The Rise of (Neo)-Evangelicalism

It is often difficult to see the forces at work on us in the present, the factors leading us to think and emphasize what we think. It is much easier to look back – especially at other groups – and see the currents and forces pushing them along, usually without them fully realizing it. Protestant groups typically say they are just following the Bible alone… as they splinter into tens of thousands of little subgroups, all just following the Bible alone.

What we call “evangelicalism” today has a long history with a number of twists and turns. In Germany, when the Protestant Reformation started, evangelisch was simply the word for Protestant. In the writings of John Wesley in the 1700s, it was associated with Luther’s idea of “justification by faith alone,” the sense that we can only get right with God on the basis of faith.

However, the “evangelicals” of that age did have some characteristics in common. David Bebbington has argued that they had four key characteristics:

• Biblicism: They saw Scripture as the central authority for a Christian.
• Crucicentrism: They saw the cross as central to atonement.
• Conversionism: They believed that it is essential to be “born again” and have an individual relationship with Christ.
• Activism: They all worked actively to evangelize others, as well as other kinds of Christian activism.

The main problem with Bebbington’s list is that groups change over time. At one point in history they may emphasize one thing and barely pay attention to another. Sometimes they even flip sides on issues. His list is a good starting point, but each period of evangelicalism has its own flavor. Groups often don’t reduce to a fixed common core. Their characteristics can vary some from time to time.

Origins

In the 1700s, the three most important “evangelicals” were John Wesley (1703-91), George Whitefield (1714-70), and Jonathan Edwards (1703-58). They all loved the Bible. They all saw the cross as crucial. They all believed you needed to engage with Christ on a personal level. They were part of the First Great Awakening, revivals that swept Great Britain and America. New colleges were founded to train ministers (e.g., Princeton). People traveled all over their countries preaching good news.

The 1800s saw the Second Great Awakening in America. At the beginning of the 1800s, Francis Asbury (1745-1816) spread the optimistic word of grace on horseback, spreading Methodism throughout the States. Perhaps the most significant figure of the Second Great Awakening was that of Charles Finney (1792-1875), who traveled the new States, leading people to be saved. He was known for using practical tactics to move people to action, including a special “mourner’s bench” for people seeking the Lord. These preachers were characterized by emotion and a quest for evangelism.

Luther Lee and Orange Scott carried this same fervor for conversion into an abolitionist movement in the years prior to the Civil War. Their activism took on a social dimension in the Wesleyan Methodist movement they started (1843). Like Wesley before them, they sought not only to save people’s souls but to see the world become more like Christ here and now. Luther Lee preached the first ordination service for a woman in America in 1853.

The late 1800s saw the rise of dispensationalism and a sense of urgency to see as many people saved before the Lord would return. D. L. Moody carried forward that spirit of evangelicalism with his “lifeboat theology” (1837-99) – the world is sinking, and we need to get as many people into the lifeboat as possible before the ship goes down. This was a different flavor than the optimistic activism of Wesley and Asbury, but it had the same urgency of evangelism.

Neo-Evangelicalism

The greatest heir in the twentieth century to the spirit of these earlier evangelicals was no doubt Billy Graham. He was known for his crusades, going from city to city, calling masses of people forward to be born again, much as Whitefield, Asbury, and Finney had before. In the spirit of Moody, he saw the end coming soon and so focused more on redeeming people’s souls than on changing the world for the better.

However, Graham was part of a planned movement as well. The early twentieth century saw many groups constructing their “lifeboats” off to themselves. They formed little colleges. They formed little churches. They were not so much trying to change the world but were preparing for the end, trying to win as many souls for Christ before he returned. George Marsden has called these groups “fundamentalists,” including in that category dispensationalists, Pentecostals, and holiness folk.

However, in the early twentieth century, it was actually the intellectuals who were fighting for the “fundamentals.” The Fundamentals were a series of 90 essays produced between 1910 and 1915 arguing against liberalism and developments in the study of the Bible that had arisen in the late 1800s. It was an intellectual movement. 

In the late 1940s, a group came together to take this intellectual thread and turn it loose on the world. They called themselves “neo-evangelicals.” They would launch Christianity Today, found the National Association of Evangelicals, and found Fuller Seminary. They had the orthodox theology of the scholars who had written The Fundamentals, but they tried to change the world. And they were bankrolled by powerful patrons.

The 1970s saw the rise of the church growth movement, and churches grew larger and larger, eventually becoming the mega-churches of today. At the same time that one stream of evangelicals was going out door to door to share their faith, another movement was also on the rise. Jerry Falwell would start the “Moral Majority,” and before long, the activism turned to politics and fighting culture wars.

In the 1980s, evangelicalism became increasingly fused with the Republican Party, not least because of the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision in 1973. The intellectual wing associated with Wheaton College and Christianity Today increasingly faded into the backdrop as culture wars rose to the fore. Issues like fighting abortion, getting prayer into the schools, restoring the traditional family, and fighting globalism became focal issues. 

Then in the early 2000s, Robert Webber would write about “the younger evangelicals,” who seemed to him more interested in social justice than fighting against abortion. This was the rise of the millennials and a reminder that the focus of evangelicals has always ebbed and flowed over time from one set of issues to another. These millennials were like the abolitionist evangelicals of the mid-1800s.

By the late 2010s, political evangelicalism came back with a vengeance, alarmed by the rapid acceptance of gay marriage. Evangelicalism took on an increasingly Christian nationalist flavor, where faith and a certain sense of national identity and destiny become hard to distinguish. Partially in reaction, there was a surge of “faith deconstruction” among many young people who came from evangelical homes. In the year 2021, the fastest growing religious group in the United States was the “nones,” those who did not claim to have any religious affiliation at all.

What is the future of evangelicalism? We are writing it today. If Bebbington is correct, it will feature a return to the Bible and a critique of any elements that have crept into our faith from the world and the broader culture – including worldly elements within the church itself. It will call us to the cross, including taking up our cross to follow Jesus. It will call for a personal faith and a personal relationship with Jesus. And it will strive to change the world for God, both by seeing souls come to Christ and by striving to see the world become more and more like the kingdom of God will be.