DOCSLIB.ORG

20 Changing American Evangelical Attitudes Towards

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
20 Changing American Evangelical Attitudes Towards Changing American Evangelical Attitudes towards Roman Catholics: 1960-2000 Don Sweeting Don Sweeting is Senior Pastor of Introduction summing up forty years of evangelicalism Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, in In 1960, Presidential campaign historian since 1945, Bayly said, “We inherited a Englewood, Colorado. He has also Theodore H. White observed that “the Berlin Wall between evangelical Chris- served as the founding pastor of the largest and most important division in tians and Roman Catholics; we bequeath Chain of Lakes Community Bible Church American society was that between Prot- a spirit of love and rapprochement on in Antioch, Illinois. Dr. Sweeting was estants and Catholics.”1 As a vital part of the basis of the Bible rather than fear and educated at Moody Bible Institute, American Protestant life, evangelicalism hatred.”7 Lawrence University, Oxford University reflected the strains of this conflict.2 Anti- By the mid 1990s, it was clear that atti- (M.A.), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity Catholicism, according to church historian tudes were changing. On a local level, School (Ph.D.) where he wrote his dis- George Marsden, “was simply an unques- evangelicals and Catholics were meeting sertation on the relationship between tioned part of the fundamentalist- to discuss issues from poverty and wel- evangelicals and Roman Catholics. evangelicalism of the day.”3 fare reform to abortion. On the national This posture of outright public hostil- level changes were also apparent. Evan- ity was evidenced in many ways. It could gelical publishing houses were printing be seen in the opposition of many evan- books by Catholic authors. Some evangeli- gelical leaders to the presidential candi- cal parachurch ministries began placing dacy of John F. Kennedy in 1960. It could Roman Catholics on their boards. Catho- be read in the missions textbooks used at lic masses were being conducted at an seminaries such as Fuller, which saw evangelical university. Evangelical schol- Catholicism, along with communism and ars held some key teaching posts at Notre modernism, as one of the three massive Dame University. For the first time a world forces threatening Christianity.4 It Roman Catholic was invited to give a could be heard in the founding documents seminar at InterVarsity’s Urbana Missions and speeches of the National Association conference. Moreover, key evangelical of Evangelicals.5 And it could be sensed leaders were having audiences with the in the opposition to appointing American pope. ambassadors to the Vatican. Yet nearly In 1994, these changes dramatically forty years later, due to various cultural, came to public attention with the publish- political and theological shifts, there has ing of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together been a significant change in the way many (ECT) statement—a document providing evangelicals perceive Roman Catholics.6 a rationale for evangelical and Catholic As early as 1985, Joseph Bayly, writing dialogue. Then in 1997, ECT was followed in Eternity magazine noticed that things up with another proclamation called The were changing. Writing on what the evan- Gift of Salvation (GOS), which announced gelical leaders of his generation were pass- that certain evangelicals and Catholics ing on to a new generation of leaders, and had come to a shared understanding of 20 salvation.8 Reformers believed that Rome abandoned Such changes and claims are extraor- the pure gospel of grace. The Reformers dinary when we consider the tortured responded with a call to sola fide—the doc- history between these two groups over the trine of justification by faith alone, and sola centuries, as well as the hostile climate scriptura—the supreme authority of Scrip- that existed just four decades ago. There ture. There were also protests against is a remarkable new openness between all the extra-biblical traditions of Rome many Catholics and evangelicals. The that obscured the gospel. ECT statement itself boasted of a new Early American colonialists from New spirit of “historic cooperation.” England Puritans to Virginia Anglicans Clearly, significant changes were feared Rome’s claim to political and spiri- taking place. Attitudes were changing. tual supremacy. These fears were present Whereas once many evangelicals thought in American culture right up to the mid of Catholics as theological and cultural 20th century. Furthermore, anti-Catholi- enemies, today, many evangelicals think cism was not an exclusively evangelical of Catholics as