Written by: gfesadmin on March 1, 2013

David Bebbington’s book, Evangelicalism In Modern Britain is truly an outstanding compilation of both history and theology providing the reader quite a methodical understanding of the subject.  With great clarity Bebbington delineates the four distinct primary characteristics that underscore evangelicalism as it started in the 1730s.

Conversionism: That lives need to be transformed through a “born-again” experience

Activism:  Expressed in Evangelistic zeal and the desire to seek the conversion of others

Biblicism:  The Bible as the inerrant Word of God and it’s authoritative place in Christian life

Crucicentrism:  A  strong emphasis on the cross and redemption through the suffering of Jesus.

The author also explains three phases of the history of evangelicalism in Britain starting first from its birth in the 1730s with the rise of Wesleyan Methodism and a result of the age of Enlightment.  The second phase according to Bebington took place in 19^th century with the dawn of the Romantic influences.  This may have been the time when British evangelicalism was strongest in its social impact. The third phase of evangelicalism was shaped in the 20^th century by modernist expressionism.

Tracing the history of evangelicalism does not seem possible to set any single phase of the above as a standard for the present. Historical antecedents have influenced each phase. However, it is heartening to notice that as the cultural contexts changed, Evangelicalism was also ready to change.  As Szabados rightly points out in his review, “ It shows that Evangelicalism is a transcultural, and even supracultural, movement, a rather protean phenomenon that can be valid for all ages and all people groups.” (Szabados 2010)  In this capacity of evangelicalism to change (as long as its core identity remains unwavering) lies its strength and perhaps the good news for the Church today. (Szabados 2010)

Without diverting too much from the present discussion, I wish to raise a couple of questions that are unsettling for me.  They are disconcerting because of the nature of my ministry and the manner in which I see evangelicalism present itself  in my country and its context today.  This could be the reality in other regions of the world as well.  Throughout my reading of Bebbington, I tried to track the socio cultural impact of evangelicalism which seemed the most robust in the mid 19^th century followed by a gradual decline to almost none by the middle of the 20^th Century.

a.       Has evangelicalism as described by Bebbington diluted the social impact of the Gospel since?

b.      Has evangelicalism presented Christianity as a more inward focused faith limiting the horizontal dimension (activism) of Christianity to merely “winning of souls’ (proseletism)?

c.       Has evangelicalism led to the abdication of social responsibility of the church to para church organizations?  In India Evangelicalism is perceived more as a fundamentalist and  proseletyzing arm of Christianity rather  than a faith based on core beliefs and practices and practically lived out and being the ‘salt’ and the ‘light’ – in other words a guiding influence on the community?

d.      Has evangelicalism weakened and dissipated the Holistic ‘Misseo Dei’ thereby giving rise to another school committed to a purely a social gospel?

Christianity in India at the present time may be classified into two broad categories.

a.       The evangelical /pentecostal / charismatic with much spiritual fervor (activism)  but no social impact

b.      The non evangelical mainline churches that are traditional, institutionalized  with no activism and no social impact either. At the most, they remain as custodians of a religious tradition .

It  disappointing that in Bebbington’s  definition of evangelicalism the transforming power of the Gospel that we see impacting societies today does not find a place. As a result for centuries the holistic component of the Gospel has been missing and bothe the church and society are at a loss.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY  l 1033 Bebbington, David. Evangelicalism In Modern Britain: A History From The 1730s To the 1980s. London: University Press, Cambridge, 1989.

Szabados, Adam. David Bebbington. September 2010. http://szabadosadam.hu/divinity/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/BEBBINGTON.pdf (accessed February 28, 2013).

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