Charting Through Dangerous Waters
I have struggled with which direction I want to go with this blog on Bebbington’s book for a couple of reasons. First, the book was slow to read, written like a history book by a scholarly historian. Secondly, the book ended too soon. Since the book’s print date, Evangelicalism has continued to change distinctly. His abrupt ending has led me to this blog. I will first discuss Bebbington and his work, then we will see how Jason Clark mapped Capitalism alongside Bebbington. Then, I will lay out my own untested and unchartered map of Evangelicalism in our current time. It is possible I am entering into dangerous waters.
In an interview, Bebbington relayed that he did not realize that he was writing anything that people did not already know nor did he realize it was going to catch on and be named the Bebbington Quadrilateral.[1] The Quadrilateral states that Evangelicalism has four qualities that define it: conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism.[2] Though these four qualities might differ within the different forms of Evangelicalism, they are all something that Evangelicals pursue. The purpose of his history book is to demonstrate, “Evangelicalism changed greatly over time. To analyse and explain the changes is the main purpose of this book.”[3] As I will map out, Evangelicalism continues to change.
Schisms throughout the world of Evangelicalism have developed for several reasons. Bebbington highlights many reasons such as conservative and liberal ideas, eschatology, and pneumatology. These schisms have drifted farther and farther apart. He writes, “In the years after the first World War if became so sharply divided that some members of one party did not recognize the other as Evangelical – or even, sometimes, as Christian.”[4] The history of these divides has clarified the depths, and origins of our current landscape.
In the thesis paper by Jason Clark, he maps out the “relationship between Evangelicals and capitalism, and resultant loss of resistance to the deforming forces of capitalism.”[5] Clark notes how Evangelicalism has changed in different economic times. During times of economic prosperity and times of hardship, Evangelicalism ebbed and flowed. Clark writes, “This contrasts greatly and again with previous Protestant and early Evangelical approaches that saw consumerism as crass, unrestrained avarice, and a threat to morality.”[6] It must now be mapped out that Evangelicalism seems to be selling itself out to the highest political authority. For the sake of a few conservative Justices, the Evangelical Right has sold her own ethical standards. There is now a wing of Evangelicals who consume every trinket their political king sells them, from coins, to sneakers, to bibles.
I realize my mapmaking is now entering dangerous waters.
Bebbington highlights the diverging eschatological perspectives. “Social gospelers, in the broadening postmillennialist tradition, expected the kingdom of God to be realized on earth by the steady advance of Christian values… The growing premillennialist school, however, rejected such ideas out of hand. It looked for a king, not a kingdom.”[7] In the 1980’s and 1990’s there was much fear throughout America, heightened by the Cuban Missile Crisis, post-Vietnam War, and the Cold War with Russia. During this time, some prominent preachers such as Billy Graham began to preach a gospel to the masses, focused on the “end times” and capitalizing on the fear of the times. (I do not argue that all of Billy Graham’s work was not well-intended and used by God.) During this same period Evangelical Christians in America were captivated by the Left Behind Series. A Fundamentalist culture developed based on a fictional understanding of the Revelation of John. This Fundamentalist culture was curated, with the help of many leaders, into a right-wing, red-hat-wearing, Evangelical voting bloc.
The Evangelical voting bloc is still characterized in a similar way as Bebbington describes it from over a hundred years ago. “One consequence was that Evangelicals were committed to a negative policy of reform. Their proposals were regularly for the elimination of what was wrong, the achievement of some alternative goal. Their campaigns were often explicitly ‘anti’.”[8] One of the explicitly ‘anti’ campaigns of the MAGA party right now is anti-immigration. Immigrants have been consistently labeled with derogatory terms and have been scapegoated as the source of many issues. Sadly, this has increased Christian Nationalism within our country.
A terrorism expert, Christian, and Trump administration employee, Elizabeth Neumann writes in her recent book, “Christian Nationalism does not lend itself to a tolerant society since it diminishes the rights of the people of other religions or no religion. It leads to a superficial Christianity rather than to sincere faith and deep discipleship.”[9] Clark highlighted how Evangelicalism was a response to how people understood their place in the world.[10] It seems that MAGA has developed as a response to the fear that has been stoked in White Christian circles over the last 50 years.
I grew up in a church with many people currently wearing those ugly red hats. It saddens me to see how fear has gripped so many. Neumann highlights her own frustration with the Conservative Evangelical community she grew up with. “The communities that had lectured me for years about principles and virtues abandoned them because they had fixed their eyes on a worldly enemy and pinned their hope to earthly power instead of Christ.”[11] I too, find frustration in the dissonance between what I was raised to believe and the way I have seen fear overcome those who taught me.
My map seems to trace a line from the current Evangelical voting bloc back into British history and the line is highlighted with fear and a focus on apocalyptic times. Yet, I circle back to an earlier idea of Democratic pluralism offered by N.T. Wright and the need to have both a cross-centered perspective as well as a kingdom-centered focus.[12]
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[1] An Interview with David Bebbington, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jouF7XW6A.
[2] David Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s, Transferred to digital printing (London: Routledge, 2005), 3.
[3] Bebbington, 2.
