{"id":15833,"date":"2018-01-11T18:22:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T02:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15833"},"modified":"2018-01-11T18:22:26","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T02:22:26","slug":"evangelical-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/evangelical-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Evangelical and evolution are not two words normally found in a single, complementary phrase. Indeed, one typically finds them fiercely opposed. But a careful reading of D.W. Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em> will encourage the consideration of how the evangelical movement has shape-shifted over the centuries. Understanding that evangelicalism is not static but ever-changing is key to maintaining its vitality as a movement.<\/p>\n

Bebbington\u2019s comprehensive work itself is a fast-paced joyride through the ups and downs of this popular Protestant movement as it impacted and was impacted by British society since the Enlightenment. Generally, evangelicalism positions itself as an influencer of others, both of culture and of individuals, as a light on the hillside for the town.[1]<\/a> It takes a historian such as Bebbington to unveil how British evangelicalism also responded to culture to adapt to immediate realities.\u00a0 He states, \u201cChanging socio-economic and political conditions affected Evangelicalism and its potential recruits in ways that dramatically moulded its size, self-image, strategy and teaching.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewers of this work also highlight his purpose in writing.\u00a0 Malcolm Greenshields of the University of Lethbridge asserts that \u201c[Bebbington\u2019s] book makes a valiant attempt to integrate the development of evangelicalism with broader movements in western culture. In his own words, “the crucial determinants of change in Evangelical religion have been the successive cultural waves that have broken over Western Civilization since the late seventeenth century” (p. 273).\u201d[3]<\/a> Cultural waves such as the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Modernism all impact British Evangelicalism, both in how it expressed itself within society, and how it understood its own theological grounding.<\/p>\n

Take the influence of Romanticism on British Evangelicalism, for example. The flowering of Romantic artistic expression occurred within the blight of the Industrial Revolution. As the cogs and wheels of impersonal machinery began to shape social expression, the Victorian Age responded with a desire to go back to the Garden. Evangelicalism was not exempt. To illustrate, hymnodist Folliott Sandford Pierpoint penned the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth<\/em> in 1864:[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

For the beauty of the earth,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For the beauty of the skies,<\/p>\n

For the Love which from our birth<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Over and around us lies:<\/p>\n

Christ, our\u00a0God, to Thee we raise<\/p>\n

This our Sacrifice of Praise.<\/p>\n

For the beauty of each hour<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of the day and of the night,<\/p>\n

Hill and vale, and tree and flower,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sun and moon and stars of light:<\/p>\n

Christ, our\u00a0God, to Thee we raise<\/p>\n

This our Sacrifice of Praise.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These appeals to the beauty of creation in these and subsequent verses are standard hallmarks of Romanticism, and are seen here influencing the writing of a hymn.\u00a0 \u201cRomanticism’s emphasis on the importance of feeling, intuition, imagination, and inspiration, its later pessimism about the human condition and desire for escape, can all be found in subsequent evangelical tendencies, and indeed are still of great importance according to Bebbington.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Another example lies in social action. It is well known that as a politician, William Wilberforce in the late 18th<\/sup> century, motivated by his evangelical faith, invested his life into advocating against slavery. Bebbington demonstrates how evangelicals of this and subsequent generations did not shy away from social engagement \u2013 Hannah More and her tracts obligating action for the poor[7]<\/a>, John Wesley\u2019s generosity toward those in need[8]<\/a>, education and literacy efforts by the National Society of the Church of England[9]<\/a>, and prison reform by Elizabeth Fry[10]<\/a> are only a few examples of how evangelicals impacted society. \u00a0Interestingly, it is in the late Victorian Era with the advance of premillennialism and the correlated belief in verbal, plenary inerrancy of Scripture, and the reaction to the modernism of the 20th<\/sup> century, that one begins to see Evangelicals stray from social action and isolate themselves into understanding their work on earth as being primarily spiritual with an emphasis on conversion and individual morality in preparation for the Rapture. This unfortunate separation of body from soul is thankfully only an influence in evangelical ethos for a hundred years, give or take a few decades.<\/p>\n

In my work in philanthropy, understanding the full spectrum of history around evangelical engagement in culture is essential, for more recently we have inherited a gospel that is truncated as I just mentioned. Interestingly at the beginning of my philanthropy career my colleagues generally were fixated on \u201creaching unreached people groups\u201d, sponsoring massive evangelistic crusades, and training national leaders in evangelism. Saving souls was the end game, and a logical outcome of thinking that valued souls more than bodies. If we follow the money, we recognize that in the late 20th<\/sup> century we had divorced social engagement from the work of the church; we had become specialists in spiritual not social change. Since the 2000s, much seems to be changing. Evangelical philanthropy is experiencing a reintegration of social work as being part of the mosaic of Christian witness and missional living in the world.\u00a0 We now observe increasing numbers of agencies motivated by Christian faith.\u00a0 These offer microloans for poor entrepreneurs, provide counselling to those trapped by debt, advocate for the end of human trafficking, and sponsor refugees fleeing violence, and are only a few examples of the creative means with which people of faith reach out to our world with a wholistic gospel.<\/p>\n

Reviewer Robert Clouse challenges our preconceived notions of evangelicalism which are stereotyped as being stuck and unchanging. \u201cDespite statements to the contrary by Evangelicals, the movement does not reflect a world of eternal and unchanging truth.\u00a0 Rather, it has been bound to the flux of ideas and events within the general culture.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Evangelicalism is evolving, and God\u2019s faithful work on earth through his church will continue.<\/p>\n

______________________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Matthew 5:13.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em>. (London: Routledge, 2002), 272.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Greenshields, Malcolm. \u201cReviews: Modern Britain.\u201d Canadian Journal of History<\/em> 25, no. 2 (August 1990): 267.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/For_the_Beauty_of_the_Earth<\/a>, accessed January 11, 2018.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> http:\/\/www.hymnswithoutwords.com\/hymns\/For_the_beauty_of_the_earth<\/a>, accessed January 11, 2018.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>Greenshields, 267.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Bebbington, 70.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 70.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 124.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid., 120.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Clouse, Robert G. \u201cEvangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Book).\u201d American Historical Review<\/em> 96, no. 1 (February 1991): 165.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evangelical and evolution are not two words normally found in a single, complementary phrase. Indeed, one typically finds them fiercely opposed. But a careful reading of D.W. Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s will encourage the consideration of how the evangelical movement has shape-shifted over the centuries. Understanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"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],"class_list":["post-15833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15833","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\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15833"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15844,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15833\/revisions\/15844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}