American Evangelicalism
Overview
In United States, major religious transition occurred in the start of the twentieth century. More so, there were large numbers of American Protestants under the evangelical leadership. Apparently, in 1900s, there was massive stratification of evangelical denominations based on the doctrinal beliefs and practices. One side consisted of the mainstream Protestants who believed in the personal interpretation of evangelical doctrines. The fundamentalists introduced new beliefs and practices beyond the biblical teachings that provide more freedom of worship to the believers. Additionally, American Protestants applied contemporary factors into the practicability of the biblical doctrines. It is an idea to adopt changes in the beliefs and practices of evangelical doctrines that further created division among the evangelical denominations.
On the other section, there were the fundamentalists who respected the biblical traditional Christian life and teachings. American fundamentalists were highly conservative in matters of biblical teaching and understanding. Similarly, American fundamentalists opposed the incorporation of modernity into the evangelical teachings. They believed that biblical traditions must be respected to reflect the true meaning of evangelism. In fact, American fundamentalists criticised the introduction of secular and scientific teachings in the learning institutions. In 1920s, fundamentalists were determined to apply legal actions to bar introduction of the scientific concept among students, which opposes the traditions of evangelism. Over the century, American Revolution of evangelism occurred, which was initiated by the factor of the division among evangelical denominations. Sections of mainstream Protestants adopted secular-way of living and practices while fundamentalist maintained their conservative status. The study evaluates the connection of the twentieth century ideologies to Christianity and interactions to the activities of evangelicals and the ecumenical movements.
American evangelism in the twentieth century
Evangelism in the twentieth century consisted of Protestants who were divided based on the political affiliations, modernity and traditions. The majority of evangelical resided in the United States during the twentieth century. Evangelicals proposed the integration of secularism to the biblical teachings. Mainly, evangelicals were opposed to the conservative way of evangelism, which entailed the adherence to the culture, social and religious practices as described in the Bible. The aspect of attaining freedom of worship was taking another direction with the majority of fundamentalist adopting liberalism-way of evangelizing. After the World War One, the majority of fundamentalists rejected fundamentalist traditional teachings to embrace modernity.
In 1943, the ideologies of evangelicals revolved around revivalism that comprised of youth-oriented evangelical activities. More so, the revivalism came after the formation of the national association of the evangelicals, which acted as an opposition to the existing federal council of churches. The two organizations differed in the interpretation of the Bible and culture. Inadequacy of resources harboured missionary work of the fundamentalists after the World War One. Afterwards, the end of World War Two marked the turning point of evangelicals because they were funded by the government to conduct missionary work. The missionary work among the evangelicals was productive, in terms of revival concepts. The mainstream Protestants could not compete with the growing evangelical population. Apparently, the followers of the mainstream Protestants significantly reduced with time. However, in the 1950s, Protestants followers comprised of seventy percent of the Protestants missionaries sectioned at various parts of United States. Examples of mainstream Protestants in United States, which were actively involved in missionaries, include Assemblies of God, Southern Baptists among others. The main ideology of the branching Protestants was to embrace worldly life while living a Christian life. More so, Protestants accepted secular world as part of their existence with the biblical doctrines. Contrastingly, Evangelicals ideologies opposed new perspectives of life brought about through scientific, modernization, liberalism, socialism, and the communist way of life. The evangelicals were motivated to adopt early Christian life as dictated in the Bible. Additionally, evangelicals were more concerned about their Christian outlook, which was devoid of secular affiliations. Purity, chastity and blameless were the main dictating factors of life among the evangelicals, in 1960s.
Overall, there were three forms of evangelism in the twentieth century namely, traditionalists, centrists and modernists evangelicals. The three groups of evangelicals held different ideologies whereby traditionalists evaluated their beliefs and practices by examining the outward character and faith. They were guided by faith, the biblical teachings and purity. More so, traditionalists respected the political activities of the day. In fact, fundamentalists utilized political platform to fight for Christian rights. The centrists’ evangelicals were also known as the fundamentalists. The ideologies of fundamentalists were highly conservative of traditions with no affiliation to the physical world. Additionally, fundamentalists adopted traditional Christian practices with absence of social practices, which they described as secular. The third group was the modern evangelicals who were versatile in their beliefs and practices. Although then statistically modernists were relatively low, they were able to incorporate contemporary lifestyles into Christian lives.
There was the ecumenical group among the Protestants who emphasized on the church unification and transformation of the entire society. In 1960s, conflicts ensued between the evangelicals and ecumenists on the beliefs and practices of the church. The evangelicals accused ecumenists of misleading people by not highlighting the importance of the Bible. More so, evangelicals stated that ecumenists were wrongly interpreting the Bible through the use of their personal understanding, which lacked spiritual attributes. On the other side, ecumenists believed that spreading the word of God entails thorough explanations and analysis of the Bible far and beyond the scriptures. The understanding of the Bible differed among the ecumenists depending on the societal background. Additionally, the main role of ecumenists was to unite the society and the church, as opposed to conversion of people thoughts towards Christian doctrines. Ecumenists accused evangelicals of being hypocritical and adamant to adopt inevitable changes in the society such as technology and modernity. The conservative nature of the evangelicals created barriers to modern Christian s, in relation to worshiping and expression. Such conflicts necessitated the interference of the world council of churches to regulate evangelism and ecumenism in United States. Interestingly, ecumenists and evangelicals ideologies aimed at spreading the word of God regardless of the avenues used in information delivery. John Mort was the world leader of the ecumenical movement. The division in ecumenism brought about by differences in interpretation of the doctrine further created conflicts among Christians in the twentieth century. The fact that ecumenists accepted the unification of the church regardless of the religion concerned the evangelicals. Ecumenists were determined to win support from entire human race through preaching peace, integrity and justice. The fact that ecumenists believed in non-existence of denominations, but affiliations of churches, reflect different argument about evangelicals. More so, evangelicals emphasised on the trinity as way of Christian transformation. The New Testament was the basis of ecumenists in teachings. On the other hand, evangelicals emphasised more on the Old Testament teachings.
Conclusion
The American evangelicalism was dictated by the beliefs and practices adopted by different denominations. The twentieth century defined a shift in the unitary evangelicalism into evangelicals and ecumenism. Evangelicals were conservative of the biblical teachings and practices. On the other hand, ecumenists adopted secularization of church in an effort of uniting the church and society. Apparently, evangelicals were split into traditionalists, centrists and modernists. Traditionalists were politically-motivated and conservative group of Christians. Centrists were conservative of doctrinal beliefs and practices while modernists were diverse in their understanding of the Bible. Overall, evangelicalism has remained constant in accordance to the law and teachings.
