{"id":33223,"date":"2023-10-06T12:17:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33223"},"modified":"2023-10-06T12:17:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T19:17:20","slug":"the-nature-of-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-nature-of-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nature of Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

While perusing David Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em>, I went not much further than his first chapter called, \u201cPreaching the Gospel; The Nature of Evangelical Religion\u201d.\u00a0 In my experience, this makes so much sense to start by addressing the essence and birth of a movement.\u00a0 What I\u2019ve come to ponder is that the nature of religion is change.\u00a0 Bebbington noted historically the \u201cfour qualities that have been the special marks of Evangelical religion; conversionism, the belief that lives need to be changed; activism, the expression of the gospel in effort; biblicalism, a particular regard to the Bible; and what may be called crucicentrism, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross\u201d. [1]<\/a>\u00a0 What Bebbington seems to have discovered is that Evangelicalism is a living breathing entity, it flows along the stream of culture and people.\u00a0 I love how in the four qualities emphasized regard to the Bible but wasn\u2019t above all of the movement.\u00a0 Bebbington also noted as time went on,\u201d They nevertheless threw themselves into vigorous attempts to spread the faith.\u00a0 Likewise, they did not normally put the Bible among the most important features of their religion\u201d. [2]<\/a>\u00a0 As time continues on within the movement according to Bebbington he found by the mid-19th<\/sup> Century, \u201cThe first leading principle of Evangelical religion, according to Bishop Ryle, is \u2018the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scriptures\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bebbington also noted \u201cThe primacy of scripture was directed against those who exalted the authority of the church or reason\u201d[3]<\/a>.\u00a0 It is in this part of the movement where Biblical authority seems to have become the overriding feature of Evangelicalism.<\/p>\n

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I grew up Evangelical, and the Bible and conversionism were key elements of my upbringing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe my understanding of my evangelical faith allowed much room for questions and doubt and experienced most of my questions being replied to with scripture as a way to end my questioning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe any of this comes out of malice.\u00a0 Jason Clark in his dissertation stated \u201cFurthermore, historians assume a religious outline to history often cannot conceive of anything other than \u2018providential models\u2019 for history, which discourage research accounts. This lack in accounts has led to the state of affairs where even basic questions about economic dimensions of the protestant churches and voluntary societies remain unanswered\u201d[4]<\/a>.\u00a0 Now I recognize Clark was looking into consumerism, and finding how consumer Evangelicalism seems to sway the movement and that lends to my theory as well that Evangelicalism is a living, breathing movement.<\/p>\n

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So Nature vs. Nurture?\u00a0 Is the nature of Evangelicalism nurtured?\u00a0 I know I have experienced my journey in Evangelicalism as just that\u2026a journey.\u00a0 Culture eats strategy for lunch is a phrase that we revisited in Oxford, and I wonder if this is also true for Evangelicalism?\u00a0 Evangelicalism came out of culture\u2026. culture is because of influence of Evangelicalism, which one? Both? It sure feels true in America as we watch this whirlwind in action with our culture as reflected so often in politics.\u00a0 My husband and I have been through our own evangelical journey, where it seems the church has been swept to and fro in the culture winds. \u00a0When we found ourselves in these cultural winds as Pastors it was hard to know that at times education was a barrier and at times it brought enlightenment to our faith.\u00a0 The distance between those leading the way in the church and those who attend are the flock of the church seems to be growing further and further apart.\u00a0 In the end for us, we found ourselves drawn to history and liturgy that is older than a movement, though I recognize that they too at one time were a movement themselves.\u00a0 In embracing liturgy, we are (not that everyone has to feel this way) grabbing a thread that seems to run deeper into the test of time.<\/p>\n

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I unfortunately have seen some subtle abuses through some of the pillars of evangelicalism. Actually, I think it\u2019s the truth for all religions.\u00a0 Our time in Oxford talking so much about how leaders derail has really impacted me, as I am so tired of hearing about leaders who derail.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had my questions and doubts be dismissed as a \u201clack of faith\u201d or as cynicism.\u00a0 When does a dissenting voice go off rails themselves and when does it become threatening so systems of power within and outside of the church label it so it can be set aside?\u00a0 This reading has brought me more questions than answers and I look forward to our discussion as a Doctoral group!\u00a0 Below I thought I\u2019d give some words from the book mentioned The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse<\/em>: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority in the Church <\/em>by David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen, these words are meant to be a check for those of us in leadership as we continue to teach the gospel:<\/p>\n

\u201c Does the \u201cgood news\u201d you are hearing, or preaching, bring you to life and spiritual health, or does it not?
\nIf the message you are hearing or preaching does not lift weights off people, set people free, and reconnect people to the true source of life \u2014 then is it the gospel?
\nIf it is not the gospel, what will it do to its hearers?
\nWe believe that the effect of trying to live under any message that is not the authentic \u201cgood news\u201d from God will not be merely neutral. The effects will be harmful.\u201d [5]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Bebbington, David. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. <\/em>(London: Routledge, 2005). Pg. 3.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bebbington, pg 3.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, pg.4<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>Clark, Jason. Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship. <\/em>(London School of Theology, 2018) pg 55.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>Johnson, David (David W.), and Jeffrey. VanVonderen.\u00a0The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse<\/em>. (Minneapolis, Minn: Bethany House Publishers, 1991.) pg 168.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While perusing David Bebbington\u2019s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, I went not much further than his first chapter called, \u201cPreaching the Gospel; The Nature of Evangelical Religion\u201d.\u00a0 In my experience, this makes so much sense to start by addressing the essence and birth of a movement.\u00a0 What I\u2019ve come to ponder is that the nature of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"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":[2850,12,467],"class_list":["post-33223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-subtlepower","tag-bebbington","tag-clark","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33223","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\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33224,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33223\/revisions\/33224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}