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Evangelical Christianity
The word "evangelical" has several legitimate senses all related to the
etymological meaning of "good news." For Christians of many types
throughout history the word has been used to describe God's redemption of
sinners by the work of Christ. In the Reformation of the sixteenth century it
became a rough synonym for "Protestant." That history explains why many
Lutherans still employ the term (e.g., the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America). The most common use of the word today stems from renewal
movements among English and American Protestants in the eighteenth
century and from practitioners of revival in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. The early movements were led by larger-than-life figures such as
John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism; George Whitefield, the
most effective preacher of his day; and Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts
clergyman known for his profound intellect and his passionate defense of
Calvinism. The later revival movements have been represented by a
noteworthy series of public preachers, including Charles Grandison
Finney (1792–1875), D. L. Moody (1837–1899), and Billy Graham (1918–).
In one of the most useful definitions, the British historian David Bebbington
has identified the key ingredients of evangelicalism as conversionism (an
emphasis on the "new birth" as a life-changing experience of God), biblicism
(a reliance on the Bible as ultimate religious authority), activism (a concern
for sharing the faith), and crucicentrism (a focus on Christ's redeeming work
on the cross, usually pictured as the only way of salvation). These
evangelical traits have never by themselves yielded cohesive, institutionally
compact, or clearly demarcated groups of Christians. But they do serve to
identify a large family of churches and religious enterprises.
The prominence of the Bible and focus on Christ as the means of salvation
link evangelical traditions with earlier Protestant movements such as English
and American Puritanism. But where the Puritans worked for purified state-
church establishments, most modern evangelicals have been independent-
minded people delighted with the separation of church and state. In
addition, where Puritanism retained an exalted role for the clergy and great
respect for formal learning, modern evangelicalism, powered by lay
initiatives, has been wary of formal academic credentials.
The relationship of African-American churches to evangelical traditions is
complex. Blacks in America only began to accept Christianity in the mid-
eighteenth century, when the Christian message was presented to them by
evangelicals such as Whitefield or the Virginia Presbyterian Samuel Davies.
To this day, most African-American denominations and independent
congregations share many evangelical characteristics, including belief in the
"new birth," trust in the Scriptures, and commitment to traditional morality.
Some white evangelicals, such as the theologian Samuel Hopkins and the
founder of American Methodism, Francis Asbury, were also early leaders in
the fight against slavery. Yet other evangelicals, North as well as South,
either tolerated or defended slavery. Throughout the nineteenth century
almost all white evangelicals also frowned on elements of African ritual
retained in the worship of black Christians. The fact that in the twentieth
century white evangelicals have mostly supported the social and political
status quo means that ties between black Protestants and white evangelicals
are not as close as their shared religious beliefs might lead an observer to
expect.
For much of the nineteenth century white evangelical Protestants constituted
the largest and most influential body of religious adherents in the United
States (as also in Britain and Canada). Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, and many Episcopalians shared broadly evangelical
convictions—though they could battle each other aggressively on the details
of those convictions. Evangelical elements were prominent among
Lutherans, German and Dutch Reformed, and the Restorationist churches
(Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ) as well.
Division in the Protestant tradition—especially the fundamentalist-modernist
battles of the first quarter of the twentieth century—greatly weakened the
public presence of evangelicalism. At about the same time, large-scale
immigration of non-Protestants, the growth of cities as multicultural sites,
and the secularization of higher learning also eroded evangelical cultural
influence. The passing of evangelical cultural dominance, however, was also
accompanied by significant new developments. The most important of these
was the emergence of Pentecostalism, which began early in the twentieth
century as an outgrowth of emphases on Christian "holiness" in several
Protestant bodies. With its emphasis on the direct work of the Holy Spirit,
Pentecostalism has become a major worldwide force in the twentieth
century. Its influence is seen in denominations such as the mostly
white Assemblies of God and the mostly African-American Church of God in
Christ, but also in a wide variety of other denominations and traditions,
especially through the charismatic movement after World War II.