theological and cultural stance. Secularists, like John Dewey, and allies. mainline Protestants as represented by the Of course, the word “many” properly Christian Century, held similar sentiments. clarifies that not all evangelicals feel this American anti-Catholicism is complex way. and has taken various forms. Sometimes While some see these changes as a sign anti-Catholicism took a nativist form. that evangelicalism is coming to maturity, Nativist anti-Catholicism feared the others see them as indicating serious theo- power-threatening influx of immigrants to logical compromise. Still others see it as a the United States. It reached its zenith in mixed blessing. However one assesses the 1920s and seemed to die out by the these changes, nearly all admit that things 1960s. Sometimes anti-Catholicism took have changed! patriotic forms. Patriotic anti-Catholicism This article will briefly examine the feared the universal claims of the pope. It roots of anti-Catholicism and the histori- suspected Rome for its antipathy to cal factors that led to this change in evan- democracy and American liberty and its gelical attitudes. It will not describe in any claims of ultimate authority in both the detail the differences of beliefs since many spiritual and temporal realms (Unam sanc- studies have already done this.9 Rather, it tum, 1302). Anti-Catholicism also took a will look at the shaping forces that have theological form. Theological anti- been at work—those events, movements, Catholicism focused on doctrinal objec- and influences that have brought us to tions to what Rome does and who Rome is. where we are at the beginning of a new century. Ten Shaping Forces that Have Altered the Landscape A Brief Consideration of the Roots Given the fact that the roots of this of the Conflict conflict are nearly 500 years old, what The roots of evangelical anti-Catholi- explains this shift in American evangeli- cism run very deep. They extend to the cal attitudes? What shaping forces have Protestant Reformation. At its core, the been at work to bring about a change in 21 attitude? There are at least ten that I would try had never elected a Catholic president. like to identify. Looking at them will help The last time one ran for office (Al Smith, us better understand ourselves and the 1928), he was decisively rejected. Kennedy context in which we do ministry in the himself brought things to a defining first decade of a new century. moment when he spoke to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. It was an The 1960 election of John F. Kennedy event heavily covered by the media. In his In 1960, anti-Catholicism was not speech Kennedy said that he believed in merely an evangelical phenomenon. It an America “where the separation of was an American phenomenon. Both church and state is absolute—where no secularists and Christians, both evan- Catholic prelate would tell the President gelicals and non-evangelical Protestants, how to act and no Protestant minister worried about the universal claims of would tell his parishioners how to vote.”11 Rome. The prospect of having a Roman He said religion should be a private Catholic president frightened many. For affair. He promised to uphold the First this reason John F. Kennedy’s candidacy Amendment’s guarantees of religious in the 1960 presidential election caused a liberty. In addition, he expressed his major controversy. opposition to the appointment of an Evangelicals and non-evangelicals alike ambassador to the Vatican and to the shared the belief that the Roman Catholic granting of aid to parochial schools. Church could never change. It would not The speech persuaded many. It embrace religious freedom, and it would emerged as the turning point of the elec- not renounce its universal claims over civil tion that led to Kennedy’s victory. A governments, let alone its attitude towards Catholic was in the White House, but he non-Catholics. On the Protestant spectrum, turned out to be a strong advocate of the voices ranging from Norman Vincent Peale separation of church and state. Some won- to Harold John Ockenga to Carl McIntire dered how seriously committed Kennedy expressed fear that electing Kennedy was to Catholicism. Others joked that he would be a terrible thing for our nation. seemed to “out Protestant the Protes- Opposition to Kennedy’s election also tants!” Still others mused that he was, by came from Christianity Today and the South- his stance, really the first Southern Bap- ern Baptist Convention. Donald Grey tist president of the United States! Barnhouse argued that his election would Kennedy’s election is significant be “perilous.” because it signaled the full acceptance of Catholics into American life. While The issue is simple. The