An expert on American religious history says it’s “problematic” that the term evangelical is losing its religious connotations and becoming a political description. Douglas Strong, the dean of the School of Theology at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), spoke at a special presentation at Upper|House on the University of Wisconsin campus Thursday morning, attended by 50 people.
Strong said the religious term has a rich history, going back to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. And it does also have a political history, but a different political history than is associated with it now.
The term evangelical was used first in the 16th century by Luther to describe his reform movement of salvation by grace through faith and not penitent works. The movement became known as Lutherans but Strong said that in a German context “evangelical Lutheran” would be redundant.
The 18th century evangelical revival in England and the U.S., led by George Whitfield, John and Charles Wesley, and Jonathan Edwards, also picked up the name. In the 19th century these evangelicals were in the forefront of abolitionism, prison reform, women’s rights, and similar efforts.
In the early 20th century the fundamentalist/modernist controversy split the U.S. church. After World War II, Billy Graham and others picked up the term evangelical once again to separate themselves from the negativity associated with fundamentalism. They are sometimes called neo-evangelicals.
But then in the 1980s, fundamentalist activitists such as Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority claimed the term as they became more politically involved. That is how the news media and others commonly associate it today.
“When someone refers to an evangelical today they may refer to any or all of these four usages,” Strong said. He told about a discussion with a woman recently who described evangelicals as people who spoke in tongues and belonged to the religious right.
Historically, Strong said, evangelicals have been associated with four qualities:
- 1) A conversion experience leading to a deeper relationship with God
- 2) Following the Bible as a code of conduct
- 3) Believing in atonement with God through the death of Jesus on the cross
- 4) Actively working to change society for the better
Strong said that most of his fellow faculty members at SPU hesitate to use the term evangelical because of its most recent usage but Strong defends it. “I’m going to argue for it because it’s too rich, and there’s no good alternative,” he said.
He noted that many millenials, such as his own son, don’t want to be associated with evangelical because of its negative connotations, just as the mid-twentieth century evangelicals rejected the fundamentalists. His son prefers to call himself just a Christian, but Strong thinks that’s inadquate.
Strong, who is also an ordained United Methodist minister, supports an activist faith. “When we are apolitical we are actually political,” he said. “We endorse the status quo. We need to speak out on the issues, if not the candidates.” At the same time, he said the activism must be seasoned by humility and a willingness to be led by God in new directions.
He recalled that the Methodist missionary E. Stanley Jones still referred to himself as “a Christian in the making,” when he wrote his autobiography at age 85. “We have to have that attitude,” Strong said. “It’s an ongoing process.”
Following Strong’s lecture, InterVarsity staff member Jon Dahl led a tour of the University of Wisconsin campus that focused on the UW’s religious roots.