Since the Reformation, a term which has been applied to the Protestant Churches because of their principles of justification through faith alone and the supreme authority accorded to scripture. Subsequently, it has been applied more narrowly to Protestant Churches emphasizing intense personal conversion (born-again Christianity) and commitment in their experience of justification and biblical authority. The term is not restricted to Protestantism, and has been a feature of Christianity throughout its history.
For other uses of "evangelical", see Evangelical.The word evangelicalism usually refers to religious practices and traditions which are found in conservative, almost always Protestant, Christianity. In the late 20th century and early 21st century, Protestant people, churches and social movements have often been called evangelical in contrast to Protestant liberalism.
Note that in continental Europe the word Evangelical is often mistakenly used or understood to mean "Protestant" or even "Lutheran" as a literal translation of the German "evangelisch".
The term 'evangelical', in a lexical but less commonly used sense, refers to anything implied in the belief that Jesus is the Messiah.
In Western cultural usage, the word Evangelical has usually referred to Protestantism, with intended contrast to Roman Catholicism. At different times, the name has developed nuances according to the controversies of the age, although many Catholics consider themselves "Evangelical" in the sense that they must spread the Gospel message in their daily life, as well as to the world.
In Europe since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Lutheran churches have been called Evangelical churches, in contradistinction to the Reformed churches of Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and their associates. In the 17th century and onward, the Puritan party in the Church of England who sought to identify that church with the Reformed movement of the Reformation, who later withdrew from that Communion and became known by the derogatory names of "Non-Conformists" and "Dissenters", were also called the evangelical party. In the 18th century, the Wesleyan revival within the Church of England influenced the formation of a party of pietistic Anglicans, whose descendant movement is still called the "Evangelical party".The earliest meanings continue to be current, depending on the context. Several churches have Evangelical in their title, meaning evangelical in the sense of "Protestant," but not necessarily part of the modern evangelical movement per se.
In foreign languages, words derived from ευαγγελιον evangelion should not automatically be equated with "evangelical(ism)". Germany's national Protestant church, formed by the state-mandated union of Lutheran and Reformed churches, is not called "Union of Evangelical Churches", but Union of Protestant Churches.
Roots
The contemporary evangelical movement has its origins in the 18th century.
The chief emphases of the fledgling Methodist movement as well as the Awakening were individual conversion, personal piety and Bible study, public morality often including Temperance and family values, and Abolitionism, a broadened role for lay people and women in worship, evangelism, and cooperation in evangelism across denominational lines (that is, interdenominationally).
In its early years, what was to become known as evangelicalism was largely a hybrid of the Reformed emphasis on doctrinal orthodoxy, and the pietist emphasis on the heart and a "personal relationship" with God.
Other key figures include: Jonathan Edwards, American Puritan preacher/theologian;
Doctrine
The Bible is accepted by evangelicals as reliable and the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice.
Commentators and historians describe four characteristics of evangelicals:
Emphasis on the conversion experience, also called being saved, or new birth or born again after John 3:3.These characteristics are similar to the Bebbington quadrilateral identified in his study of British evangelicalism.
John C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron in Ohio, found in the 2004 American Religious Landscape Report that despite many variations, evangelicals in the United States generally adhere to four core beliefs:
Biblical inerrancy Salvation comes only through faith in Jesus and not good works.In regard to "Biblical inerrancy", a notable American summit on Bible inerrancy was held in Chicago in 1978. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was signed by nearly 300 noted American evangelical scholars (see main article).
Development
19th century
Evangelical Christians were a diverse group;
In 1846, eight hundred Christians from ten countries met in London and set up the Evangelical Alliance. They saw this as a "new thing in church history, a definite organization for the expression of unity amongst Christian individuals belonging to different churches."
Evangelicals, along with trade unionists, Chartists, members of cooperatives, the self-help movement and the Church of England were involved in setting up the temperance movements in the U.S., Ireland, Scotland and England.
William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the Christian Mission in London on July 5, 1865.
20th century
Evangelicals today are at least as varied as ever.
Others, particularly in the USA, are engaged in attempts at social improvement through political means.
The World Evangelical Fellowship (now Alliance) (WEA) was formed in 1951 by believers from 21 countries.
Within the broad denominations (often called "mainline denominations") evangelical movements are organizing within various structures, which are often referred to as the Confessing Movement. The theological call for the mainline churches to return to their evangelical roots is known as Paleo-Orthodoxy, especially within Methodism, where Thomas Oden is one of its best known spokesmen.
The movement represents a range of Protestant understandings of the Bible, liturgical forms, and church traditions - some of which are very non-traditional, and artistically conceived or innovative. In controversies with those who favor a more highly structured liturgy, the evangelical party is usually the one in favor of a relatively more simple, casual and participatory form of worship, centered on preaching and sometimes the Lord's Supper (Eucharist), rather than more elaborate ceremony.
Especially toward the end of the 20th century, the secular media tended to describe traditional Christian believers as fundamentalists, including most evangelicals.
