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Introduction:
Evangelicalism
Derek Poole
Comment:
Ourselves Alone
Alwyn Thomson
From
the Director
David Porter
A
World of Difference
Alwyn Thomson
What
is an Evangelical Catholic?
Paddy Monaghan
Decommissioning
the Heart
David Bruce
Evangelical
Catholics
T. Gordon Hills
Sorting
out the Family
David Montgomery
Do
They Know Us by Our Love?
John Ortberg
Loyalist
Speak
Robert Dunlop
Book
Reviews
Alwyn Thomson
BOOK REVIEWS
Mine
Eyes Have Seen the Glory:
A Journey Through the Evangelical Subculture in America
Randall Balmer
Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993
Did you see the seventies Christian film A Thief in the Night? Could this be the ultimate criterion for 'true evangelicalism'? I saw it - I remember the flared jeans and bad haircuts - so I'm definitely in. The director of the film was Donald Thompson and - believe it or not - this film represented a quantum leap in the quality of Christian film-making.
Thompson is just one of a gallery of characters we meet during Balmer's journey through American evangelicalism.
Some are reasonably well known. John Perkins' evangelical convictions drove him to establish a host of ministries designed to help black Americans help themselves. "I had to combat the emotional, simplistic gospel that black folks had already accepted. It provided an emotional outlet for them, but little else," he says. (180)
Others represent the rank and file of American evangelicalism. Beverlie Tuttle, on the campaign trail for Pat Robertson, objects to a treaty with the then Soviet Union: "Signing a treaty with atheists is being unequally yoked," she asserts. (168) Herb Bateman, a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, advocates premillenialism but adds, "that's not to say that someone is any less a Christian because he believes that Christ will return during the tribulation rather than before." (45) Roger, attending a Camp Meeting recalls, " My mother never had a haircut in her life, never wore jewellery or cosmetics. I'm sure glad the Lord saved me from a life of sin." (242-243)
Still others are quite unlike anything most of us have ever encountered. There is the magnificently named Father Harald Eagle Bull, Native American rector of the Episcopal Church in Cannon Ball, South Dakota. Then there is Neal Frisby, "a small, stocky man, wearing a spearmint-green sportcoat and a loosely knotted tie, rush[ing] to the pulpit, waving a Bible..." (73)
Stan White, former Assemblies of God pastor takes his independent, charismatic church into the Episcopal church - "I envisage a church which is fully charismatic, fully evangelical, but also fully liturgical and sacramental." (118)
Douglas Frank, a man with a deep sense of the failings and weaknesses of contemporary evangelicalism, will not walk away - "it's part of who I am," he says. (273)
As for Balmer himself? He is a pilgrim, raised in the bosom of evangelicalism but no longer embracing or embraced by it. Yet he is a perceptive and loving pilgrim. His observations along the way are heartfelt and challenging. However, like Frank, evangelicalism is part of who he is. And in his dedication he expresses the wish that his son, Christian, "will find his place in the patchwork quilt of American evangelicalism." (v) Others among us will not walk away either - it is part of what we are.
So here it is - a journey into the sometimes weird and wacky, often wonderful and glorious, but always fascinating world of evangelicalism. The bad news is that this book is out of print. But if you want to get to the heart of evangelicalism and get away from often sterile debates, get down to your local library.
Alwyn Thomson is Research Officer with ECONI and is currently involved in the 'God, Land & Nation' project.
Amazing
Grace:
Evangelicalism in Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States
George Rawlyk, Mark Noll (eds)
Baker, Grand Rapids 1994
Evangelicalism:
Comparative Studies of Popular Protestantism in North America, the
British Isles, and Beyond 1700-1990
Mark Noll, David Bebbington, George Rawlyk (eds)
Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994
Evangelicalism is the theme of this issue of Lion & Lamb, but as noted in a number of places the issues facing evangelicalism in Northern Ireland today are facing evangelicalism world wide.
Wheaton College has established its Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals as a forum for tackling many of these issues. One of its roles has been to organise conferences bringing together some of the best known contributors to the debate on evangelicalism.
One such conference "Evangelicalism in Transatlantic Perspective" was held in 1992 and these two books contain many of the contributions to that conference.
In Amazing Grace the essays of particular interest include 'Noisy Methodists and Pious Protestants: Evangelical Revival and Religious Minorities in Eighteenth Century Ireland' by Professor David Hempton and David Bebbington's 'Evangelicalism in Modern Britain and America: A Comparison'.
In Evangelicalism an important essay, given the subject matter of this issue, is John Wolffe's contribution, 'Anti-Catholicism and Evangelical Identity in Britain and the United States, 1830-1860'. While identifying particular factors that influence evangelical anti-Catholicism during this period, Wolffe also argues that "anti-Catholicism has been an inescapable part of the historical landscape of evangelicalism." (193) Hempton crops up again, this time on 'Evangelicalism in English and Irish Society, 1780-1840', arguing that despite similarities of theology, structure and purpose "the relationship between evangelical religion and its surrounding culture was significantly different in the two countries." (171) Finally, David Wells' contribution 'On Being Evangelical: Some Theological Differences and Similarities' is an important analysis of the changing nature of post war evangelicalism. His closing sentence sums up the current dilemma for many: "What, then, is the essence of being evangelical today? Well, that all depends." (407)
These are the highlights - there are a further twenty-eight essays in these two collections - all of them worth reading. Perhaps we could go further and say that they should be compulsory reading for anyone who ventures into this field. The issues surrounding the debates about evangelicalism are too often historically and theologically superficial, too often highly emotional and fraught. In this environment, books like this are vital.
Alwyn Thomson
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