The Age Of Ideologies: American Evangelicalism

American Evangelicalism Essay
Melissa Balthrop
Grand Canyon University: HTH-379
11-16-14

American Evangelicalism Essay The Age of Ideologies is a big part of the church history spanning from the year 1914-1989. Some of the most common ideologies that were viewed during this time were Nazism, Marxism, and Capitalism. In this essay one should be able to see how these ideologies effected the evangelical and ecumenical movements. To begin one must first understand the different ideologies of the 20th century. One of the most commonly known is Nazism. Nazism is a form of fascism which is a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce,
etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism (dictionary.com). This is where we find the Nazi party. Hitler was the leader of this Fascist movement. Because of Hitler’s racism millions of Jews innocents were tortured and killed during his reign. This movement striped the Jewish people of all of their rights as citizens of German forcing them to become less than second class.
Then we have Marxism or Communism.
Communism is a type of socialism and socialism is based around the idea of the states being owner of their means of production. Communism is based upon the ideology of Marxism. Marxism criticized Christianity by claiming that it was untrue because it took the side of the wealthy oppressors (Shelley 2008). The movement that we know as communism today was started by Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov know as Lenin. Lenin believed that violence was Marxism’s ultimate weapon (Shelley 2008). The theory that came from these two men’s ideas coming together was the Marxist-Leninist theory which claimed “Christianity is an illusory reflection of the world resulting from class divisions” (Shelley 2008). Communism was about not letting society become classless because Lenin believed that religion would take away the power of government and to him that could not
happen. Finally we have Capitalism which is an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth (dictionary.com). We see this movement happening with Hitler who wanted to control all the means of every countries assets. Some may not know but Hitler was collecting all of the world’s art for his own collection (Edsel, Witter 2009). Capitalism was a huge movement that ultimate could have won the war if Hitler would have achieved his goals. Because of these movements the American Evangelicals started a movement as well.
Jimmy Carter’s faith because a big issue during his presidential campaign. Carter was revitalizing the Old-time religion of evangelical Christianity (Shelley 2008). This movement began the Pentecostal denomination. Even though the evangelical movement was in the media’s eyes it had little impact on the government. A man by the name of George M. Marsden compares Evangelicals in America to rootless immigrants in a new land (Shelley 2008). Marsden makes this comparison because the Evangelicals did not change with the times like the rest of America was changing. From this dormancy we see the rise of fundamentalism. This rose from the ideas of a man named Lyman Stewart. From Stewarts ideas came The Fundamentalist Fellowship led by Curtis Lee Law. This group were trying to show how the modernist were taking away from the fundamentals of the gospel. Early fundamentalist believed in these three things: “a supernatural Jesus attested by his resurrection from the dead; a trustworthy Bible, the fountain of the Christian faith; and the need of men to have ‘a new face upon life’” (Shelley 2008). After WWII we see Billy Graham who has become one of the most widely known evangelical preachers in
America. Then there is the Ecumenical Movement. Ecumenical means universal this movement was meant to bring Christian denominations together so that it could be one unified religion. The first effort to move towards unity was Evangelical Alliance (Shelley 2009). The Alliance promoted liberty and cooperative activities among the denominations. Many other alliances or conferences that were formed to try and bring Christianity to a more united front. In the early 1940s two organizations were created The National Association of Evangelicals and the American Council of Christian Churches. In the 1970s a covenant was forged by the name of “Lausanne Covenant which confirmed ‘that the church’s visible unity in truth is God’s purpose’” (Shelley 2008). This covenant helped to close the ecumenical movement. The Age of Ideologies is a huge part of the history of the church. There are many people who are alive today that can remember these movements and how they changed the way churches work as a whole. Because of the Evangelical and Ecumenical movements Christianity has become a more unified religion even though there are so many different denominations as well as a more evangelical religion. I think that there is still a long road ahead for the Christian religion in terms of becoming more ecumenical but we are on a good road. What we as Christians need to remember is that our base theology is the same. We are all to spread the Word of God to those who do not yet know it and be willing to step out of our comfort zone to get those people the Word. I think we should also remember that it doesn’t matter what denomination someone decides to choose that they are all ultimately bringing people closer to God. For me that is all I can hope for is that the youth I interact with find God and find a church that suits their needs so that they can continue to grow in their walk with God.
References
Shelley, B. (2008). In Church History In Plain Language (4th ed.,). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. capitalism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capitalism fascism. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fascism
Edsel, R., & Witter, B. (2009). The monuments men: Allied heroes, Nazi thieves, and the greatest treasure hunt in history. New York: Center Street.