What Is An Evangelical? (featuring George Marsden)

Donate to support the Truce Podcast! Who is an evangelical? If you go by the news today, you probably think evangelicals are all American middle-class white men. Nope! Evangelical Christians come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. They can be men or women from anywhere in the world. They can speak any language. And they can have a lot of variety in their beliefs. This season on the Truce Podcast we are examining the history of Christian fundamentalism. How did fundamentalism begin? What is Christian fundamentalism? Is Christian fundamentalism a good thing, a bad thing, or somewhere in between? In this episode, we're joined by author and professor George Marsden. He's the author of Fundamentalism and American Culture, which is THE book everyone else refers to when they talk about fundamentalism. According to Marsden, fundamentalism is "militantly anti-modernism protestant evangelicalism". That is a lot of big words! By the end of the season, you should understand all of that. One important part of that definition is the word "evangelicalism". It is one of those words that has been used so much in so many different ways that it can be difficult to define it. There are whole movements to create new definitions these days. But in order to move forward this season, we need to pick some frame of reference. I chose David Beggington's definition of what defines an evangelical: Bebbington's Quadrilateral Biblicism (a focus on the Bible) Conversionism (an emphasis on evangelism) Crucicentrism (the centrality of the cross) Activism Those four things, according to Bebbington, are what make up an evangelical. Again, it is a hotly debated subject. So when did evangelicalism begin? Many of the sources that I found pointed to the revivals in the decades leading up to the American Revolution. Evangelists like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield spread the gospel using a post-millennialist vision of the end times mixed with Calvinism. This was part of the First Great Awakening. Then there were others after the revoluti