Anglican Evangelicalism (original) (raw)
Related papers
‘“True churchmen”? Anglican Evangelicals and history, c. 1770-1850’, Theology (Sep-Oct 2012), 339-49
In the first half of the nineteenth century the relationship between the Church of England and the state shifted dramatically. This influenced, and was in turn influenced by, heated debates about Anglican history in general and about the Reformation in particular. Some of the bitterest debates revolved around differing understandings of the Church's foundational literature -the Articles, Homilies and Prayerbook -and what they stood for. These debates drove scholarly understanding of the Reformation, but they also sharpened developing party boundaries. This article examines how these supposedly unchanging texts were reinterpreted as first Evangelicals and 'Orthodox' churchmen then Tractarians too sought to demonstrate that they, and not their adversaries, were the 'true churchmen'.
Evangelical Anglican Way: Timeline 1375-2019
Historically speaking, the evangelical Anglican way is a movement the character of which can be discerned by following clues lying in the history of Christians, in this case mainly English ones, over a period of more than six hundred years. There were four movements that contributed to the evangelical Anglican way over the period: Protestant, Puritan, Pietist, and Pentecostal. Each one left its mark at the time although none succeeded in including all ‘evangelicals’, or indeed in excluding unwanted others. Consequently the outcome was never the desired unity of faith or practice to which they aspired, for evangelical Anglicans have never wanted to be regarded as ‘tribal’ even if that is how many observers have described them. Unlike evangelical-ism, the evangelical Anglican way from its grassroots beginnings in the fourteenth century to its fresh expressions in the new millennium was and is a path-finding ‘movement’. This timeline therefore outlines only the bones of a fuller story in which despite grave weaknesses, failures and sinfulness, there have been markers - defenders, explorers and writers for example - to signal the way for travelling evangelical Anglicans in the assurance that they are not unaccompanied, but have the faith of their fathers to encourage them.
Evangelical Anglican Way: Post- and Pre-millennial 1790-1828
At a time of apparent strength, evangelicals began to separate into parties of like-minded fellow travellers. At first, leading evangelical Anglicans used their considerable wealth and influence both to advance the kingdom of God by propagating the Christian gospel throughout the British Empire and to ameliorate the depredations of nineteenth century metropolitan life in the homeland. They were optimistic post-millennialists. However, in the aftermath of the French revolution, the Napoleonic wars and social unrest some Anglican evangelicals embraced a deeply fatalistic view of the current state of the nation and its spiritual health, coupled with a sombre fear for the future. They found Biblical hope in an expectation of the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ before the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven. They were pessimistic pre-millennialists. A rift therefore became apparent between different sorts of evangelical that still has repercussions today.
Finding the Evangelical Anglican Way 1375 to the present day: Introduction and Conclusion
The papers in this collection trace a movement the character of which can be seen by following clues lying in the history of British Christianity over a period of more than six hundred years. It is not about two 'isms', evangelicalism and Anglicanism, labels often attached to particular positions and parties. Nor is it about the discovery of a clear path by which one may demarcate precisely who is on a particular road. Owing much to the contribution of past Protestants, Puritans, Pietists and Pentecostalists, radical evangelical Anglicans have found the message of regeneration and spiritual transformation revealed clearly in the bestowed Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. These strike a prophetic note that is both realistic and optimistic in anticipating God’s future. Evangelical Anglicans believe the good news to be revealed in Jesus Christ, the expression of crucified God in person. They have been sustained in this by a liberating, reasonable, experiential and experimental faith. Ready to ‘try God out’ in the practical realities of daily human life, and in spite of their acknowledged and ongoing sinfulness, they always expect Christian discipleship to be expressive both in word and deed, and certainly never exclusively for their own benefit.
Evangelical Anglican Way: Reacting, Reviving and Reforming 1828-1900
The privatization of evangelical religion was an unwelcome development commonly associated with the nineteenth century. By the middle of it, evangelical Anglicans had lost the visionary vitality of earlier years but none of their hostility to Roman Catholic faith and practices. Increasingly adopting a pre-millennial expectation of Christ’s return, some became profoundly pessimistic about the world and were seduced into a withdrawal from the kind of engagement in public life that had marked the previous generation. Visitors from America offered hope of revival, and a deeper life of faith. Although some leaders abandoned their evangelical roots, Lord Shaftesbury and Josephine Butler did not. They were two exceptional examples of those who resisted the temptation to opt out of their Christian responsibility within the nation at large. In fine, the evangelical priority in the last half of the nineteenth century was to preach the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ which would lead to the conversion of persons and their spiritual improvement individually and collectively in anticipation of the expected return of their Lord.
This paper explores the first signs of “Evangelicalism” at Oxford University and documents the reaction to it from the University’s leaders. The paper traces the development of three evangelical strands; Wesleyan Methodism, Calvinistic Methodism and Parochial Anglican Evangelicalism. Using material from the many published histories and biographies, archive sources and contemporary newspapers and pamphlets, this paper examines a number of key writings and incidents in the early history of Evangelicalism at Oxford, including the celebrated case of the expulsion of six students from the University for “Methodism” in 1768, in order to provide a clearer picture of the extent, and causes, of Oxford University’s hostility to Evangelical ideas and practices in the 18th Century. This paper examines three principal research questions: (1) What evidence is available from Oxford on the question of how distinctive Methodism and Evangelicalism were? (2) What did the leaders of Oxford University find so objectionable in Methodism and Evangelicalism? and (3) What was the dominant theology of Oxford University during this period of hostility towards the Evangelical faith?