Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 6

A cartoon view of Evangelicals

I previously focused on the history of the word "evangelical."  I now want to start focusing on some simple (or at least a simple level of) commonly held features and characteristics of Evangelicals (I will later go into more depth). 

To begin with, Evangelicals hold to a deep commitment to spreading the gospel - the good news - that Jesus Christ died to save you from the penalty of your sins - and that you can have eternal life if you believe in Him and his works.  The work of spreading this message belongs to all disciples of Christ - whether clergy or laity.

Next (and closely related to the first point), Evangelicals tend to stress the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the central means of salvation for all mankind.

Third, Evangelicals tend to emphasize both a personal need for inner conversion - as well as an outward expression (works) of saving faith.

Fourth - Evangelicals tend to emphasize both a strong theological, as well as a devotional, emphasis on the Bible.

I will expand on this in a future post.  For now - this is a summary (not an exposition).

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Quadrophenia (The Movie)

I recently finally got around to watching the 2nd film based on a Who album, Quadrophenia, made in 1979 (as well as listening to the more recent comments on the DVD).  The film, directed by BBC documentarian, Franc Roddam, in his first film feature, is only loosely based on the Who's second rock double album made back in 1973.

The album's title was a loose variation of the medical diagnosis of Schizophrenia, which usually identifies a dual dissociative identity disorder - the title (Quadrophenia) loosely referring to a foursome dissociative identity disorder (Jimmy's four personalities) - while also a loose reference to quadraphonic (4 channel) sound - a recent invention (which never quite caught on) back then.

In 2009, Pete Townsend revealed that each personality reflected a member of the Who band as follows:

• Roger Daltry - a tough guy - a helpless dancer (in the song, "Helpless Dancer")
• John Erstwhile - a romantic - is it me for a moment? (in the song, "Is it me?")
• Keith Moon - a bloody lunatic, I'll even carry your bags.  (in the song, "Bell Boy")
• Pete Townsend - a beggar, a hypocrite, love reign o'er m (in the song, "Love, Reign Over Me.")

In the movie (as in the album) the focus is on the character of Jimmy

(Cooper), a mod - played by Phil Daniels.  Though the mods (loosely based on "modernist") started in the 50s, they gained prominence in the 60s.  They rode modified Italian motor scooters (Vespas - often decorated with many lights and mirrors), wore Italian suits, tended to indulge in amphetamines(speed), had to be at the right clubs, and dance the right moves. They were the antithesis of the rockers - whom they considered their arch-enemies - since they drove motorcycles,  wore leather, and tended not to dance at all.  Part of the theme of the movie is the deep mutual antagonism between the mods and the rockers.

Jimmy has a close childhood friend, Kevin, whom he unexpectedly discovers is a rocker.  Kevin (played by Ray Winstone) tells him it's all right because we are all people anyway - basically the same.  Jimmy explains he doesn't want to be like everyone else, and that is why he is a mod - he wants to be different - this is his identity.  Later, after the rockers beat up a mod, the mods set out on revenge - hunt down a rocker and beat him bloody.  To Jimmy's horror, he finds out it is his good friend Kevin.

Jimmy goes with his mod friends to Brighton - where many mods gather for the weekend - parading through town shouting - "We are the mods!"  Jimmy is delighted. When they encounter rockers, a rumble ensues, shop windows are broken, and riot police rush in.  In the midst of the mayhem, Jimmy sneaks off with the girl he has wanted for some time, Steph (played by Leslie Ash - seen above on a scooter with Jimmy just behind him), and they make love.  Jimmy is on top of the world.  As they return and simply walk down the streets, Jimmy is arrested.

Jimmy appears in a courtroom filled with other mods - the judge irate at them for trashing the town.  Jimmy mocks the court in tandem with Ace Face (played by Sting) - the top and coolest of the mods.  Jimmy is in his element as he now sees himself closely aligned with Ace Face - making him just as cool.

When Jimmy returns home from the weekend, his mother is angry with him since she heard the news of the mayhem in Brighton on top of finding Jimmy's stash of speed.  She throws him out of the house.  His boss is angry he took extra time off, and Jimmy reacts angrily and quits.  He finds out that Steph has moved on to a new boyfriend - his close friend Dave.  Jimmy gets angry at Steph, at Dave, and with all his mod friends - they return his anger by rejecting him.  As he drives down the street, he nearly gets killed by a truck which winds up destroying his scooter.  Almost everything Jimmy has built his identification upon seems to been taken away.

