When did the current form of evangelicalism (I presume it’s been around in Protestantism from the beginning) become the movement it is presently?
Not really sure what you mean by the “current form” of evangelicalism.
Protestants have always called themselves evangelical, which refers to “gospel”. Lutherans were the first because of Luther’s “rediscovery of the gospel.” But Evangelicalism as we know it today has roots in the Anglosphere, particularly the exchange of ideas between Britain and America.
Basically what happened was that in the 18th century there was this grand fusion of Pietism, Presbyterianism, and Puritanism. Pietism emerged from Continental Europe (think German Lutheran lands) and was brought to America by immigrants. Pietism was a broad movement that could be found in the conservative established Lutheran state churches or in separatist groups or in radical prophetic movements. It was begun as a revival of piety in the Lutheran Church. The central characteristic was “the importance of experiential (or in the argot of the day, ‘experimental’) religion, a warmhearted piety that was more important than mere intellectual assent to prescribed dogmas. Indeed, Pietism in Europe very often arose as a protest against a cold orthodoxy, which bordered on scholasticism, a highly intellectualized or ratiocinated theology” (
Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, s.v. “Pietism”). From Presbyterianism, evangelicalism got doctrinal precisionism that can still be seen in Reformed Evangelicals. From New England Puritanism, evangelicals got “individualistic introspection” in the words of Randall Balmer. These all come together during the Great Awakening during the 1730s-1740s.
The Great Awakening was triggered by Anglican minister George Whitefield, whose meetings knited together a bunch of separate revivals going on throughout the 13 colonies. There was the revival in Johnathan Edward’s Massachusett’s congregation. You had the Dutch in New Jersey experiencing a pietistic awakening, and you had the sacramental seasons of the Scots-Irish Presbyterians in the Middle Colonies. Thomas S. Kidd in his book about the Great Awakening quotes from a Presbyterian minister describing a sacramental meeting in New Brunswick:
Frequently at Sacramental Seasons in New-Brunswick, there have been signal Displays of the divine Power and Presence: divers have been convinced of Sin by the Sermons then preached, some converted, and many much affected with the Love of God in Jesus Christ. O the sweet Meltings that I have often seen on such Occasions among many! New-Brunswick did then look like a Field the Lord had blessed: It was like a little Jerusalem, to which the scattered Tribes with eager haste repaired at Sacramental Solemnities; and there they Fed on the Fatness of God’s House, and drunk of the River of his Pleasures.
While there were ethnic and theological differences between these various streams, they all focused on the need for conversion followed by an effective piety. This is exemplified by John Wesley’s “Aldersgate Experience” in 1738 when he found his heart “strangely warmed.” Lesser important but characteristic nonetheless is a suspicion of worldliness, wealth, and ecclesiastical pretension.
The Second Great Awakening during the 1790s and 1830s gave rise to evangelical reform movements: the Temperance Crusade, the female seminary movement, penal reform, and abolitionism. Evangelicals during this time had much more optimistic eschatology: As the nation and the world was converted to Christianity, society could be transformed. They were building the Kingdom of God.
Also at this time, an important shift happened. In the First Great Awakening, Johnathan Edwards had taught that “revival” was a “surprising work of God,” but during the Second Great Awakening revivalists such as Charles Grandison Finney emphasized the human role in salvation. Revival was not just a sovereign work of God but could be precipitated by human efforts. Since this time, Evangelicalism has leaned toward Arminianism rather than Calvinism. This is reflected in what is often called “decision theology.” It is the idea that man can choose God, rather than complete predestination.
In the South, evangelicalism did become a civilizing influence, however it ditched much of the reforming zeal of northern Evangelicalism for obvious reasons. Southern Evangelicalism became identified with the established social order. At the same time, Evangelicalism was adopted by African slaves, and it continues to be the defining feature of African-American Protestantism in the US.
(Continued in next post)
