{"id":30812,"date":"2023-02-04T11:56:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30812"},"modified":"2023-02-04T11:56:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T19:56:07","slug":"nothing-new-under-the-capitalist-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/nothing-new-under-the-capitalist-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing New Under the Capitalist Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the greatest fallacies is to assume that your moment in history is the most important. There is a sheer arrogance that results from disregarding how the past has shaped the cultural and societal complexities that exists today. It is a type of myopic view that even a brief wadding in the streams of the past can bring into greater focus. While any number of political of cultural moment can be subject to this fallacy, it is especially true for the religious and ecclesiological challenges of the day. In particular, for the purposes of this essay, I want to focus on the cultural forces that contribute to perceived declining church attendance and how that compares to the cultural currents of 19th century England in David W. Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/i>(1) and Jason Paul Clark\u2019s analysis of the connection between evangelicalism and capitalism(2), as they tease out interplay between commercialism and religious activity. What I seek to glean out from their works is that declining church attendance is not a modern phenomenon but the nature of religious activity in a society in which commercialism is present and celebrated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the many contributions that Bebbington has made to current perspective of evangelicalism, one of the most enduring is his \u201cevangelical quadrilateral.\u201d Bebbington observes, \u201cThere are four qualities that have been special marks of Evangelical religion: conversionism<\/i>, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism<\/i>, the expression of the gospel effort; biblicism<\/i>, a particular regard for the Bible; and what may be called crucicentrism<\/i>, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross\u201d (3). With this observation, Bebbington coalesces the evangelical movement from the 18th century to the late 20th century. These categories of thought describe the underlying movement and tensions within the various Christian traditions that were active during this time, including Methodism, of which I am a part. John Wesley serves as a great example of the shifting religious ethos in regard to personal piety, conversion and evangelical efforts in relation to the established church. Field preaching, for example, was a matter or external and internal motivation that is characteristic of the evangelical movement(4).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The emphasis on taking the message of the gospel to the everyday person produced surprising results when the first official religion census was taken(5). The surprise is that only \u201c54 per cent chose to be in church on census Sunday\u201d(6). Considering the work of Wesley many other evangelicals, it may not be surprising that rural church attendance surpassed urban attendance by a percentage of 71.4 to 49.7(7). This was most pronounced within the differences in social class, in particular, the absence of lower class and middle class for different reason, yet both of them due to capitalistic underpinnings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, Bebbington concludes that the absence of the lower class is primarily due to the fact that they are poor(8). The lower class could not afford to purchase appropriate clothes or shoes that would have been presentable to be seen in church, nor could they afford to contribute to the offering(9). The second economic shift that occurred was the availability of leisure activities. As Bebbington notes, \u201cFrom the years 1870 onwards, furthermore, there was a great expansion in organized leisure activities that rivalled[sic] the churches in drawing power\u201d (10). This, coupled with a shorted work week, meant that the middle class had more time to engage in recreational activities including sporting events(11).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rise in commercialism did not have a total negative impact on religious practice. As Clark points out, the rise of commercialism contributed to the spread of Christianity, particularly in places of trade(12). Yet, it raises the question as to the relationship of the church with capital and commercial opportunities available. While the church can take advantage of the opportunities to be present where the people are,(13) \u00a0 <\/span>it also results in lost engagement by those who prefer to be engaged in other activities. Further, it raises the question of what it means to be the church when people do not attend due to real or perceived lack of resources to participate. What is most interesting is how the challenges of the 18th century are no different from the modern challenge of weekend youth soccer leagues and Sundays on the lake. What is apparent is that these challenges are not new and perhaps a greater understanding of how the past engaged those who were in and outside the church can give insight to how the church can engage in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. David W Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/i> (Routledge, 2003).<\/li>\n
  2. Clark, Jason Paul, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (2018). Faculty Publications – Portland Seminary. 132. https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Bebbington, 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Luchetti, L. (2017). \u201cTheological Empathy and John Wesley\u2019s Missional Field Preaching.\u201d Great Commission Research Journal, 8<\/i>(2), 177-186. Retrieved from https:\/\/place.asburyseminary.edu\/gcrj\/vol8\/iss2\/5<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Bebbington, 107.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  7. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  8. Ibid., 112.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  10. Ibid., 113.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  11. Ibid.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  12. Clark, 54-55.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  13. See Bebbington, 133 and church sponsored sporting events.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of the greatest fallacies is to assume that your moment in history is the most important. There is a sheer arrogance that results from disregarding how the past has shaped the cultural and societal complexities that exists today. It is a type of myopic view that even a brief wadding in the streams of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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-30812","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\/30812","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30813,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30812\/revisions\/30813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}