Roman nativism was not dead in America, nativ- Catholic Church will not allow Kennedy the right to carry out his ist anti-Catholicism was on the ropes. Four own desires. They have made it years later, when Republican candidate unmistakably clear that Senator Barry Goldwater chose a Roman Catholic Kennedy must be a Roman Catholic first and a United States president as his vice presidential running mate, it second, where the interests of the was clear that anti-Catholicism was no 10 Church are concerned. longer an issue in American politics. The debate over religion seemed to take central place in the campaign. Our coun- 22 Vatican II Perhaps most striking was its admission If the first nail in the coffin of political that “the American experience of religious anti-Catholicism was the 1960 Kennedy freedom is not only an advance in Church election, the second nail was Vatican II history: it is also an important break- (1962-1965).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • US Evangelicals and the Counterculture
    Dossiê: Fundamentalismos e Democracia – Artigo Original DOI – 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2020v18n57p924 “High on Jesus”: US evangelicals and the counterculture “Viajando em Jesus”: os evangélicos norte-americanos e a contracultura1 Axel R. Schäfer Abstract The political mobilization of conservative Protestants in the United States since the 1970s is commonly viewed as having resulted from a “backlash” against the alleged iniquities of the 1960s, including the excess-es of the counterculture. In contrast, this article maintains that conservative Protestant efforts to infiltrate and absorb the counterculture contributed to the organizational strength, cultural attractiveness, and politi-cal efficacy of the New Christian Right. The essay advances three arguments: First, that evangelicals did not simply reject the countercultural ideas of the 1960s, but absorbed and extended its key sentiments. Second, that conservative Protestantism’s appropriation of countercultural rhetoric and organizational styles played a significant role in the right-wing political mobilization of evangelicals. And third, that the merger of evan-gelical Christianity and countercultural styles, rather than their antagonism, ended up being one of the most enduring legacies of the sixties. In revisiting the relationship between the counterculture and evangelicalism, the essay also explores the larger implications for understanding the relationship between religion and poli-tics. The New Christian Right domesticated genuinely insurgent impulses within the evangelical resurgence. By the same token, it nurtured the conservative components of the counterculture. Conservative Protestant-ism thus constituted a political movement that channeled insurgencies into a cultural form that relegitimized the fundamental trajectories of liberal capitalism and consumerist society. Keywords: Backlash argument. Jesus Movement. Evangelical left.
    [Show full text]
  • Sacred Music and Liturgy Reform
    Rt. Reverend Johannes Overath President of CIMS INTRODUCTION In Cologne, in 1961, at the Fourth International Church Music Congress, it was suggested that the next international meeting be held in London. Meanwhile, on November 22, 1963, with the chirograph, Nobile subsidium liturgiae, His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, established the Consociatio Interna- tionalis Musicae Sacrae. One of the tasks entrusted to the newly organized society was that of arranging for international meetings of church musicians, continuing the series of congresses begun in Rome in the Holy Year, 1950, with subsequent assemblies in Vienna in 1954, Paris in 1957, and Cologne in 1961. The Holy Father named the first officers of CIMS on March 7, 1964, and they immediately made contact with a committee of the English hierarchy ac- cording to the proposal made at Cologne to hold the next congress in Lon don. After many conferences the conclusion was reached that "the time foi an international church music congress in London is not yet ripe," as His Excellency, Bishop Charles Grant, chairman of the committee appointed b} the hierarchy of England and Wales, wrote on November 5,1964. Since the first four congresses had taken place in Europe, and since the proposal had been expressed that an English-speaking country be the location of the next meeting, this course of action now suggested itself to the officers of CIMSr viz., to discuss the possibility of holding an international meeting in the United States. Therefore, in the spring of 1965, many discussions and conferences took place between the officers of CIMS and leading church mu- sicians in the United States, especially with the Rt.