Jimmy decides to take the train and return to Brighton, hoping to find his identity there again - where he had

been on top of the world.  As he walks down the street - much to his horror and dismay - he discovers his hero, Ace Face, works as a lowly bell hop at a swank hotel there. Jimmy - now completely disillusioned and enraged - steals Ace Faces' scooter, and goes for a ride hoping to clear his mind.  However, as he drives by the cliff, he contemplates going off them on the scooter and ending what he now views as his miserable life.  By listening to the film commentary on the DVD, you discover the original script called for Jimmy to end his life this way.

However, the director finally decided this ending was too bleak - and so Jimmy only drives AceFaces' scooter off the cliff, smashing it to pieces, jumping off at the last minute.  But this is difficult to tell when you watch the ending.  Others, who watched the film, have told me it was ambiguous (and it was meant to be left that way).  The way you know Jimmy lived and walked away from the cliff is at the beginning of the movie - which opens with Jimmy walking away from the cliffs - and then the rest of the film is a flashback of how he got there.

What is left ambiguous is what happens to Jimmy, how he resolves his identity crises, or how he puts life back together if at all - and this appears to be deliberative.  The film seems to ask us to examine our identities as well what our lives are about.  This aspect of the film is what made it interesting to me, and fits in with many items I have posted in this blog.

Another interesting aspect of the film is the mod revival it inspired.  The mod movement had largely died out before the film was made.  Though a small revival had already started, the film greatly expanded that revival.  There are now many thriving mod subcultures around the world, and apparently many consider this film as a sort of Bible for them.

Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 5

During the late 19th Century, as modern science, which Christianity had developed, moved from understanding the world God created to rejecting the supernatural (and miracles), liberal theology followed with at first a general embarrassment, and then a later rejection of the supernatural (miraculous) aspects of the Gospels.  They undertook an effort to find the "historical Jesus," a Jesus who taught morals, but divorced from any supernatural stories.  Eventually they found they could not completely separate the moral teachings of Jesus contained in the gospels from the supernatural.

But then, around the start of the 20th Century, as existential philosophy took hold, an existential theology

Father of Existentialism

(neo-orthodox) followed.  In existential philosophy, though life is acknowledged to have no objective meaning, man can find meaning in a subjective, existential experience in which he finds authentication (becomes an authentic human being).  In the theology which followed, it didn't matter whether God actually existed, or whether the gospel accounts were historically true.  What mattered was whether the gospel stories (historically true or not) brought about a personal, subjective, existential experience in which you became an authentic human being (through religious language - regardless of whether that language said anything of real truth or real history).

Many Christians reacted against both types of liberal theology.  Since they emphasized "the fundamentals of the faith," those who favored liberal theology labelled them "the fundamentalists" as a term of derision.  As with many movements, some took up this term as a badge of honor, and called themselves "Fundamentalists."  However, many who took up this description rejected intellectual pursuits (believing it only led to false beliefs), focused on separation from the world (believing it only led to compromise or sin), and tended to focus on a set of rules (not found in the Bible) in order to try to guarantee a separation from the world.  In addition, they tended to reject any tradition in the church (believing church traditions had led the church astray), as well as tended to suspect an emphasis on the social aspect of Christianity, often calling it the "social gospel."

Billy Graham

While many Christians who did not feel comfortable with liberal theology (the old type or neo-orthodoxy), they also did not feel comfortable with what was increasingly called Fundamentalism.  They believed in intellectual pursuits, believed in engagement with the world, rejected rules not found in the Bible, and found a richness in the traditions of the church while seeking to spread the gospel in new ways, and emphasizing the significance of the social aspects of the gospel.  As they searched for a term to describe themselves, they settled on the term "evangelical" which had a rich history and tradition in Christianity, especially because it tended to cut across church and denominational lines.  Billy Graham became probably the most famous Evangelical, though many others led the movement including Harold Okenga, who helped found Fuller Theological Seminary as well as the National Association of Evangelicals.  They formed a flagship magazine, Christianity Today, with a noted theologian, Carl F.H. Henry, as its first editor.  The movement grew and cut across denominational lines as well as non-denominational lines, including Catholicism (more about this in a later part).

In a future part, I will try to outline commonly held features and characteristics of Evangelicals.

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Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 4

George Whitefield
First Great Awakening

I previously discussed how the term "evangelical" was used during the Reformation (especially by Lutherans).

In this post, I want to explore how it ('evangelical") was used during the Great Awakenings - those revivals (sometimes called renewals) during the early 18th Century (1700s) and 19th Century (1800s) which occurred in America, though they were connected with revivals (or renewals) throughout the world.

