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 PrintableVersion The emergence of evangelicalismOur inspiring heritageTHE EMERGENCE OF EVANGELICALISM In 1989 the historian David Bebbington published his landmark study, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s. It was a significant achievement and has proved highly influential. My own battered copy, avidly read on holiday flights in the summer of 1989, is evidence of frequent use and lendings. In this book, Professor Bebbington, an active member of a Baptist church in Stirling, maintains that evangelicalism is distinguished by four qualities: conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism. This description has been widely adopted: a standard essay topic nowadays is to discuss this ‘Bebbington quadrilateral’, and it is frequently employed in discussions of present-day evangelicalism. Other contentions have proved more controversial. Bebbington dated the start of evangelicalism to the 1730s because he maintained that ‘the evangelical version of Protestantism was created by the Enlightenment’. Following John Locke, evangelicals believed that certain knowledge could result from experience and experimentation. This led to evangelicals having greater assurance than their predecessors among the Puritans and Reformers, which in turn produced their greater activism, especially in evangelism and missionary work. Although there was much continuity with earlier Protestant traditions, ‘Evangelicalism was a new phenomenon of the 18th century’. Expressing reservationsThe last 20 years have seen lively debate of these issues. This volume draws together some of the reservations about them in articles by 19 historians from both sides of the Atlantic, under groupings of regional perspectives, era perspectives and doctrines. Not all are critical of Bebbington. In Wales, the evangelical movement was, indeed, something unprecedented. However, in Scotland, A.T.B. McGowan demonstrates how Scottish Presbyterianism consistently displayed the four traits from John Knox onwards. Joel R. Beeke argues that the Dutch ‘further Reformation’ of the 17th century did likewise. However, in New England a clear discontinuity is evident in evangelicalism from earlier forms of Protestantism, as people had ‘new expectations for seasons of revival, or outpourings of the Holy Spirit’. Martin Luther described his faith as ‘evangelical’ and Cameron A. MacKenzie shows how his faith was Bible-based, Christ-centred and active in love. Paul Helm adduces evidence that John Calvin could be characterised by all four of the traits, while Augustus Toplady regarded himself not as part of a new evangelical movement, but of a God-given revival of historic Calvinism. Ian Shaw looks at how 19th-century historians regarded the development of 18th-century evangelicalism and finds that most claimed that it had a continuous pedigree back to the Puritans, Reformers and Lollards. Spiritual narratives are explored by D. Bruce Hindmarsh, who discovers that evangelical conversion ‘did in fact emerge … as a new, distinctive and identity-giving mark of Christian experience in the modern period, but that it did so about a century before the revivals of the 1730s and 40s’. Crawford Gribben argues that there was, indeed, discontinuity in views of eschatology from the Puritans to 18th-century evangelicals. Many of the contributors focus on ‘activism’, based allegedly on greater assurance, as being the most problematic of Bebbington’s ‘quadrilateral’. Garry Williams explores how John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards and John Newton gained assurance of salvation, and shows how they urged believers to examine their lives for evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. Edwards may have expressed his views in language relevant to his times, but this does not mean that he derived them from Enlightenment sources. For Newton, assurance grows as it is based on knowledge of the person and work of Christ — which sounds reminiscent of the Puritans. David Bebbington’s reply at the end of the book is typically gracious in accepting refinement of some of his earlier contentions, but forceful in providing further supportive evidence for others. He concludes that, ‘notwithstanding the weighty legacy from the past, the emergence of evangelicalism did represent a revolutionary development in Protestant history’. Well-manneredThis book is a model of well-mannered disagreement among Christian scholars and an absorbing read. But does it all really matter, or is it just an example of the enjoyable games that historians play? Dean Inge is reputed to have said, ‘A religion without a history is a nervous disorder’, and Bishop Ryle certainly was anxious ‘to repudiate with scorn the vulgar charge of novelty’. More controversially, but compellingly argued, Garry Williams maintains that, if evangelicalism began in the 1730s with John Wesley and Jonathan Edwards, then it is divided equally between Arminian and Reformed theology. If, however, evangelicalism began with the Reformers and Puritans, then it is clear that Reformed theology is foundational. Professor Tom Nettles suggests that the book leads to ‘a more satisfying grasp of evangelical identity … as a matter of self-knowledge for thoughtful action to the glory of God’. In layman’s terms that means that understanding our evangelical heritage should inspire us to more committed service of our Lord and Saviour. Joy Horn, © Evangelicals Now - November 2008 |
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