Reinventing English Evangelicalism: 2 Evangelicalism divided

"Being 'born again' can be profitable. Jesus saves, but Jesus also sells. Evangelicalism is big business".

Not only big business, but with aspirations to political and social clout, as witness the unseemly scramble of US presidential candidates to talk up their religious credentials. In Britain since the 80's and 90's, Warner argues, English Evangelicalism has also claimed to be an important movement, to be taken seriously as capable of making a transformative impact in politics, media and other cultural expressions of social life. The claim however, goes alongside the inescapable evidence that religious decline shows no partiality and Evangelical communities have not been immune to its ravages.

The introductory section of Warner's book is unsettling for those who fondly imagine an Evangelical unity that remains inclusive and widely representative of those who hold to shared Evangelical principles. The last 20 years have seen a process of increasing polarisation, as Evangelicalism has gone through a period of reinvention, redefinition and realignment. Warner is unsparing in his criticism of those whose critique aims to privilege that particular expression of Evangelicalism which answers to their own doctrinal commitments or ecclesial and missional practices. Warner contends that David Wells and particularly Don Carson, two of the more trenchant internal critics of Evangelicalism, demonstrate an increasingly hard-edged rejection of legitimate diversity, and a refusal to enter into open dialogue with other professed Evangelicals unwilling to subscribe to statements of doctrinal rectitude mapped to Reformed dogmatics.

However this is only one instance of the underlying malaise Warner's study seeks to expose, explore and explain. The historic movement of pan-Evangelicalism, has in the past been held together despite many internal tensions, by agreed principles generously interpreted. These were identified by Bebbington as the centrality of the cross, the authority of the Bible, the necessity of conversion and the evangelistic activist imperative. What Warner argues is that in late 20th century English Evangelicalism, these four essentials in the Evangelical bar code have through a process of bifurcation split the Evangelical movement into two axes. The first is the crucicentric biblicist axis which is essentially Reformed, doctrinally defensive, leans heavily towards fundamentalism and is increasingly separatist. The other is the conversionist activist axis, which is entrepreneurial in style, pragmatic in approach and mainly driven by and ecclesial pragmatism baptised in the Spirit, but less doctrinally precise. Both are increasingly discredited.

The first Warner argues is tied to Enlightenment categories of reason and epistemology, which are no longer intellectual currency with effective purchasing power in the modern marketplace of ideas. The second borrows uncritically from a modernity founded on consumerism, technology and rampant individualism. Between these two axes there are further and emerging strands of cautiously open Evangelicals and progressive Evangelicals, each to varying extents unwilling to be identified with, and no longer satisfied with, either of the two axial options. What this adds up to is that Evangelicalism is now a contested tradition, with the emerging progressive strand still in process, and its commitments yet to be settled, and the cautiously open likely to opt for one or other of the axial divisions. What is clear is that Evangelicalism is now in process of decisive theological reconfiguration, a process that will consign the notion of an inclusive pan-Evangelicalism to an earlier, more generous era, now sadly gone.

The conceptual framework Warner constructs borrows critically from, and extends, Bebbington's quadrilateral. Warner adds to the Bebbington's four, Christocentrism, transformed life, and revival aspirations. These are also constants in Evangelical theology and spirituality and it would be hard to argue against any of them as characteristics of Evangelicalism. Bebbington's point though was that the four he identified are, when applied cumulatively, sufficient as identity marks. The three Warner adds are each equally characteristic of Evangelicalism, but are surely not absent as features of other Christian traditions. If all seven are applied I'm  not sure what more is added that makes the seven a better conceptual tool than the four, providing the four are agreed to achieve the same end, identity marks which taken cumulatively amount to a definition.

The rest of the introduction is a careful review of secularisation theory, outlines a justification for Warner's 'revisionist account of the historical narrative of pan-Evangelicalism, notes the hotly debated relationship between Evangelicalism and fundamentalism, and takes time to explain the sociological significance of Evangelical sub-cultures. There is then a careful defence of his own position which started as observer participant and moved to participant observer, signalling Warner's own felt need for critical distance and personal integrity. All in all this first 35 pages is an education in what Callum Brown called the 'integration of history, sociology and religious studies in the examination of Christianity in the context of contemporary secularisation.' And it is carried through by one who is an informed insider, now highly critical of aspects of a movement to which he has been a major contributor and leader; it may be that one of his most important contributions is to enable Evangelicalism to face up to the reality of its own failure to make essential theological transitions, within a legitimate diversity held together by common commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Charles Wesley, that too easily neglected ecclesiologist, at the watershed of the Evangelical movement, wrote about the work of Christ perfecting the church below. Twenty first century Evangelicalism could do with a mighty dose of that 'Love divine, all loves excelling', which, if not included in any quadrilateral, with or without additions, is nevertheless the core of all Evangelical religion:

Love, like death, has all destroyed

rendered all distinctions void;

names and sects and parties fall

Thou, O Christ, art all in all.

Comments

[Margaret]

Happy New Year Jim! Lots to think about here. One wee question - are the arguments presented true for Scottish evangelicalism? Is there a difference between the development of Scottish and English evangelicalism given our Presbyterian etc roots? Margaret

[Jim Gordon]

And a happy New Year tae yersel, Margaret. I'm quite sure that the overall findings of Warner's study are significantly applicable to the Scottish scene, perhaps with a number of qualifications. But Spring Harvest, disseminated and branded worship songs, Alpha as an evangelistic brand name franchise, Evangelical Alliance as a focal pressure group seeking political influence, are features that have also impacted on Scottish Evangelicalism seeking to reinvent itself and adapt to post Christian realities.

And the underlying primary thesis that Evangelicalism has branched into two major expressions of biblicist doctrinally conservative versus conversionist and activist,with several other emerging strands pushing towards further differentiation - a case can be made that Scottish Evangelicalism reflects something of this process. The parallels are not exact, but the underlying pressures and shifts suggest Warner's analysis has sufficient cogency for us to listen with some care to his critique, and where the cap fits........... But I will be doing several more posts and when Ill finsish with a fuller answer to your question.

[Margaret]

Great, thanks Jim. Will look forward to more posts.