Assurance, Confidence, and Narrowness – A Lament For a Co-opted Good News
Assurance, confidence and narrowness of focus all meet each other on the same road leading to ‘success’. Growing up in 20th Century North America was like being in a pressure cooker of success, spurred on by capitalism’s constant call for innovation, and the delivery of the next great artifact, product or solution to peddle to the masses for profit. A stroll through the one of the Smithsonian exhibits in Washington DC last month showcased the greatness of America because of their amazing ingenuity. It is as if there’s something in the d.n.a. of our society, passed down from previous generations. And, I will argue, all this glitz and glamour has a cost to society in general, but also to the Evangelical church’s epistemology in the Western consciousness.
In exploring the contrast between David W. Bebbington’s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain and Jason Paul Clark’s Evangelicalism and Capitalism, I found strong links between evangelicalism’s origins in Great Britain and North America forged in a time of great 19th Century optimism, and the idiosyncrasies of Evangelicalism I swim in currently. First I will tease out some foundations in Evangelicalism’s early growth and then consider how contemporary post-modern expressions of evangelicalism are either moving to more moderate, ecumenical expressions, or are falling suspect to a reductionism and irrelevance.
As a historian in the U.K., Bebbington developed a quadrilateral of priorities to describe what distinguished the Evangelical arm of the Christian faith from the rest. These four special marks are
- 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) [1].
This seems very confident and self-assured. Despite seeing its self-image as “changeless” and constant, Bebbington remarks that this is not the case, but that it’s inward and outward expressions have changed over the course of the two-and-a-half centuries of its existence [2].
In his chapter, Evangelical Anxiety: From Assurance to Providence, Jason Clark argues that there is an often underestimation of the new anxieties created by an Enlightenment epistemology, that meant it was no longer sufficient to simply experience the gift of salvation, but that in it having to be accompanied by assurance, the proof was in the necessity for all followers of Jesus to become active in giving a direct witness for faith through reason [3]. I agree with Clark’s assessment that this seems perfectly timed in the context of merging capitalism to create a new anxiety to be busy for God, and performance-based in the exercise of one’s faith [4].
In a similar vein, Richard Beck reasons that this moral performance was influenced by “the Protestant work ethic”, in the context of the Enlightment, which, for his purpose in writing Hunting Magic Eels, he argues that the sense of wonder and miracle gets lost completely, and replaced with piety, purity, holiness, morality, and “doing good” [5].
Again, as the 20th Century opened, The Enlightenment’s optimism was on display at the first World’s Fair, developing all manner of tools to make work lighter. In the Christian faith, the modern missions movement blossomed with this individualized, internalized, and spiritualized soul-saving, with an eschatological urgency, waiting for Jesus to come back immanently. Instead, the two great wars came, and the Great Depression.
The critique is now playing out, that Evangelicalism is co-opted by political ideology and reductionist moralism, charged as being “narrow” [6]. Bebbington, on this narrowness of Evangelical life, writes,
[It] has been a frequent reproach. It is true that its tendency to erect barriers against worldliness often did make it a restricted sphere. Its large claims and internal idiosyncrasies made it an easy target for cheap satire. Yet it has shaped the thought-world of a large proportion of the population. It has exerted an immense influence both on individuals and on the course of social and political development, particularly in the later nineteenth century. And it has shown a receptivity that goes some way towards modifying the charge of narrowness [7].
Modernity, Manifest Destiny, the anxieties of capitalism, and the ‘need to do’ have been passed down to subsequent generations of Evangelicals. In my work with the Lausanne Movement, there are voices within the movement to this day who advocate for either an industrial approach, in which we make and achieve clear goals that result in the completion of the Great Commission, based on a reading of Matthew 24:14 (“the good news of the Kingdom will be preached among all nations, and then the end will come”), such as Rick Warren’s Finishing The Task [8], or an indigenous one, hearkening back to the original call from the Latin Fraternity for an Integral, holistic approach to Mission that lives out God’s justice, and shares the good news, in anticipation for when God will make all things new through Jesus Christ, based on Revelation 21:5, such as the work of INFEMIT [9].