During those awakenings/revivals/renewals, Christians from many different traditions/churches/denominations/doctrinal positions found themselves working together, or undergoing a deep personal transformation together, in a manner which cut across many of the divisional/denominational/church lines they had previously known .  They experienced a unity in proclaiming

Evangelistic Camp Meeting
Second Great Awakening

the gospel, or in experiencing it, which they previously had not known or experienced.  They hunted around for a term to express this.  While they were all Christians, they wanted a term which expressed what they were experiencing through personal salvation or by working together to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

They wound up settling on the term "evangelical" as a unifying description.  During the Second Great Awakening, camp meetings held on the frontier were often called "Evangelistic."  This was a time of tremendous growth for the Baptists and the Methodists, who tended to move out into the frontier and engage in what were called evangelical activities.

However, evangelicals not only called for a genuine conversion experience - they also called for social reform.  Many of the social reform movements of that time trace their roots and dynamism to the evangelical efforts of the Great Awakenings.

Sadly, at college, this part of American history was either ignored, or lightly touched upon.  I had to study on my own to learn more about it.

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Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 3

Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach - 1629

As I mentioned in the prior parts, evangelicals trace their history, in a general sense, to the Apostles, who proclaimed the good news, and throughout Church history with those who proclaimed and lived the good news.

However, the word "evangelical" took on a special meaning during the Reformation, and especially with Lutherans.  Martin Luther did not want to start a new church, he wanted to reform the Church.  Those who followed him were derogatorily called "Lutherans."  As with many movements, a name given in derision became a badge of honor for its followers.  Martin Luther himself was horrified.  In "Admonition Against Insurrection," (1522) Luther asked that his name be left silent - that people call themselves Christians rather than Lutherans.  "How should I, a poor stinking bag of bones, become so that the children of Christ are named with my unholy name?"

Eventually Luther came to prefer to use the name "evangelical" to describe not just his followers, but the entire reform movement.  Later, Lutherans used that name (evangelical) to distinguish themselves from other groups in the reform movement (even though other reformers identified themselves with the word evangelical - as did Catholics, though it seems Catholics did less so as the Reformation progressed - though to this day some Catholics identify themselves as Evangelical Catholics).

To this day, many Lutheran churches bear the name Evangelical in their name.  So, for example, a Lutheran church in Falls Church, Virginia is called Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The largest Lutheran denomination in America is called Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In the next part, I will follow the development of the term "evangelical" during the Great Revivals.

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Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 2

At the root of the word "evangelical," is good news, glad tidings, or a good message.

The New Testament Greek word, εὐαγγέλιον, (transliterated euangelion (eu- "good", -angelion "message.") In English, we get the word gospel from this, since the Old English word, gōd-spell, means the same thing.

Four Evangelist - Irish Book of Krells

This is why Christians refer to the four authors of the gospels as the Four Evangelists.  At a very basic, simple level, an evangelical is one who proclaims and lives by the good news - the gospel of Jesus Christ.  At this simple and basic level, Evangelicals claim an ongoing tradition back to Jesus Christ, the Four Evangelists, and the Apostles.

Yet, if this was all Evangelical meant, then all Christians would be Evangelicals, so I further explore what the word Evangelicals has meant over time.  However, I wish for now to emphasize that in this sense Evangelicals wish to identify, or stand, with all Christians over time.

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Who (or What) is an Evangelical? - Part 1

I was at a small group meeting of Christian men.  I read an excerpt from a statement by Evangelicals and Catholics Together.  We were discussing it when someone (Grant Steer) asked me, what is an Evangelical?  I did my best to give an on the spot answer.  However, I wanted to deal with that question more fully in this blog.  This part will speak to some of the difficulties about such an answer.

Evangelicals often get discussed without clarifying who or what they are.  This can get confusing at times since many

counterpoise Evangelicals and Catholics, and yet there are Evangelical Catholics.  Meanwhile, many equate Evangelicals with Protestants, and yet there are many Protestants who are not Evangelicals.  Yet, at the same time, Evangelicals can be found in all Protestant denominations and many non-denominational associations and independent churches.  Evangelicals can also be found in Eastern Orthodoxy, and other branches of Christianity.

To compound the problem, there is no unifying definition of Evangelicals, and no uniform statement of beliefs or even agreed upon collection of features or characteristics, though there are common features and characteristics.  There is no agreed upon leader or office of leadership, though various organizations represent member Evangelicals.

In addition, there is no agreed time period for the Evangelical movement, nor even an agreed upon time when it began, though there is a definite history of the Evangelical movement that can be studied.