[4] Bebbington, 181.
[5] Jason Paul Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (Portland, OR, Portland Seminary, 2018), 49, https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1131&context=gfes.
[6] Clark, 66.
[7] Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, 216.
[8] Bebbington, 135.
[9] Elizabeth Neumann, Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace (New York: Worthy, 2024), 132.
[10] Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship,” 63.
[11] Neumann, Kingdom of Rage, 135.
[12] Wright and Bird, Jesus and the Powers, 80.
About the Author
Adam Cheney
I grew up in California, spent five years living along the beautiful coast of Kenya and now find myself working with refugees in the snow crusted tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I have seven children, four of whom have been adopted. I spend my time drinking lots of coffee, working in my garden, and baking sourdough bread.15 responses to “Charting Through Dangerous Waters”
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This is great Adam, thanks. Yes, you and I are moving along the same lines.
I don’t know anything about ugly red hats. What are they??
And isn’t it interesting that much of what Bebbington wrote is coming around again. I guess it may be because humans are always tempted to make idols other than God, including ourselves. Isn’t that what power is all about?
I also agree with your return to NT Wright. Is there anything else from Wright, or elsewhere, that gives you hope for the next year or so? Is that anything you can share with others to help them/us move away from being a “defended leader” (the opposite of what Simon Walker talked about!)?
Adam can verify but those ugly red hats are the MAGA hats. I have a student that has started wearing one to class.
Debbie,
I think that what gives me hope is having a global and historical perspective in regards to our election. I certainly hope it doesn’t go one way and I do think we will be ending our traditional attempt at a Republic Democracy if Trump wins. However, other nations have governments that are not like ours and people have continued to live in them. There are even countries that have had kings and queens and they somehow managed to survive under them. Do I want a fascist style government over me? No. But God’s kingdom will still prevail.
Adam,
I listen to the Holy Post podcast on my drives to and from work but am way behind due to not having to drive there over the summer months and listening to the Bible Project Podcast series on the Sermon on the Mount. Yesterday and today, I started listening again. They interviewed. Nuemann back on June 12th but it was great timing for me given this week’s reading. Today’s was an interview with Ryan Burge (June 19th episode, http://www.holypost.com, episode 622). Burge talked about how he is a pastor in a mainline denomination and has been told by people in an evangelical denomination that he is not a Christian because he does not agree with all their beliefs.
After reading Bebbington’s criteria for being an evangelical, would you consider yourself one and given the current political environment, do you want that title?
Jeff,
I certainly consider myself an Evangelical though I wouldn’t make it my Facebook profile! I do think the term requires definition when used. I am actually choosing to use “Evangelical Christians” in my NPO statement. We discussed this in last years workshop and we determined that we could shy away from the term because it invokes so much baggage, or I could keep the term and work to clean away some of the baggage.
Adam,
My prayer for you
God please be with Adam as you guide him through his NPO. I pray that you would grant him success in communicating to others what the term Evangelical historically means and not what the media and others believe it to be. Lord thank you for the passion that Adam has for reaching out to others and developing loving and lasting relationships despite differing beliefs. May his ministry be fruitful and pleasing to you.
Thanks,
This is great work Adam. I appreciate the new routes you are drawing and I do not think you are wrong. How do we draw new maps and invite people to come back to the core tenets of Evangelicalism and Jesus, namely, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves?
Ryan,
I think that many Evangelical Christians need stepping stone to get off the drowning ship they find themselves on. Many people have voted for Trump twice and are unwilling to allow themselves to be wrong in the past and so feel they must vote for him again. I think this goes to the strong team dynamics that are at play. My team will always be better than your team and my team can’t do wrong, even if we are the Mets. 🙂
I think that many people need to know there is an honorable path out of the depths they find themselves in. The path is to focus on the kingdom of Jesus rather than the man who wants to be king.
Adam, thanks for post. It’s interesting that you connected the “anti” tendency of the evangelical church with the political approaches of many today. In my opinion, I would rather be known for what we champion and contribute rather than what we are against.
What are some of the things you would love us to be known for? Obviously, love. But beyond that, what could we look like? How might the church in the US go about reaching for this?
Graham,
In Islam, people are not allowed to ask questions or really seek out truth. They simply must believe what they have been told. I think that the ability to seek out truth, to ask hard questions and dig deep is a hallmark of Evangelical Christianity and we must continue to be known for our ability to welcome those with questions and welcome those who struggle in their beliefs.
Adam, I appreciate and fully agree with your answer to Graham’s question. What are ways we can cultivate a desire to “[seek] out the truth, to ask hard questions, and dig deep” in our own Evangelical circles and for others, such as our Muslim friends?
Kari,
I think it begins with leaders who are willing to say they don’t know all the answers and who are willing to admit that not everything is black and white. In fact, there is much grey area and being willing to admit that helps welcome other opinions and questions.
Adam, I enjoyed the map making introduced in your post. Curious how you see the work of Bebbington and/or Clark shedding light on your NPO?
Chad,
I have decided to keep the description, “Evangelical Christian” in my NPO as a way to limit the scope. Bebbington’s work helps me be able to define this a bit more.