In the period of the Great Depression and World War II, evangelicalism was
less visible than it has ever been, before or since, in American life. The
fundamentalist strand of evangelicalism promoted "separation" from the
world and the construction of a self-contained network of churches,
publishers, Bible schools, colleges, and radio broadcasting (in which
fundamentalists were the pioneers for religious purposes). Out of sight of
media elites and against the trend of the older Protestant groups, several
evangelical denominations—including the Southern Baptist
Convention, Assemblies of God, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance—
grew rapidly in the 1930s and 1940s. In roughly the same period
fundamentalists and evangelicals established new connections with a
number of immigrant traditions, such as the Dutch-American Christian
Reformed Church and several Mennonite denominations, which would later
play a large role in post–World War II evangelical enterprises. It was often
traveling ministers or radio broadcasts—such as those emanating from the
Moody Bible Institute in Chicago—that made these connections.
The three decades from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s marked a
distinct era in American evangelical history. The prominent public activity of
the evangelist Billy Graham inspired many fundamentalists and evangelicals,
especially in the North, even as it recruited new adherents for evangelical
causes and created coalitions beyond previous evangelical boundaries.
Postwar "neoevangelicalism," a phrase popular in the 1950s and 1960s to
describe former fundamentalists who sought a positive public image, was,
however, considerably more than Billy Graham. When Graham downplayed
issues central to earlier fundamentalist-modernist strife and set aside some
fundamentalist shibboleths (such as avoidance of the cinema), many were
eager to follow. In New England, the Philadelphia area, the upper Midwest,
and California a small but vocal generation of articulate post-fundamentalists
came of age as Graham's willing colleagues. During the war itself, these
leaders founded the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942 to handle
relations with the government and promote transdenominational
cooperation. Soon the combined efforts of institutional leaders such as
Harold John Ockenga, intellectuals such as Carl F. H. Henry, wealthy laymen
such as Herbert J. Taylor of Club Aluminum and J. Howard Pew of Sun Oil,
along with a host of missionary-minded young people, led to the creation or
expansion of many ventures. These included Fuller (Pasadena, California),
Gordon-Conwell (north of Boston), and Trinity (suburban Chicago)
seminaries, which, along with Southern Baptist institutions, became by the
1980s the largest centers of pastoral training in the United States. They also
included Christianity Today and several other periodicals, a number of active
youth ministries such as Youth for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship,
Young Life, and Campus Crusade for Christ. As part of this same surge, self-
identified evangelicals soon made up the largest component of missionaries
sent from the United States to other parts of the world.
The circle of individuals and agencies associated with Billy Graham was the
most visible evangelical presence in these years, but many other evangelical
groups were also at work. These included rapidly expanding Pentecostal
denominations (whose leaders reached out to the Graham network), the
strengthening of many evangelical churches in the South (which has always
functioned as something of a self-contained religious domain), and the
expansion of "holiness" denominations such as the Church of the Nazarene.
In marked contrast to the vigorous political activism of the nineteenth
century, most evangelicals from 1928 (when the presence of a Catholic
candidate for president on the Democratic ticket energized evangelical
support for Republican Herbert Hoover) into the early 1970s remained
largely quiet politically. Southern evangelicals were Democrats, like most of
their region. Northern evangelicals leaned Republican but were not
particularly active.
Since the early 1970s the diversity that always existed within American
evangelicalism has become much more obvious. In addition, America's
major social convulsions, such as racial conflict, the women's movement,
and sexual permissiveness, have inspired a political reaction among many
sectors of evangelicalism. Religious developments, including the charismatic
movement, the decline of denominations, and the growth of parachurch
networks have also shaped recent evangelical history.
Rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1960s that eliminated prayer in
the public schools and in 1973 that legalized abortion on demand
contributed to evangelical politicization. For many, these decisions, along
with controversies over what should or should not be taught in the public
schools and the growth of the federal government, were perceived as a
decline in national moral values. Evangelicals of the Billy Graham sort
remained relatively quiet in the face of these new political challenges. But
other leaders, such as Baptist ministers Jerry Falwell and Timothy LaHaye,
television broadcaster Pat Robertson, and lay psychologist and radio host
James Dobson, entered politics with a vengeance during the 1970s and
1980s. These leaders, rather than the neoevangelical stalwarts of the
previous generation, created the "New Christian Right" and made white
conservative evangelical support an anchor in the presidential campaigns of
Ronald Reagan and for much of Republican politics since Reagan.