With this in mind, I will try my best to explain in the next few parts - who (or what) is an Evangelical?

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Pope Francis

Pope Francis

The new Pope Francis (Cardinal Bergoglio) has made many important symbolic gestures in his first days which shows his humility.  He began by asking for prayers.  Recently, instead of washing the feet of 12 priests on Holy (Maundy) Thursday, he went to a juvenile detention center and washed the feet of inmates there, some of them not Catholics, some of them Muslims, but even more of a break with tradition, two of them were women.  That may not seem much, but Catholic custom has held that since Jesus washed the feet of his 12 disciples at the Last Supper, and since they were all men, the Pope should only wash the feet of men on Holy Thursday.  By this simple break with that custom, Pope Francis indicated not only that he wanted maintain a certain amount of freedom in his actions, but that he sincerely understood that the main thrust of this act by Jesus was to say he was a servant, which Pope Francis wants to identify with.

Pope Francis addresses the Curia in Clementine Hall (Vatican)

However, on a more important note, Pope Francis has broken with another important Vatican custom.  When a new pope is elected, all the Vatican department heads (who run the Curia), technically lose their jobs (much as the department heads in the United States lose their jobs when a new President is elected).  (The Curia is the Vatican bureaucracy.)  By custom, the new Pope simply reconfirms all the department heads already in office.  In a break from this custom, Pope Francis did not reconfirm those department heads.  Instead, he asked them to continue in their jobs "until other provisions are made."  He said he needed time to reflect, to pray, and to consult with others.  Many Vatican observers think this indicates Pope Francis will engage in a shake-up of the Curia, which many say is sorely needed.  We will see.  However, if Pope Francis simply wanted to keep thing the way they were, he would have simply reconfirmed all the Vatican (Curia) department heads as his predecessors had done.

Some articles about this major development, which most of the major media outlets seemed to miss.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/francis-drops-first-hint-reform-may-be-real
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2012/12/21/full-text-of-popes-address-to-the-curia/

Raising Of The Cross - Rembrandt

The Raising of the Cross - Rembrandt - 1633

In 1633, Rembrandt (Harmenszoon van Rijn) completed painting "The Raising of the Cross."  (Displayed at left.) Though other painters had depicted this scene, this was the first where the artist portrayed himself in the scene - you can see him in the center of the scene with the beret cap.

While some art critics commented that Remrandt inserted himself at a vain effort to display piety, or simply to vaingloriously insert himself in a major work of art, I (and other art scholars) tend to believe that Rembrandt, a devoted Christian, though an imperfect man, meant to show that he understood that his sins drove Christ to the Cross - and meant to show this understanding to the world.

I find this painting inspiring - especially during Lent.  Often we find ourselves in the middle of a debate - did the Jews crucify Jesus - or did the Romans (through Pontius Pilate).  The truth as conveyed in the New Testament is our sins drove Jesus to the Cross, as the New Testament affirms in several passages- or perhaps more accurately - Jesus Christ submitted himself to the Cross in order to take our place for the punishment we deserved for the sins we committed, in the supreme ultimate act of love.  This is the heart of the gospel (good news) message.

What Is Lent (Anyway)? - Part 5

Lent is not a time to do something you would not do at other times of the year.  Instead, it is a time to focus on certain activities with renewed vigor in commemoration (remembrance) of the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert.

In Church tradition, Christians take up three practices during Lent - and they all relate to justice.  The first practice is prayer, which relates to justice towards God.  The second practice is fasting, which relates to justice to one's self.  The third practice is almsgiving (giving to those in need), which relates to justice to our neighbors.

The fasting does not necessarily have to be food.  It could be anything at all that tends to distract us from our focus on God and spiritual matters.  For those who choose a food fast, it could be a fast from certain kinds of foods or beverages.  It could be a fast from in between meal snacks, or from a meal each day.  Some fast from sunrise to sunset.  For those who give up something, they sometimes give the money they would have otherwise spent to the needy.

The point here is there is a whole range of options and freedom of what to do during Lent.  However, if you give up something, it should be something that helps you to focus on God and spiritual matters, not something  that turns your focus on what you have given up.

Another way to think about Lent is identifying with the suffering of Christ, which Philippians 3 encourages us to do.  As you remember that Christ gave up eating for 40 days for our sake, you can ask yourself what am I willing to give up for 40 days to identify with that and to help me remember what He did.  It can help you better understand this episode in the life of Christ.

Lent is a rich tradition to draw from in the Church - and I hope and pray you can grow in Christ and be renewed during it.

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