Fundamentalism
At the turn of the 20th century, in light of modern scholarship gaining the majority view, Modernist Christianity in the Protestant denominations was producing novel understandings and/or interpretations of the role of the Bible for a Christian, and the Bible's teachings.
The Fundamentalist Movement was a conservative Protestant response in the USA to liberal trends in their churches.
Some Fundamentalists strongly advocated separation from those denominations and institutions in which modernism was dominant. Many of these identified the Fundamentalist cause with certain specific doctrines, approaches to culture, and styles of worship, preaching, or plans of church governance, which were not shared by their fellows - some of which, in fact, had only arisen in the previous century.
Post Evangelicalism: Post-evangelicalism
The Post-Evangelical movement is rather new and is a response against the weaknesses of evangelicalism.
Post-evangelicals view the church as fundamentally flawed by human activity, yet still a divine institution. For instance, post-evangelicals often prefer to share communion in a home environment, and see the communion in a church building as less meaningful, because of its connection to church politics and power struggles.
Post-evangelicals reject what they see as a materialistic health-wealth, miracle-chasing gospel of Pentecostal evangelicalism, and the man-made legalism of "touch not, taste not" of conservative Protestant evangelicalism.
By and large, Post-evangelicalism rejects the institutionalism, politicized, bigoted, power struggles of the overly-structured church and is an attempt to rediscover the less structured Christianity of the early church.
Renewed Evangelicalism: Neo-evangelicalism
The Neo-Evangelical movement was a response among traditionally orthodox Protestants to fundamentalist Christianity's separatism, beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.
Neo-evangelicals held the view that the modernist and liberal parties in the Protestant churches had surrendered their heritage as evangelicals by accommodating the views and values of the world.
They sought to engage the modern world and the liberals in a positive way, remaining separate from worldliness but not from the world — a middle way, between modernism and the separating variety of Fundamentalism. The movement's aim at the outset was to reclaim the evangelical heritage in their respective churches, not to begin something new;
The term neo-evangelicalism no longer has any reliable meaning except for historical purposes.
Evangelical politics in the United States
Evangelicalism in the United States was prominently active in political movements which are now popularly considered to be important social advancements, such as Women's Rights and Suffrage, and Abolitionism. But Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court decision rendered in 1973 preventing states from making laws that prohibit abortion, is the most prominent landmark of a new era of conservative evangelical political action, unprecedented in its intensity and coordination.
In the U.S. the Religious Right is influential especially in the Republican Party, and is often popularly perceived to be the political wing of the conservative Evangelical movement. Consequently, criticism of controversial conservative political stances frequently falls on the evangelical movement as a whole, in the USA at least.
The mass-appeal of the Christian right in the so-called red states, and its success in rallying resistance to certain social agendas, is sometimes characterized by an otherwise unwilling, and secular, society as an attempt to impose theocracy on the country, although most evangelicals deny this.
However, the Christian Right is not made completely (or even a majority) of Evangelical Christians, as the above paragraphs may lead one to believe. According to the November 11th, 2004 Economist article, entitled The triumph of the religious right, "The implication of these findings is that Mr Bush's moral majority is not, as is often thought, just a bunch of right-wing evangelical Christians.
Parachurch organizations
Parachurch organizations are a vehicle by which evangelical Christians work collaboratively, both outside and across their denominations, to engage with the world in mission, social welfare and evangelism.
Through many decentralized organizations, parachurch organizations function to bridge the gap between the church and culture. These are organizations "alongside" (Grk: para-) church structures, meaning that they usually seek to define their specific task as more or less subordinate to the institution and the general task of the local church, intended to support and enhance the effectiveness of the church.
Roles and organizations
Roles undertaken by parachurch organizations include:
evangelistic crusade associations (patterned after the Billy Graham Association) evangelistic and discipleship ministries (such as The Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ) music and print publishers, radio and television stations, film studios and online ministries study centers and institutes, schools, colleges and universities political and social activist groups welfare and social services, including, homeless shelters, child care, and domestic violence, disaster relief programs, and food pantries and clothing closets and emergency aid centers self help groups Bible study groups house churchesGlobally
Globally, evangelicalism and Pentecostalism are among the most influential Christian movements. Growth in Africa is rapid, and because it is not dependent on European and North American evangelical sources allowing greater diversity.
World Evangelical Alliance
The World Evangelical Alliance is
a network of churches in 127 nations that have each formed an evangelical alliance and over 100 international organizations joining together to give a worldwide identity, voice and platform to more than 420 million evangelical Christians .United States
Barna Research Group surveyed Christians in the United States in 2004 and asked nine questions to determine whether the respondent was an evangelical Christian.
The survey methodology was not given on this website. The questions asked by the group do not necessarily represent all the characteristics of evangelical Christians.
Although evangelicals are currently seen as being on the Christian Right in the United States, there are those in the center and Christian Left as well.
Demographics
A 1992 survey (Green) showed that in the United States and Canada evangelicals make up both the largest and the most active group of Christians (surpassing both Catholics and Mainline or non-Evangelical Protestant groups).
On a worldwide scale evangelical Churches are (together with Pentecostals) the most rapidly growing Christian churches.
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