A Girardian Study of Popular English Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010
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Durham E-Theses The Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Girardian Study of Popular English Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010 VASEY-SAUNDERS, MARK,RICHARD How to cite: VASEY-SAUNDERS, MARK,RICHARD (2012) The Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Girardian Study of Popular English Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010 , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/7009/ Use policy This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract The Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Girardian Study of Popular English Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010 Mark Vasey-Saunders English evangelicals in the period 1960-2010 have been marked by their negativity and violence towards gays. However, they have also consistently condemned homophobia during this period (and often seemed unaware of their own complicity in it). This thesis draws on the work of René Girard to analyse popular English evangelical writings and the ways in which they have implicitly encouraged violence against gays even whilst explicitly condemning it. This analysis of evangelical writings on homosexuality is placed in its historical context by drawing on the work of relevant historians and social scientists. It is further contextualised by reference to an analysis of evangelical writings on holiness during the same period. The thesis argues that English evangelical violence towards gays is a byproduct of internal conflicts within English evangelicalism. Gays are seen as prototypical liberals and treated as scapegoats for an evangelical identity crisis. Homophobia and fundamentalism are discussed and reJected as alternative explanations. It is argued that the crisis in English evangelicalism in the period 1960-2010 has had a distorting effect not only on approaches to homosexuality, but also to other areas of English evangelical spirituality. Finally, evangelical atonement theology is examined, and found to contain both elements that legitimise sacred violence and resources to help evangelicals resist it. 2 The Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality: A Girardian Study of Popular English Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010 Mark Richard Vasey-Saunders Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy following research within the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University 2012 3 Table of Contents Introduction 9 The Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality 9 Finding a Methodology 12 A Girardian Study of the Problem of English Evangelicals and Homosexuality 16 Chapter 1- René Girard’s Mimetic theory - A Tool for Exploration 19 1.1 Introduction 19 1.2 The Jeffrey John Affair 23 1.3 A Girardian Analysis of the Jeffrey John Affair 27 1.3.1 Mimesis and Desire 27 1.3.2 Scandal, the Monstrous Double and the Crisis of Undifferentiation 30 1.3.3 The Scapegoat 36 1.3.4 The Founding Murder 43 1.3.5 Revelation in Human History, Apocalypse, and the Need for Conversion 46 1.4 The Jeffrey John Affair – a Girardian Reading 50 1.5 Criticism of Girard 53 1.6 Conclusion 55 Chapter 2 - The Crisis of Undifferentiation – English Evangelicalism in Late Modernity 57 2.1 Introduction 57 2.2 Defining Evangelicalism 60 2.2.1 The Polemical Use of Definitions of Evangelicalism 61 2.2.2 Bebbington’s Quadrilateral 62 2.2.3 Bases of Faith and Other Doctrinal Definitions 66 2.2.4 Tribal Evangelicalism and Other Cartographical Definitions 70 2.2.5 Definitions of English Evangelicalism: Conclusions 74 2.3 Modernity 76 2.3.1 Modernity and Secularisation 77 2.3.2 Modernity and Evangelicalism 82 2.3.3 Girard and Modernity 89 2.3.4 Modernity – Conclusions 95 2.4 English Evangelicalism in Late Modernity 96 2.4.1 Pre-history – The Ancestral Battle Against Liberalism 96 2.4.2 Post-War Growth 98 2.4.3 Keele – The Conservative Evangelical Hegemony Broadens and Fragments 99 2.4.4 The Charismatics – Modernist Evangelicalism 103 2.4.5 The Emergence of Exclusivists and Progressives in the Wake of Entrepreneurial Decline 105 2.4.6 Progressives and Exclusivists in Conflict over Homosexuality 108 4 2.5 Conclusion 114 Chapter 3 - The History of the Evangelical Consensus Position on Homosexuality - A Study of Popular English Evangelical Texts 1960-2010 116 3.1 Introduction 116 3.1.1 Some Methodological and Theoretical Concerns 120 3.2 Evangelical Writings on Homosexuality 1960-2010 125 3.2.1 Before Wolfenden – Gays in the Early Twentieth Century 125 3.2.2 Derrick Sherwin Bailey 125 3.2.3 After Wolfendon – Evangelicals and Gays Challenged and Changed by Modernism 129 3.2.4 The Formation of a Position – Early Pastoral Perspectives 133 3.2.5 The Gloucester Report – The Threat of the Crisis of Undifferentiation 138 3.2.6 The Consensus Position Articulated 146 3.2.7 Issues in Human Sexuality and the Evangelical Consensus 153 3.2.8 The Consensus Position becomes Hardline 1 – Homosexuality as a Satanic Threat 158 3.2.9 The Consensus Position becomes Hardline 2 – Homosexuality as a Threat to Health and Society 160 3.2.10 The Popularisation of the Consensus Position 163 3.2.11 Strangers and Friends – the Evangelical Consensus Challenged 165 3.2.12 The Consensus Fracturing 172 3.3 Some Provisional Conclusions 181 Chapter 4 - Holiness in Late Modernity - An Examination of English Evangelical Traditions of Spirituality 186 4.1 Introduction 186 4.2 Evangelical Holiness Traditions 189 4.3 The Calvinist Tradition 190 4.3.1 Nineteenth Century Origins – J.C. Ryle’s Holiness 192 4.3.2 The Calvinist Tradition in Late Twentieth Century English Evangelicalism 194 4.3.3 The Broad Calvinist Tradition of Keele 196 4.3.4 The Bifurcation of the Calvinist Tradition – Progressive Evangelicals 204 4.3.5 The Bifurcation of the Calvinist Tradition – Exclusivist Evangelicals 211 4.3.6 Progressives and Exclusivists as Dialogue- Partners with Late Modernity 215 4.4 The Charismatic Tradition 219 4.4.1 The Charismatic Tradition in Late Twentieth Century English Evangelicalism 223 4.4.2 The Keele Influence 224 5 4.4.3 Spiritual Warfare and the Purity Ethic 226 4.4.4 Alpha – An unacknowledged Purity Ethic 230 4.4.5 Purity and Holiness 232 4.5 Conclusions 237 Chapter 5 - Homophobia and Fundamentalism as Insufficient Explanations 239 5.1 Introduction 239 5.2 Homophobia 241 5.2.1 The Accusation of Homophobia 241 5.2.2 Definitions of Homophobia 244 5.2.3 Homophobia in English Evangelicalism – Some Preliminary Observations 248 5.2.4 Evangelicals as Inheritors of a Homophobic Tradition 254 5.2.5 A Girardian Reading of Homophobia 259 5.2.6 Homophobia – Conclusions 263 5.3 Fundamentalism 264 5.3.1 The Accusation of Fundamentalism 264 5.3.2 Sociological Approaches – Fundamentalism and Modernity 269 5.3.3 Sociological Approaches – Bruce, Kepel and Percy 272 5.3.4 Sociological Understandings of Fundamentalism – Conclusions 277 5.3.5 Doctrinal Approaches to Fundamentalism 282 5.3.6 Fundamentalism or Foundationalism? 283 5.3.7 The Fundamentalist Mentality 290 5.3.8 Doctrinal Understandings of Fundamentalism – Conclusions 295 5.4 Alternative Explanations for Evangelical Approaches to Homosexuality 297 Chapter 6 - Unafraid Evangelicalism 300 6.1 Introduction 300 6.2 Girard and Penal Substitutionary Approaches to the Atonement 303 6.2.1 Girardian Critique of Penal Substitution 305 6.2.2 Girardian Appropriation of Penal Substitution 312 6.2.3 Girardian Approaches to Atonement Considered 318 6.3 The Crisis in Evangelical Approaches to Atonement 320 6.3.1 The Cross of Christ – Cautiously-Open Conservative Understandings of Atonement 322 6.3.2 Progressive Approaches - N.T. Wright and the New Perspective on Paul 325 6.3.3 Progressive Approaches – Feminists and Girardians 332 6.3.4 Exclusivist Evangelical Reassertion 336 6.3.5 Evangelical Approaches to Atonement Considered 342 6.4 Towards an Unafraid Evangelicalism 347 6 6.5 Conclusion 354 Conclusion 358 A Summary of the Argument 358 A Girardian Analysis 362 Finding a Way Forward 366 Bibliography 369 7 List of Abbreviations Girard’s Works I follow here the abbreviations adopted by Chris Fleming in his René Girard: Violence and Mimesis (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004), with additional abbreviations in the same style for works published since then. BE – Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoit Chantre CTWF – Christianity, Truth, and Weakening Faith: A Dialogue [with Gianni Vattimo] DD - Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary Structure EC – Evolution and Conversion: Dialogues on the Origins of Culture IS – I See Satan Fall Like Lightning J – Job, the Victim of his People RU – Resurrection from the Underground S – The Scapegoat TE – A Theatre of Envy TH – Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World VS – Violence and the Sacred Other CT - Church Times 8 Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author’s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Acknowledgements Any study like this is dependent on the help and support of many people, most of whom will not have been aware of the difference they made. In particular, the people too numerous to name, gay, evangelical, both or neither, who told me that I was ‘on to something’ have helped keep me on track. I must also especially acknowledge the support of my supervisor, Robert Song, whose advice and encouragement have ensured that an at-times very amorphous PhD stayed focused. Finally, those who have suffered the most from this whole process: my family, for whom ‘when Daddy’s finished his PhD’ had become an all-too familiar refrain.