Phil Struckmeyer, in his book, \u201cEvangelicalism in Post-Modern Society: A History from the 1990\u2019s to the 2030\u2019s\u201d, writes of how the new Evangelicalism version of Protestant Evangelicalism was created by Globalization. \u00a0From the philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, and politics of the day, Struckmeyer tells of the radical moulding and remoulding that took place in the Christian Evangelical faith as small remnants, followings, and leaders emerged to keep a continually modified version of Evangelical Christianity alive.<\/p>\n
Just kidding. \u00a0No way. \u00a0No how. \u00a0I do, however, believe this is what D.W. Bebbington in his book, \u201cEvangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730\u2019s to the 1980\u2019s\u201d accomplished. \u00a0While covering an incredible span of time with intriguing detail, D.W. basically told the story of how Evangelicalism rose and morphed as culture shift happened due to socio-economic and politico-cultural change. \u00a0Be it the Enlightenment, the influence of Romanticism, the Victorian era, or the Industrial Revolution as culture shift, trends and movements occurred, Evangelicalism was the response of a branch, becoming branches, of Christianity. \u00a0\u201cConversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism form the defining attributes of Evangelical religion\u201d1 that D.W. defined as the pillars of the faith expression, but even they as the core were greatly modified over the course of Evangelicalism\u2019s history. \u00a0As D.W. states:<\/p>\n
Evangelical religion in Britain has changed immensely during the two and a half centuries of its existence. \u00a0Its outward expressions, such as its social composition and political attitudes, have frequently been transformed. \u00a0Its inward principles, embracing teaching about Christian behavior, have altered hardly less.2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I guess what took me by surprise in this very enjoyable and interesting read, was how the culture shifts that took place were the cause of Evangelicalism emerging and developing versus Evangelicalism being a force that was causing culture to change. \u00a0In a sense Evangelicalism wasn\u2019t a cause of change in the world, it was the result of a Christian faith trying to stay relevant and alive in a sea of societal swings and change. \u00a0D.W. writes through the Enlightenment, \u201cThe Evangelical version of Protestantism was created by the Enlightenment.\u201d3<\/p>\n
I believe I have always liked to think of Christianity as a proactive faith that is on mission, and yes while it operates in an existing culture and socio-climate, I guess I haven\u2019t realized how much morphing, adapting and changing took place. \u00a0As I think about our current societal state of affairs, I see the need to hold fast to our faith and think the church is doing that but when you look at what is taking place with the gospel and the morphing, adapting, repackaging, restructuring, there is a way that looks proactive and creating a leading edge of change, but it is really reactionary to the greater waters we are swimming in.<\/p>\n
I think this is a big shift in approach and could affect the strategy the Church chooses to navigate our current day waters. \u00a0D.W. writes, \u201cChanging socio-economic and political conditions affected Evangelicalism and its potential recruits in ways that drastically moulded its size, self-image, strategy and teaching.\u201d4 I guess what this book has me thinking about is what line is Evangelicalism going to hold on it\u2019s core attributes of conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism? \u00a0As I agree, our expression can change, do we and how do we hold to our core attributes that set us apart as Evangelicals. \u00a0How will we respond and what will be the fractions and factions that arise as we respond to globalization and the culture issues of: inequality, same-sex marriage, immigration, religious extremism, broken politics, pandemic disease outbreak, racism and hate, etc . . . \u00a0I guess what I am wondering is will we do anything to \u201ccause\u201d real change or will we just end up being the effect, morphing our faith into something we can still believe with all the change and culture shift taking place chasing the life we are trying to live?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1 D. W., Bebbington. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. New ed. n.p.: Routledge, 1989. 4<\/p>\n
2 Ibid., 270<\/p>\n
3 Ibid., 74<\/p>\n
4 Ibid., 272<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phil Struckmeyer, in his book, \u201cEvangelicalism in Post-Modern Society: A History from the 1990\u2019s to the 2030\u2019s\u201d, writes of how the new Evangelicalism version of Protestant Evangelicalism was created by Globalization. \u00a0From the philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, and politics of the day, Struckmeyer tells of the radical moulding and remoulding that took place in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"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":[12],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","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\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4067,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions\/4067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}