Summary: In this episode of CS, we’ll take a look at something many of our listeners are familiar with; at least, they think their familiar with it – Evangelicalism. Not a few of them would describe themselves as Evangelicals. But if pressed to describe what exactly that means, they’d be hard pressed to say. And they have little to know awareness of the historical roots of the movement they are indeed a part of. // So, let’s start off with a little definition of terms.Evangelicalism is a global movement within Protestantism that crosses denominational lines. Instead of Evangelicals having a comprehensive and extensive list of doctrinal distinctives, they rally round a core of just a few. At the heart of their faith is a conviction that the Gospel, or Evangel, from which they draw their name, is that salvation is by God’s grace, received by faith in Jesus Christ’s atoning work. Salvation commences with a conversion experience called, being “born again.” They hold to the authority of the Bible as God’s Word and the priority of sharing the Gospel message.As a discernable movement, Evangelicalism took form in the 18th C. But it didn’t rise out of a vacuum. There were numerous trends that merged to for m it. Most important to Evangelicalism’s rise was John Wesley and the Methodists, the Moravians under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf and their community at Hernhutt, and Lutheran Pietism.As we saw in Season 1, Pietism emerged in Germany in the 17th C as a reaction to a moribund Lutheran church. It protested the cold formalism the institutional church had adopted under Protestant scholasticism. Pietists called for a faith that experienced a real relationship with God. It set high standards of piety for both clergy and laity. Pietism crossed all lines in terms of those who embraced it; from those who stayed in the State Church and followed the old rituals, to separatists who rejected such trappings.Pietism jumped its Lutheran hothouse to influence other groups. When it entered the Presbyterian realm in Britain, it took on a concern for Protestant orthodoxy, as well as an openness to revivalism, a tradition that went all the way back to the 1620s. Puritans added an emphasis on the need for personal experience of conversion to be a part of the church, as well as a dedication of individuals to the study of Scripture.With this involvement of Lutherans, Pietists, Presbyterians and Puritans, we’d assume High-Church Anglicans would have stayed far away. But the movement’s appeal attracted even some of them. They brought to the burgeoning movement of Evangelicalism several traits that would mark the movement. One was a concern for recapturing the essence of “primitive Christianity,” manifest mainly in imitating the ascetic practices of early Christians, as well as a more frequent celebration of Communion than either he Presbyterian or Puritans followed. Anglicans also encouraged the forming of voluntary religious societies and groups.It was in the 1730s when Evangelicalism emerged as a distinct movement. It was a product of revivals in Old & New England. While the Church had witnessed revivals before, those of the 18th C seemed more fervent and far reaching. It began with the First Great Awakening in the 1730s in New England. Then it hopped the Pond and broke out in England & Wales. This was the time of the careers of such famous revivalist as George Whitefield and the Wesleys. Pietism entered the Evangelical stream through several ports, but primarily through John Wesley, who was deeply impacted by the example of the Moravians.Established Christians and New Converts alike were emboldened with confidence and enthusiasm to share the Gospel, leading to the conversion of thousands more and the planting of hundreds of new churches.If we’re looking for the real dynamism that infused Evangelicalism and made it such a pervasive trait of Protestantism during the 18th & 19th Cs, we could say it was the convicti
