{"id":38852,"date":"2024-10-14T14:01:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T21:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38852"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T21:01:59","slug":"the-evangelical-quadrilateral-pentagon-or-hexagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-evangelical-quadrilateral-pentagon-or-hexagon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evangelical Quadrilateral, Pentagon or Hexagon?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2019Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President\u2019\u201d was a sign carried by those on January 6, 2021 outside the U.S. Capitol.\u00a0 Matthew Sutton describes what was seen that day and leading up to January 6<sup>th<\/sup> in an article titled \u201cThe Capitol Riot Revealed the Darkest Nightmares of White <strong>Evangelical<\/strong> America.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> \u00a0Evangelical, a term that is widely used, but what exactly is an Evangelical?\u00a0 In this post I will define the term and focus on one aspect of evangelicalism that seem to set it apart from prior movements and examine whether this aspect has in some cases been carried too far.\u00a0 Doing a quick search using the term <em>evangelical<\/em> and limiting the results to academic journals, over 280,000 results are found.\u00a0 David Bebbington examined the history of the term and movement in England since the 1700\u2019s<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a>. Bebbington contends that the term has a history of ambiguity.\u00a0 I appreciated the quote from Lord Shaftebury \u201cI\u2019 know what constituted an evangelical in former times\u2019,\u201d but \u201c\u2018I have no clear notion what constitutes one now\u2019\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> In his research Bebbington settled on four defining characteristics found in evangelicals in Britain making up what he termed a \u201cquadrilateral of priorities\u201d and what many people refer to as Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a>.\u00a0 These four characteristics are \u201c<em>conversionism,<\/em> the belief that lives need to be changed; <em>activism<\/em>, the expression of the gospel in effort<em>; biblcism<\/em>, a particular regard for the Bible; and what may be called <em>crucicentrism<\/em>, a stress on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a> \u00a0Looking at all 280,000 journal articles using the term evangelical are all of them using the term the same way or does the research mirror Lord Shaftebury\u2019s comment that we really have no idea what we mean?<\/p>\n<p>The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) wanted to standardize the term.\u00a0 In 2015, after a \u201ctwo-year multi-phase research project\u201d conducted by LifeWay Research the NAE adopted a definition of what an evangelical is.<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Evangelicals are those who strongly agree with the following statements.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThe Bible is the highest authority for what I believe<\/li>\n<li>It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus as their Savior<\/li>\n<li>Jesus Christ\u2019s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin<\/li>\n<li>Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God\u2019s gift of eternal salvation\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>One can see how these mirror Bebbington\u2019s quadrilateral.\u00a0 The NAE asks that those who are doing research on evangelicals use these criteria to ensure that the term is being used properly.\u00a0 Bebbington and the NAE provide us with a definition of an evangelical, but how did this movement arise?<\/p>\n<p>Jason Clark writes \u201cWhilst previous forms of Christianity may have exhibited some of these characteristics, it is Evangelicalism that has uniquely exhibited all four.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref8\">[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Specifically the presence of activism is what set them apart.<\/p>\n<p>Bebbington says that anxiety existed as the church\u2019s doctrine no longer could assure that a person was <em>once saved always saved.<a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref9\"><strong>[9]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 <\/em>Now \u00a0the individual was responsible for determining whether they were saved; One sign of this was the \u201cevidence of works;\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref10\">[10]<\/a> Clark writes that this need for assurance led to a \u201cnew confidence of faith which found its natural outworking in overt activism.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref11\">[11]<\/a> Bebbington asserts that evangelicalism taught that doing good works was a \u201cfundamental element of Christian duty\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref12\">[12]<\/a> This activism carried over into developing organizations or ministries to attempt to meet the many social needs of the day.\u00a0 \u201cThe sick in body and mind, the blind, the deaf, the infirm, the elderly, vagrants, navvies, soldiers, prostitutes, and above all the poor received attention according to their particular needs.\u00a0 Evangelical activism carried over into social concern as an end in itself.<a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref13\">[13]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the United States today, activism still remains a focus of evangelicals, however it appears that much of that activism has turned political. Kristen Kobes De Mez wrote that during the 1960s Jerry Fallwell preached against any political activism for Christians, \u201cChristians had only one task: to preach God\u2019s word of salvation through Christ.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref14\">[14]<\/a> However, in the 1970\u2019s his message changed, and Fallwell launched the Moral Majority in 1979, a political organization focused on mobilizing the Religious Right.