{"id":33209,"date":"2023-10-05T19:22:54","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T02:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33209"},"modified":"2023-10-05T19:22:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T02:22:54","slug":"would-the-real-evangelicalism-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/would-the-real-evangelicalism-please-stand-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Would the Real Evangelicalism Please Stand Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Bebbington\u2019s, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain,<\/em> is an honest analysis of Evangelicalism\u2019s evolution in Britain\u2019s recent history. Although this stream of Christianity did morph, develop, and adapt to the culture over time he argues that it maintained four specific characteristics and emphasis throughout its journey (conversions, activism, biblicism, and Jesus\u2019 work on the cross). However, he does admit and illustrate throughout the book that Evangelicals did not always agree on how these four characteristics were defined. He explains, \u201cEach of the characteristics, however, has found expression in many different ways, and one of them<\/em>, activism, was a novelty that set Evangelicals apart from earlier Protestantism. [1]<\/a><\/p>\n

While in England our cohort did a tour around Oxford and learned some interesting facts about the town\u2019s history from a student with a sense of humor and a cool Irish accent. Our guide explained that Oxford University will typically ask its applicants three questions.<\/p>\n

1) What books are you reading? 2)Why are your reading them? 3) What are these books inspiring you to read next?<\/p>\n

I thought these were great questions, and I couldn\u2019t help but think about how Bebbington\u2019s book weirdly inspired me to learn more about evolutionary theory. While I was in England, I picked up The Origin of Species <\/em>by Charles Darwin at the Museum of Natural History and Evolution<\/em> by Brian and Deborah Charlesworth while at Blackwell\u2019s Bookstore.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

I consistently find myself asking: How and why do things change so much over time? What happens if things don\u2019t adapt? Also, if enough minor changes happen over a long enough period of time can a thing mutate into something that it is unrecognizable from its original form? It\u2019s more the transferable principals, if any, I\u2019m interested in regarding evolution. Bebbington admits, \u201cEvangelical religion in Britain has changed immensely during the two and a half centuries of its existence. Its outward expression, such as its social composition and political attitudes, have frequently been transformed. Its inward principles, embracing teaching about Christian theology and behavior, have altered hardly less.\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

-Evangelicalism (in all its branches) is an offshoot from Protestantism.<\/p>\n

-Protestantism (in all its branches) is a major split from the Catholic church.<\/p>\n

-The Catholic church (in all its branches) is a product of European culture interpreting and inheriting a Jewish faith.<\/p>\n

To complicate matters, I was reading a blog by Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar, a few months back where he claimed its more accurate to shift our language from early Christianity to early Christianities (plural).[3]<\/a>Although I don\u2019t agree with everything Ehrman proposes in all his worldviews, he made some excellent points regarding the early church with ample evidence to back his views. Early Christians, and their beliefs, were much more diverse then imagined.<\/p>\n

It seems we are always trying to locate ground zero, the original stream, and the pure doctrine with little success.<\/p>\n

Bebbington admits, \u201cNothing could be further from the truth than the common image of Evangelicalism being ever the same. Yet Evangelicals themselves have often fostered the image. They have claimed that their brand of Christianity, the form once delivered to the saints, has possessed an essentially changeless content so long as it has remained loyal to its source.\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Is Evangelicalism, or at least certain forms, a mutated stream of our faith tradition that\u2019s drastically different from what Jesus and his disciples emphasized in the first and second century? Timothy Keller, in The Prodigal God<\/em>, beautifully unpacks the famous story Jesus tells of a Father and his two sons, who Keller argues were equally lost.[4]<\/a> The youngest walks away from his Father and does his own thing, the elder brother stays in his Father\u2019s house and does all the right things resulting in feelings of entitlement and rage toward the grace his Father has for his little brother. The parable is not about breaking the law or keeping the law as much as it is the character of God. We recognize and receive this type of love freely and live from that place.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jason Clark in Evangelicalism and Capitalism, <\/em>argues how \u201celder brother syndrome\u201d inevitably crept into Evangelicalism in the form of material providence. Faith alone was not enough to give some Christians a solid sense that their souls were heaven bound.[5]<\/a> People needed assurance of their salvation which they could achieve through hard work resulting in material success giving a sense of eternal security. This almost seems like early signs of the prosperity gospel before jets, mansions, and Louis Vuitton bags meant you were blessed and highly favored.<\/p>\n

In Luke 10:25-28, Jesus is asked how we can inherit eternal life. Ironically Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral was not mentioned when Luke says. 25\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.\u00a0\u201cTeacher,\u201d he said, \u201cwhat must I do to inherit eternal life?\u201d\u00a026\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He said to him, \u201cWhat is written in the law? What do you read there?\u201d\u00a027\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He answered, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.\u201d\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And he said to him, \u201cYou have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.\u201d<\/p>\n

I love the simplicity of Jesus. He also does not answer how many of us Evangelicals would assume he would in this instance.<\/p>\n

When it comes to not only Evangelicalism, but Christianity in general, examining the principals of evolution may come in handy. Conditions, society, and the world are always changing. We should continually ask what is essential to our faith, what have we lost that we need back, what needs to be modified, and what new thing should we allow to develop within this unfolding stream for us to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world.<\/p>\n

Will Foster, almost in passing during his lecture, mentioned a book dealing with Christ and the early church planting a seed rather than laying a blueprint to be replicated exactly. From a seed grows a tree that shoots out many branches, these branches hopefully produce fruit. I can see this as all the forms, expressions, and branches of Christianity that have grown and evolved over the centuries from the seed Christ planted. However, the point of branches is ultimately to bear fruit, right?<\/p>\n

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

There is no doubt that Christian Evangelicalism has branched and evolved over time. However, what is the fruit of Evangelicalism? Some aspects and expressions of it, both in Britain and America, have been adaptive, innovative, transformative, and fruitful to usher in the love and heart of God while other aspects have been questionable, rigid, off putting, and even counterproductive as Dr. Jason Clark and Bebbington point out in their works. As we evolve, Christianity, in all its branches will look different, but it is important for us to define, in community, what it means to remain faithful to the seed that began it all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> D. W. Bebbington,\u00a0Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s\u00a0<\/em>(London: Routledge,1989), 271.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 271.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 271.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> https:\/\/ehrmanblog.org\/27875-2\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Keller, Timothy. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith<\/em>. New York: Dutton, 2008.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Jason Paul Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (DMIN diss., George Fox University, Newberg, 2018), 76.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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