    [Show full text]
  • Changing Landscapes of Faith: Latin American Religions in the Twenty-First Century
    Thornton, Brendan Jamal. 2018. Changing Landscapes of Faith: Latin American Religions in the Twenty-First Century. Latin American Research Review 53(4), pp. 857–862. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25222/larr.341 BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS Changing Landscapes of Faith: Latin American Religions in the Twenty-First Century Brendan Jamal Thornton University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US [email protected] This essay reviews the following works: The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America. Edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Paul Freston, and Stephen C. Dove. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 830. $250.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780521767330. Native Evangelism in Central Mexico. By Hugo G. Nutini and Jean F. Nutini. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014. Pp. vii + 197. $55.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780292744127. New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa. By Stephen Offutt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. viii + 192. $80.18 hardcover. ISBN: 9781107078321. The Roots of Pope Francis’s Social and Political Thought: From Argentina to the Vatican. By Thomas R. Rourke. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. Pp. vii + 220. $80.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9781442272712. Latin America today is much more than simply Catholic. To describe it as such would obscure the complicated cultural history of the region while belying the lived experiences of believers and the dynamic transformations in the religious field that have distinguished the longue durée of colonial and postcolonial Latin America. Diversity, heterodoxy, and pluralism have always been more useful descriptors of religion in Latin America than orthodoxy or homogeneity, despite the ostensible ubiquity of Catholic identity.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Ethics & the Realm of Statecraft
    PROVIDENCE INAUGURAL ISSUE FALL 2015 A JOURNAL OF CHRISTIANITY & AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY CHRISTIAN ETHICS & THE REALM OF STATECRAFT: DIVISIONS, CROSS-CURRENTS, & THE SEARCH FOR CONNECTIONS BY JAMES TURNER JOHNSON SPONSORED BY LESS HEGEL, MORE HISTORY! CHRISTIAN ETHICS & POLITICAL REALITIES BY NIGEL BIGGAR FALL CHRISTIAN REALISM & U.S. FOREIGN POLICY BY JOSEPH LOCONTE 2015 ALSO: MARK TOOLEY ON CHRISTIAN POLITICAL DUTY • BRYAN MCGRAW ON VIOLENCE • BARONESS COX ON JIHAD • ALAN DOWD ON THE MORALITY OF DETERRENCE • TIMOTHY MALLARD ON WAR • MARC LIVECCHE ON MORAL INJURY • ROBERT NICHOLSON ON BOUNDARIES, COMMUNITY, & THE MIDDLE EAST • WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON THE COSTS OF CHRISTIAN RETREAT • Number 1 Declinism. Joffe thinks that true American decline is pos- sible only if America itself decides to decline, which he Subscribe to believes no superpower has PROVIDENCE ever done. He discerns in the Providence: FALL 2015 NUMBER 1 current obsession with de- cline an American desire to es- A Journal of Christianity & INAUGURAL EDITORIAL cape from global responsibil- ity. Christians and especially American Foreign Policy Evangelicals, preoccupied with MARK TOOLEY a much more narrow strata of American & Christian Duty events and impressions, can learn much from Joffe, who 04 in Today’s World speaks with the grim historical reality of a Jewish European FEATURES who realizes that American leadership and confidence NIGEL BIGGAR are essential for international Less Hegel, More History! Christian order. Can Christians operate from Ethics & Political Realities 10 a similarly broad historical and international perspective in appreciating the geopolit- JAMES TURNER JOHNSON ical and moral necessity of American global hegemony? Christian Ethics & the Realm The Evangelical Left is un- likely to abandon its obsessive of Statecraft: Divisions, Cross-Currents, and contradictory anti-Amer- 18 icanism, wanting American & the Search for Connections apology and retreat while at the same time demanding America reshape the world according to the Evangelical JOSEPH LOCONTE Left’s policy desires.
