Evangelical Experiences (Studies In Evangelical History & Thought Series)

This book uses considerable primary material to examine movements of spirituality found within evangelical Protestantism between the First and Second World Wars. It analyses the way in which different patterns of devotion led to tensions and divisions between those holding a common commitment to the Bible, the cross of Christ, conversion and active Christian service. The chapters provide contrast between conservative views of spiritual experience, orientated to the past, and progressive forces, which were forward looking. It looks at evangelical Anglicanism, Wesleyan holiness streams of spirituality, those looking principally to the Reformed tradition, and Pentecostal-charismatic types of spirituality. Bifurcation bred evangelical weakness at a time when Anglo-Catholicism was growing strongly in its influence on English Christianity. This book seeks to illuminate this process and to provide a fresh interpretation of the period. It offers new insights, not only into a time of evangelical divergence, but also into the later twentieth-century story of the resurgence of evangelicalism .

Publisher Description

This study examines some key approaches to ecumenical social ethics in the past century as expressed in the thought of Walter Rauschenbusch Reinhold Niebhur and the World Council of Churches.The author argues that unless Christians are clear about the ways that theology and philosophy relate to one another and work themselves out in our practical commitments we will lose the ability to discuss social ethics as individuals and churches let alone reach effective arguments.