I first heard of Bebbington at a ministry conference just a few months ago. Usha Reifsnider, who serves the Lausanne Movement as Co-Regional Director for Europe, gave the plenary address about the changing face of Evangelicalism. She shared Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral to define Evangelicalism and I thought, \u201cI need to know about this guy.\u201d Fast forward a couple of months and I was happy to see his book on our reading list.
It\u2019s an understatement to say that Bebbington\u2019s book is rich with information. The ins-and-outs of the Evangelical movement over the centuries were fascinating. I appreciated that the book traced the evolution of Evangelicalism mostly in Britain; it was a bit of a parallel to more recent Jesus and John Wayne which detailed the development of Evangelicalism on American soil. [1] They seemed to point to two main ideas.<\/p>\r\n
Firstly, change happens. \u201cEvangelical religion in Britain has changed immensely during the two and a half centuries of its existence. Its outward expressions, such as its social composition and political attitudes, have frequently been transformed. Its inward principles, embracing teaching about Christian theology and behaviour, have altered hardly less.\u201d [2] Enormous shifts have occurred since the founding of the Evangelical movement. I\u2019m sure we can all come up with examples of how Evangelical teaching and practice has changed even in our lifetimes.<\/p>\r\n
Secondly, perhaps amazingly, Bebbington\u2019s four core principles still accurately represent Evangelicalism. By and large the Evangelical church still emphasizes conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism. However, and maybe I\u2019m reading too much into this, didn\u2019t he get the order wrong? I wish he would have presented these four qualities as :<\/p>\r\n
1. Crucicentrism : Because without the cross Christianity is not the faith we know it to be. It has to start with Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)
2. Biblicism : Because of the Logos, the living word of God, we can look to the Bible, the written word of God.
3. Conversionism : Because of Jesus\u2019 death, resurrection and ascension and because we have the written record of God\u2019s great story, we have the possibility of a \u201cconversion\u201d or a truly transformative relationship with God.
4. Activism : Because we love Jesus and are becoming more and more like him, we \u201cact\u201d and we \u201cdo\u201d and we \u201cserve\u201d. Never the other way around.<\/p>\r\n
I won\u2019t go as far as to say that Bebbington intentionally ordered his four principles to communicate anything different than what I\u2019ve outlined. However, I do find it interesting that he discussed at length the tension between assurance and anxiety. On one hand, the assurance offered by the emerging evangelical church was \u201cnovel\u201d and a \u201crelief\u201d. [3] On the other hand, Evangelicals continued to be plagued by anxiety; we see a striking example coming from the leaders of the Rwanda Revival, \u201calways [asking] the question of “am I doing it right?” [4] And who among us hasn\u2019t asked themselves over the course of their faith journey, \u201cAm I doing it right? Am I doing enough? How can I know?\u201d
These anxious questions became \u201cthe doorway and then pathway\u201d [5] that \u201cgenerated the activism that was distinct to Evangelicals.\u201d [6] And yet, the question, \u201cAm I doing enough?\u201d misses the point. \u201cDoing enough\u201d does not make us more justified in God\u2019s eyes. Bebbington himself explains this in the context of \u201cthe apparently paradoxical position of Wesley: \u2018we are justified by faith alone\u2019, he wrote, \u2018and yet by such a faith as is not alone\u2026\u2019 Faith is the only means by which we are made right with God; but faith, as soon as it exists, creates an impulse towards living a better life.\u201d [7]
If this post has taken a bit of a circular journey, I want to reiterate the importance of knowing Jesus before serving Jesus. We have no need to feel anxious or doubt our salvation. First, we know Him, then we love Him, then we serve Him.
I leave you with a Prayer for Quiet Confidence from the Book of Common Prayer:
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and
rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be
our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee,
to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou
art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [8]<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
_________<\/p>\r\n
[1] Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation<\/em>, First edition (New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, 2020).<\/p>\r\n [2] David Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em>, Transferred to digital printing (London: Routledge, 2005), 269.<\/p>\r\n [3] Ibid., 42.<\/p>\r\n [4] Ibid., 255.<\/p>\r\n [5] Clark, Jason. Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship<\/em>. London School of Theology, 2018. 75.<\/p>\r\n [6] Ibid., 58.<\/p>\r\n [7] David Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em>, Transferred to digital printing (London: Routledge, 2005), 22.<\/p>\r\n [8] The Book of Common Prayer<\/em>. New York: Church Publishing Incorporated, 2007.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I first heard of Bebbington at a ministry conference just a few months ago. Usha Reifsnider, who serves the Lausanne Movement as Co-Regional Director for Europe, gave the plenary address about the changing face of Evangelicalism. She shared Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral to define Evangelicalism and I thought, \u201cI need to know about this guy.\u201d Fast forward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"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":[2489,12,467],"class_list":["post-33135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-bebbington","tag-clark","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33135","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\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33161,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33135\/revisions\/33161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}