Recent decades have also witnessed a repositioning of old antagonisms.
While American evangelicals still keep their distance from
institutional Roman Catholicism, a wide array of social, political, academic,
and reforming efforts now link some evangelicals with some Catholics.
Evangelicals have helped once-sectarian groups such as the Seventh-Day
Adventists and the Worldwide Church of God in their move toward more
traditional Christian affirmations. At the end of the century there were even
a few signs of improved relations between some evangelicals and Mormons,
whom most evangelicals had long considered far beyond the pale.
With the decreasing influence of the older, mainline Protestant churches,
evangelicals now worry less about theological liberalism and more about
multi-culturalism, postmodernism, and the general secularization of public
life. Evangelicals also now expend considerable energy in debating styles of
worship, with much support in many churches for innovative contemporary
styles (e.g., as on display at the seventeen-thousand-member Willow Creek
Community Church in suburban Chicago), while others promote traditional
patterns of worship, and many vacillate in between.
Charting the size of the American evangelical constituency at the close of the
century depends on criteria for definition. A 1996 poll of three thousand
Americans by the Angus Reid group included four questions related
specifically to traditional evangelical concerns: Was the Bible the inspired
Word of God? Are you a converted Christian? Does God provide forgiveness
of sins through the "life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ"? Is it
important to urge non-Christians to become Christians? Nearly a third of the
U.S. sample answered affirmatively to all four questions, and another 20
percent affirmed three of the four. (Proportions of those answering positively
were much higher than national population distribution in the South and
considerably lower in the West and Northeast. In addition, about 35 percent
of American Catholics answered positively to three or four of these
questions.) Alternatively, a team of political scientists ( John C. Green,
James L. Guth, Corwin Smidt, and Lyman A. Kellstedt) has recently
published a series of perceptive works on the political behavior of American
religious groups. They find that about one-fourth of the American populace is
associated with historically evangelical churches and denominations. Of that
number they find about 60 percent quite active in their participation. As a
third way of measuring the size of the evangelical constituency, a research
team headed by sociologist Christian Smith has recently published important
books and articles based on those who use the term "evangelical" to
describe themselves, their churches, and their wider connections. These
sociologists find about 7 percent of the population using that term of self-
designation and participating actively in self-described "evangelical"
enterprises.
Because of the imprecision of the term, more care is required than is often
exercised in speaking of America's evangelical Christians. Yet however
defined, it is clear that evangelical Christian traditions remain an important
force in contemporary religious life—for social and political, but supremely
for religious reasons.

See alsoAfrican-American Religions; Campus Crusade for Christ; Charismatic

Movement; Falwell, Jerry; Fundamentalist Christianity; Graham,
Billy; InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Mainline Protestantism; Pentecostal
and Charismatic Christianity; Religious Right; Robertson,
Pat; Televangelism; Young Life; Youth for Christ.
Bibliography
Balmer, Randall. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the
Evangelical Subculture in America. 1989.
Bebbington, David W. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain:A History from the
1730s to the 1980s. 1989.
Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assembliesof God,
Pentecostalism, and American Culture. 1993.
Carpenter, Joel A. Revive Us Again: The Reawakening ofAmerican
Fundamentalism. 1997.
Dayton, Donald W., and Robert K. Johnston, eds. TheVariety of American
Evangelicalism. 1991.
Green, John C., James L. Guth, Corwin Smidt, and Lyman A.
Kellstedt. Religion and the Culture Wars:Dispatches from the Front. 1996.
Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and AmericanCulture: The Shaping of
Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870 –1925. 1980.
Smith, Christian. American Evangelicalism: Embattledand Thriving. 1998.
Mark A. Noll