In what may be one of the greatest understatements of our time, D. W. Bebbington notes, \u201cEvangelical religion in Britain has changed immensely during the two and a half centuries of its existence\u201d (269). Although Evangelicals may argue that they have remained consistent throughout history and have remained bearers of truth, the reality is that Evangelicalism has ebbed and flowed, split and fractured, and transformed with the culture.<\/p>\n
Bebbington notes that Evangelicalism has remained consistent in that, throughout time, four consistent qualities have remained hallmarks of the religion. Conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism have remained the \u201cquadrilateral\u201d of Evangelicalism (2). While these have remained consistent, the way in which they are emphasized, interpreted, and lived have shifted and changed over time. Activism, for example, has meant different things at different times, be it evangelism, care for the oppressed (social justice), or missions emphases. There have been times when Evangelicalism emphasized biblicism over all else, and times that conversionism has been emphasized. As much as Evangelicals may not want to admit it, culture has influenced the ebb and flow of the religion, be it in reaction to the culture or cultural pressures causing change.<\/p>\n
I have to say that Bebbington\u2019s review of Evangelicalism, while interesting, involved a great deal of review for me. That being said, it raised some thoughts in me about what Evangelicalism has become, how varied Evangelicalism is and always has been, and how this \u201cism\u201d with which I have identified my whole life means something different to me than it likely does to the person sitting next to me in church.<\/p>\n
For most of my life I have been a part of Wesleyan-Holiness Evangelicalism. In my upbringing, that meant that the Bible and the Cross inspire me to activism such as caring for those on the margins, fighting for justice, and pursuing God\u2019s multi-faceted Kingdom. Conversionism is most certainly about a personal reconciliation, but the natural outgrowth of that is working toward community and creation reconciliation. I suppose I always knew that not everyone in my tradition or even in my church saw it the same way, but it came as a shock to me to realize that some of my brothers and sisters did not see community or creation reconciliation as crucial, didn\u2019t necessarily see fighting for justice as a mandate, and all but worshipped the Bible, almost above Christ. Reading Bebbington helped me see how this is possible. The schisms, shifts, and variations in early Evangelicalism in Britain and in America have created a heritage of differences that masquerade as consistencies under the same umbrella. Rather than frustrating me, this actually gives me a deeper understanding of where our differences come from and compassion for the differences in others\u2019 perspectives. Just as siblings in a family can have vastly different political and religious ideologies despite being raised by the same parents, Evangelicals can sit in the same congregations and have vastly different views about what it means to follow Christ.<\/p>\n
I am a little blown away by the fact that \u201cactivism\u201d means so many different things to Evangelicals, especially those of us who are a part of the Holiness traditions. I had never really thought that people would see the activism portion of our quadrilateral as being about pursuit of conversions. I always thought it was about serving the poor and oppressed, loving people without limits, and sharing the love of Christ with the understanding that the Spirit will draw people to Christ. Bebbington\u2019s work shows me how people have come to the idea that conversion is the foundation and ultimate pursuit. I may not agree with them, but I definitely have a better understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In what may be one of the greatest understatements of our time, D. W. Bebbington notes, \u201cEvangelical religion in Britain has changed immensely during the two and a half centuries of its existence\u201d (269). Although Evangelicals may argue that they have remained consistent throughout history and have remained bearers of truth, the reality is that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,366],"class_list":["post-11134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","tag-evangelicalism","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}