{"id":28134,"date":"2022-02-02T09:42:02","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T17:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28134"},"modified":"2022-02-02T09:42:02","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T17:42:02","slug":"ill-trade-you-my-keller-card-for-your-whitfield-rookie-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/ill-trade-you-my-keller-card-for-your-whitfield-rookie-card\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll Trade You My Keller Card for Your Whitfield Rookie Card"},"content":{"rendered":"

I will trade you my Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, Tony Evans, John McArthur, and Franklin Graham cards for your John Wesley, George Whitfield, John Newton, and William Wilberforce\u2019s rookie cards. Okay, you can have my Jonathan Edwards All American card too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the term Evangelical has become synonymous with Conservatism, Republicanism, Fundamentalism, and Hobby Lobby in the United States these days, these characteristics are one of many expressions of the movement that finds its roots in the 18th century British religious landscape.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cEvangelicalism in Modern Britain,\u201d D.W. Bebbington creates the historical and theological framework of the movement that was birthed centuries after the Reformation. The lovechild of Puritanism, Pietism, and Presbyterianism, Evangelicalism in the British aisle, during the 18th and 19th century, was a shapeshifting as the many other new expressions of Christianity were at this time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvangelical religion has been in contact with shifts in the mood of the intellectual elite. Like so many other aspects of British life, from political rhetoric to wallpaper design, it was affected by alterations in taste,\u201d argued Bebbington.<\/span>\u00a0[1]<\/span><\/a>. That is to say that trying to clearly define Evangelicalism at this period, much like in the United States, is remarkably difficult due to plethora of figures, convictions, and autonomy from church-state institutionalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, Bebbington lays out some of the critical components of this diverse movement, including holiness, social and political activism, biblicism, revivalism, and nonconformity. Take a listen to most of the hymns in the Methodist and Baptist movements, written mainly by Charles Wesley and John Newton, and you will see the critical role of crucicentrism in Evangelical preaching and theology. Like their Reformer forebearers, early British Evangelical leaders took the authority of Scripture seriously, not only for the church but its impact on the individual\u2019s life. My grandparents’ generation would be shocked to learn that the Wesley brothers borrowed pub tunes for the basis of most of their hymns.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you take a bird\u2019s eye view of the Evangelical movement in Britain at this time, it is remarkable to see the scope of its reach to other expressions of the church, including and not limited to the thousands of expressions of Baptists, Methodist, Moravians, Quakers, Presbyterians, Assemblies of God, Brethren, and Nazarites.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I always find it remarkable when the news, politics, and academia refer to the White Evangelical base in America, separating this very diverse, uncoordinated, and divided extended family as one. It\u2019s akin to simplifying and lumping all National Football League fans into just being Dallas Cowboys fanatics, which is insulting, demoralizing, and woefully inaccurate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Evangelicalism is probably best classified as a culture more than a set of clearly identified ideals in our modern age. But like its forebearers, this thing that we think of as Evangelical is broader, more divergent, and ever-changing than what most believe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For students of history, knowing where we came from helps us understand where we might go, trying our best to prevent past errors and striding forwards with learned lessons from past successes. Bebbington provides us a historical roadmap in understanding the similar convictions of some that led to the blossoming of many expressions of Christianity. At its best, Evangelicalism is focused on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in this world. At its worst, well, I\u2019ll let you make that call.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>[1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Bebbington, David.\u00a0<\/span>Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/span><\/em>. (London: Routledge, 2005), 276.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will trade you my Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, Tony Evans, John McArthur, and Franklin Graham cards for your John Wesley, George Whitfield, John Newton, and William Wilberforce\u2019s rookie cards. Okay, you can have my Jonathan Edwards All American card too.\u00a0 While the term Evangelical has become synonymous with Conservatism, Republicanism, Fundamentalism, and Hobby Lobby […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"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":[12,2183,25,366,2004,2184],"class_list":["post-28134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","tag-britain","tag-culture","tag-evangelicalism","tag-lgp11","tag-trade","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28134","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\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28135,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28134\/revisions\/28135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}