{"id":30777,"date":"2023-02-03T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T18:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30777"},"modified":"2023-02-03T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T18:58:13","slug":"freedom-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/freedom-to-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom to Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Clark\u2019s Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship<\/em> takes aim to expound on the relationship between Evangelicalism and Capitalism that Bebbington alludes to in his work Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em>. Clark\u2019s main argument is that the doctrine of assurance arose to address inner anxieties but created new anxieties with the emergence of capitalism. The doctrine of providence was added to assuage these new anxieties.[1]<\/a> Similar to Bebbington\u2019s work, Clark seems to make clear that movements in Evangelicalism arose in response to social pressures and anxieties.[2]<\/a> While many of these movements were meant to shield Christians from outside forces (like capitalism), they both benefitted from, were ingrained in, and held hostage by capitalism as well.[3]<\/a> Through both works, what I found most interesting was the overarching theme that Evangelicalism, while it was constant through Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral, morphed with cultural and societal shifts. This was fascinating to me on two fronts. First on a macro level, understanding the shifts in Evangelicalism should open up evangelicals to the importance of contextualization of the gospel. Second, on a personal level, Evangelicalism\u2019s relationship with Capitalism seems to mirror my own relationship with Evangelicalism.<\/p>\n

Contextualization<\/p>\n

It seems that Evangelicals often view their beliefs as unchanged, eternal truths, that are neutrally and objectively extracted from the scriptures. It stands to note that not only is the entire premise for Bebbington\u2019s book that Evangelicalism has \u201caltered enormously over time in response to the changing assumptions of Western civilization\u201d[4]<\/a>, but that even the essence of modern fundamentalism, the Reformation, was in fact itself a product of the Enlightenment.[5]<\/a> Far from being a tragedy, I found Bebbington\u2019s work in tracing the changes in Evangelicalism to be freeing. \u00a0As a Chinese-American Christian who grew up and worked in a Chinese heritage church context, the tension of culturally impacted Christianity permeated my work and identity. Often, it was in the form of my conservative evangelical seminary professors and classmates extending their opinion that the way Chinese heritage churches practiced religion was unbiblical. This perhaps took shape most commonly and memorably in the chastising of how honor\/shame dynamics played out in Chinese heritage churches. Their opinions only held power because of their belief that Western expressions of faith and theology were unfettered from cultural and societal influences. As a result, they missed the importance of contextualizing the gospel. In his book One Gospel for All Nations<\/em>, Jackson Wu contends that \u201calthough the word \u2018contextualization is recent\u2026 its practice and reality have always been present as essential to the Christian faith.\u201d[6]<\/a> The gospel, even as Jesus or Paul presented it, was wrought with cultural references, spoke to societal norms, and used known relational dynamics. Knowing that, it makes a statement from Enoch Wan more palatable: \u201cThe message of the Gospel within the Chinese cultural context should be characterized by the emphasis on honor, relationship, and harmony, which are at the core of traditional Chinese cultural values. It should be different from [traditional Western theology\u2019s overemphasis on the forensic nature of the Gospel, the legal dimension of Christ\u2019s penal substitution and divine satisfaction.\u201d[7]<\/a> \u00a0There is profit (kingdom profit) in contextualizing the gospel, not to necessarily capitulate to cultural norms, but to elevate kingdom truths in them.<\/p>\n

Personal Reflection<\/p>\n

Reading Jason Clark\u2019s work on the relationship between Evangelicalism and Capitalism was at first (and to a degree still) confusing. The relationship seems characterized by a certain level of chaotic subtlety that borders on what \u201cfrenemies\u201d might feel like. There is some level of disdain, mutual benefit, and incorporation between the two. Perhaps most telling were Clark\u2019s string of observations that \u201cnew forms of emerging church ecclesiology and post-ecclesial moments as an attempt to help Christians hold onto identity amidst new pressures of social dissolution, whilst at the same time being captive to the logic of the market opportunities and resources used by those forms.\u201d[8]<\/a>. Even in its attempt to separate from capitalism, evangelicalism was not only benefitting from, but used capitalistic ideas and logic. I find similarities in my own relationship to Evangelicalism. I have benefitted from and much of my identity is and life position has been tied to evangelical ideals and institutions. And yet, Evangelicalism has brought on tensions and anxieties that have led me to criticize it and distance myself from it. In the words of Soong Chan Rah, \u201cI have increased in my sense of frustration with the cultural [Western and white] captivity of the church\u2026 I long to see what immeasurably more God is able to do in the North American evangelical church.\u201d[9]<\/a> The only way to see that, is to read and understand works like Bebbington\u2019s and Clark\u2019s and know that Evangelicalism, Christianity and faith as we see and know it, has always been and will always be influenced by culture and society. The key to a better future for the church is accepting that and using it to further truth of the gospel rather than stagnate it.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jason Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (Faculty Publications, Portland Seminary, 2018), 49<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s <\/em>(Taylor and Francis, 2003), 19<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism\u201d, 78.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em>, 19.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 52<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Jackson Wu, One Gospel for All Nations : a Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization <\/em>(Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2015), 2.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Jackson Wu and E. Randolph Richards, Reading Romans with Eastern Eyes : Honor and Shame in Paul\u2019s Message and Mission<\/em> (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 11.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism\u201d, 78.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Soong-Chan Rah and Cindy Kiple, The Next Evangelicalism : Releasing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity<\/em> (Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009), 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Clark\u2019s Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship takes aim to expound on the relationship between Evangelicalism and Capitalism that Bebbington alludes to in his work Evangelicalism in Modern Britain. Clark\u2019s main argument is that the doctrine of assurance arose to address inner anxieties but created new anxieties […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"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":[2579],"class_list":["post-30777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp01-bebbington-clark","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30777","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\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30778,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30777\/revisions\/30778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}