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[1] David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain : A History From the 1730s to the 1980s, London: Routledge, 1993, 2-3.
[2] Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, 269. Bebbington writes, “Its outward expressions, such as its social composition and political attitudes, have frequently been transformed. Its inward principles, embracing teaching about Christian theology and behaviour, have altered hardly less. Nothing could be further from the truth than the common image of Evangelicalism being ever the same. Yet Evangelicals themselves have often fostered the image. They have claimed that their brand of Christianity, the form once delivered to the saints, has possessed an essentially changeless content so long as it has remained loyal to its source”.
[3] Clark, Jason, Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship, London School of Theology, 2018, 59.
[4] Evangelicalism and Capitalism, 49. Clark asserts, “We will see how the Puritan inner anxiety assuaged by the doctrine of assurance migrated into new anxieties within the context of emerging capitalism, and how that assurance then relocated to the doctrine of providence for calming those new anxieties”.
[5] Beck, Richard, Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age, 1517 Media, 2021, 37. Beck fleshes this out by saying, “Much of this moral performance is captured by “the Protestant work ethic”: being an honest, thrifty, hardworking, morally upright, chari-table, and tax-paying citizen. And wherever Protestants are found on the liberal, progressive, Democratic side of the political aisle, “being a good person” looks like social justice and environmental activism. For Protestants, liberal or conservative, morality and politics are central and on the front burner. Encountering God is increasingly an afterthought, if it is thought of at all”.
[6] Evangelicalism in Modern Britain,.274. Mark Noll is cited for this adjective from his work, Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.
[7] Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, 274.
[8] Web page. N.d. https://finishingthetask.com.
[9] Web page. N.d. https://infemit.org.
About the Author
Joel Zantingh
Joel Zantingh serves as the Canadian Coordinator of the World Evangelical Alliance's Peace and Reconciliation Network, and as Director of Engagement with Lausanne Movement Canada. He has served in local and national roles within the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, and led their global mission arm. He has experience teaching in formal and informal settings with Bible college students and leaders from various cultures and generations. Joel and Christie are parents to adult children, as well as grandparents. They reside in Guelph, Ont., situated on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and home to many past, present and future First Nations peoples, including the Anishinnabe and Hodinöhsö:ni'.4 responses to “Assurance, Confidence, and Narrowness – A Lament For a Co-opted Good News”
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Hi Joel,
Thank you for your thoughtful post. You expressed some of the tension I feel in my own work. Regarding the Lausanne Movement, can you describe some ways in which you see your own leadership as a bridge between these polarities?
Joel,
First, I appreciate your perspective of what is happening in the broader church.
On the one hand, I love a lot about the historic evangelical movement. Although, these days “evangelical” seems like more of a political word in North America. On the other hand there is a lot of tension for me, especially as the church embraces consumerism and capitalism without giving much thought to the impact on the spiritual formation of our people. Classic spiritual disciplines such as solitude, silence, meditation are lost because they are not activistic. As well, the sabbath command is regularly violated because we struggle to slow down and become unproductive for a day.
How might we help the church live counter-culturally in a capitalistic society, while recognizing that we are still called to be “in the world”?
Joel, I appreciate your article and the introduction to Richard Beck’s work. Would you please explain further why you agree with Clark’s assessment that this seems perfectly timed in the context of merging capitalism to create new anxiety about being busy for God and performance-based in exercising one’s faith?
Hi Joel, You wrote an incredible post that I deeply resonate with. I just had a visitor in North Africa ask me numerous times, “What is the nature of so-and-so’s work?” and “Does your director have ideas for a strategy here?” There is so much emphasis put on the performance. I was recently introduced to the acronym SIBD – something is being done. We don’t care what it is as long as something is being done. Unfortunately, this pervades the missions world. We have discussed this a bit. How do you navigate staying motivated and purpose-driven but not getting too caught up in the need to perform?