Sunday, July 11, 2004 AD
Evangelicals, or "broad church pietists"?
An excellent book for understanding what has happened to large sections of UK evangelicalism (particularly Anglican evangelicalism) in the past 50 years is Iain Murray's "Evangelicalism Divided", in which he argues that Anglican evangelicals' attempt to enter the mainstream of the Church of England has led to a downgrading of evangelical teachings - a process which has now culminated in the formation this weekend of a group called "Accepting Evangelicals" (no prizes for guessing what they are "accepting").
As one member of an independent evangelical church put it shortly after we'd left our Anglican "evangelical" church about three years ago, "Thirty years ago, when an Anglican said they were an evangelical, you knew what they meant. Now, you can't be sure." Though as long ago as the 1950s, JI Packer was able to suggest that many "evangelicals" would be better described as "broad church pietists" (in other words, largely indifferent to doctrinal issues, but committed to personal piety, conversion experiences and the like).
At one point, Iain Murray quotes the Anglican minister Michael Saward (best known as the writer of the hymn Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning) who commented on the evangelical scene in the 1980s as follows:
As one member of an independent evangelical church put it shortly after we'd left our Anglican "evangelical" church about three years ago, "Thirty years ago, when an Anglican said they were an evangelical, you knew what they meant. Now, you can't be sure." Though as long ago as the 1950s, JI Packer was able to suggest that many "evangelicals" would be better described as "broad church pietists" (in other words, largely indifferent to doctrinal issues, but committed to personal piety, conversion experiences and the like).
At one point, Iain Murray quotes the Anglican minister Michael Saward (best known as the writer of the hymn Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning) who commented on the evangelical scene in the 1980s as follows:
This is the disturbing legacy of the 1960s and 1970s. A generation brought up on guitars, choruses, and home group discussions. Educated, as one of them put it to me, not to use words with precision because the image is dominant, not the word. Equipped not to handle doctrine but rather to "share". A compassionate, caring generation, suspicious of definition and labels, uneasy at, and sometimes incapable of, being asked to wrestle with sustained didactic exposition of theology. Excellent when it comes to providing religious music, drama and art. Not so good when asked to preach and teach the Faith. (Michael Saward, Evangelicals on the Move, p.92, cited in Evangelicals Divided, p.254)With some notable and important exceptions - such as the work of Proclamation Trust in promoting biblical preaching - from my own experience and observations, I'd have to say that the position has only got worse in the 15/20 years since Saward wrote this.
