherit from the New Testament via the Reformers, the Puritans, and the revival and missionary leaders of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries….the heritage, I mean, which includes Athanasius and Augustine, Martin Luther and John Calvin, Richard Hooker (demonstrably an evangelical) and John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon and John Charles Ryle, Robert Aitken and William Booth, the great Presbyterian theologians of Scotland and North America, the spirituality of the English Puritans and the East African revival, and much, much more (Packer 1978:2).
DECLARATION
ETHICS STATEMENT
LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND INITIALISMS
SUMMARY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CHAPTER ONE
1 Purpose
2 Description of the Problem
3 Motivation
4 Hypothesis
5 Methodology
6 Outline Structure .
6.1 Chapter 1 Introduction and Overview of the Thesis
6.2 Chapter 2 Historical Development of the Evangelical Movement
6.3 Chapter 3 Definition of Poverty and Poverty Alleviation
6.4 Chapter 4 Interpretive Methodology for James 2
6.5 Chapter 5 Theological Methodology for the Evangelical Movement
6.6 Chapter 6 Assimilating Methodologies: Praxis Defined by Interpret.
6.7 Chapter 7 Conclusion
CHAPTER TWO
1 Introduction
2 Defining the Movement
3 Tracing the Movement
3.1 Early beginnings
3.2 The Reformation
4 Shaping the Movement
4.1 Puritans
4.2 Evangelical Revival and The Great Awakening
4.3 The ‘Great Reversal’
5 Examining the Movement
5.1 Polarisation of the movemen
5.2 Focus of the movement
CHAPTER THREE
1 Introduction
2 Biblical Definition of Poverty
3 God’s Intervention on Behalf of ‘the poor’
4 Poverty and Poverty Alleviation Defined
5 Conclusion
CHAPTER FOUR
1 Introduction
2 Inner Texture of James 2.1-13
3 Intertexture of James 2.1-13
4 The Social and Cultural Texture of James 2.1-13
5 Inner Texture of James 2:14-26
6 Intertexture of James 2.14-26
7 The Social and Cultural Texture of James 2.14-26
8 Conclusion
CHAPTER FIVE
1 Introduction
2 Developments in Practical Theology and Missiology
3 Practical theology as a discipline
4 Practical Theology as an Emerging Methodology
5 Conclusion
CHAPTER SIX
1 Introduction
2 The Historical Precedent for Activism
3 Socio-rhetorical Interpretive Results from James 2
4 Definition of Poverty and Need
5 Theological Model in Context
6 Conclusion
CHAPTER SEVEN
1 Introduction
2 The Continuing Crisis
3 Discipleship for Social Responsibility
4 Developing an Approach for Mission
5 Proposing a Model for Mission
6 Conclusion
REFERENCE LIST
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