\u00a0 Other, like Tim LaHaye and James Dobsons formed organizations or used their existing ones to encourage Christian political activism.<a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref15\">[15]<\/a> Today there are those who from the pulpit and\/or media declare that there is only one way for a Christian to vote suggesting that you are not a true Christian if you vote for the wrong candidate or choose not to exercise your right to vote. Terry Shoemaker states that \u201cAs a scholar of religion in America, I\u2019ve seen how evangelicalism in the United States is generally recognized for its\u00a0political allegiances with the Republican Party.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn16\" name=\"_ftnref16\">[16]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It seems that some would add political activism or Republican to Bebbington\u2019s Quadrilateral.\u00a0 But Bebbington might disagree.\u00a0 Bebbington writes \u201cThe cultural context, not economics or politics, does most to explain the shape of Evangelical religion.\u00a0 Conditions and crises in economic and political life might generate new phases of behaviour and even new expressions of belief, but rarely did they determine fundamental trends in Evangelical life\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref17\">[17]<\/a> I\u2019ll leave it up to the reader to decide if we now have a pentagon or hexagon but let me end with a quote from N. T. Wright and Michael Bird. \u201cOur goal should be promoting the gospel to bring people into the family of faith, not pandering to political leaders so that they might let us share their podium.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref18\">[18]<\/a>\u00a0 What indeed is an evangelical?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Matthew Sutton,\u00a0 \u201cThe Capitol Riot Revealed the Darkest Nightmares of White Evangelical America,\u201d\u00a0 <em>The New Republic<\/em>, January 14, 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/160922\/capitol-riot-revealed-darkest-nightmares-white-evangelical-america#:~:text=The%20Capitol%20Riot%20Revealed%20the%20Darkest%20Nightmares%20of%20White%20Evangelical\">https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/160922\/capitol-riot-revealed-darkest-nightmares-white-evangelical-america#:~:text=The%20Capitol%20Riot%20Revealed%20the%20Darkest%20Nightmares%20of%20White%20Evangelical<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> David Bebbington, <em>Evangelicalism in Modern Britian: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s,\u00a0 (New York, NY: Routledge, 2005).\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Bebbington, 1-2.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Bebbington, 3.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Bebbington, 3<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> National Association of Evangelicals, \u201cWhat is an Evangelical?\u201d\u00a0 accessed September 20, 2024, \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nae.org\/what-is-an-evangelical\/\">https:\/\/www.nae.org\/what-is-an-evangelical\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> National Association of Evangelicals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn8\">[8]<\/a> Jason Paul Clark, &#8220;Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship,&#8221;\u00a0 Faculty Publications &#8211; Portland Seminary. 132, 2018), 58 <a href=\"https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/\">https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/<\/a>, 132<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn9\">[9]<\/a> Bebbington, 42-50.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref10\" name=\"_ftn10\">[10]<\/a> Bebbington, 44.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn11\">[11]<\/a> Clark, 53.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn12\">[12]<\/a> Bebbington, 70.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn13\">[13]<\/a> Bebbington, 120.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn14\">[14]<\/a> Kristen Kobes Du Mez, <em>Jesus and John Wayne,<\/em> (New York, NY: W. W. Norton &amp; Company, 2020), 98.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn15\">[15]<\/a> Du Mez, 86, 94.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref16\" name=\"_ftn16\">[16]<\/a> Terry Shoemaker, Understanding Evangelicalism in America Today,\u201d <em>The Conversation<\/em>, August 4, 2021.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/understanding-evangelicalism-in-america-today-164851\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/understanding-evangelicalism-in-america-today-164851<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn17\">[17]<\/a> Bebbington, 272.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn18\">[18]<\/a> Wright, N. T. &amp; Michael Bird, <em>Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/em>, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2024),<\/p>\n<p>101.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2019Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President\u2019\u201d was a sign carried by those on January 6, 2021 outside the U.S. Capitol.\u00a0 Matthew Sutton describes what was seen that day and leading up to January 6th in an article titled \u201cThe Capitol Riot Revealed the Darkest Nightmares of White Evangelical America.\u201d[1] \u00a0Evangelical, a term that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[12,467,2967],"class_list":["post-38852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","tag-clark","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38852","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\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38853,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38852\/revisions\/38853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}