    [Show full text]
  • Tabalujan, Benny Simon (2020) Improving Church Governance: Lessons from Governance Failures in Different Church Polities
    Tabalujan, Benny Simon (2020) Improving church governance: Lessons from governance failures in different church polities. MTh(R) thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/81403/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Improving Church Governance Lessons from Governance Failures in Different Church Polities by Benny Simon TABALUJAN A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Theology (University of Glasgow) Edinburgh Theological Seminary 10 December 2019 © Benny Tabalujan, 2019 i Abstract This thesis focuses on the question as to whether using a particular church polity raises the likelihood of governance failure. Using the case study research method, I examine six case studies of church governance failures reported in the past two decades in the English media of mainly Western jurisdictions. The six case studies involve churches in the United States, Australia, Honduras, and Singapore. Three of the case studies involve sexual matters while another three involve financial matters. For each type of misconduct or alleged misconduct, one case study is chosen involving a church with congregational polity, presbyteral polity, and episcopal polity, respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • Journeys of Faith Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism 1St Edition Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    JOURNEYS OF FAITH EVANGELICALISM, EASTERN ORTHODOXY, CATHOLICISM, AND ANGLICANISM 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Robert L Plummer | 9780310331209 | | | | | Journeys of Faith Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism 1st edition PDF Book But where was that church? In the Orthodox Church, the interpretation of a verse must be supported by all of the verses around it or it is simply taken out of context. In passing he refers to "many americanized [sic] Roman Catholic parishes," to generally "secularized American Roman Catholics," to "protestantized Roman Catholics," to "the increasingly chaotic Roman Church," to "modernized Roman Catholics," to "the post- Vatican II, modernized reductionism of today's Roman Catholics. James presided and made the decision because he was bishop of Jerusalem and therefore the authority in his "diocese" my term. Author Francis J. The current territory of the Greek Orthodox Churches more or less covers the areas in the Balkans , Anatolia , and the Eastern Mediterranean that used to be a part of the Byzantine Empire. Liturgical worship, as opposed to informal worship? In Rome I was intrigued by the ancient ruins and the Christian catacombs. I could put on intellectual blinders and approach the Scriptures like a "fundamentalist", with lots of emotion and doing my best to ignore the world of the mind, I could try to adopt the barren "post- modern" and "de-mythologized" faith of many of my peers, or I could abandon Christianity altogether. The reality of family is another thing we lived. I knew that something was missing from my life but I was not even sure what I was looking for.
    [Show full text]
  • Evangelicals and Political Power in Latin America JOSÉ LUIS PÉREZ GUADALUPE
    Evangelicals and Political Power in Latin America in Latin America Power and Political Evangelicals JOSÉ LUIS PÉREZ GUADALUPE We are a political foundation that is active One of the most noticeable changes in Latin America in 18 forums for civic education and regional offices throughout Germany. during recent decades has been the rise of the Evangeli- Around 100 offices abroad oversee cal churches from a minority to a powerful factor. This projects in more than 120 countries. Our José Luis Pérez Guadalupe is a professor applies not only to their cultural and social role but increa- headquarters are split between Sankt and researcher at the Universidad del Pacífico Augustin near Bonn and Berlin. singly also to their involvement in politics. While this Postgraduate School, an advisor to the Konrad Adenauer and his principles Peruvian Episcopal Conference (Conferencia development has been evident to observers for quite a define our guidelines, our duty and our Episcopal Peruana) and Vice-President of the while, it especially caught the world´s attention in 2018 mission. The foundation adopted the Institute of Social-Christian Studies of Peru when an Evangelical pastor, Fabricio Alvarado, won the name of the first German Federal Chan- (Instituto de Estudios Social Cristianos - IESC). cellor in 1964 after it emerged from the He has also been in public office as the Minis- first round of the presidential elections in Costa Rica and Society for Christian Democratic Educa- ter of Interior (2015-2016) and President of the — even more so — when Jair Bolsonaro became Presi- tion, which was founded in 1955. National Penitentiary Institute of Peru (Institu- dent of Brazil relying heavily on his close ties to the coun- to Nacional Penitenciario del Perú) We are committed to peace, freedom and (2011-2014).
    [Show full text]
  • Catholics, Slaveholders, and the Dilemma of American Evangelicalism, 1835–1860 / W
    Catholics, Slaveholders, and the Dilemma of American Evangelicalism, 1835 –1860 W. J ASON WALLACE University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana © 2010 University of Notre Dame Press Copyright © 2010 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wallace, William Jason. Catholics, slaveholders, and the dilemma of American evangelicalism, 1835–1860 / W. Jason Wallace. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-268-04421-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-268-04421-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Church history—19th century. 2. Evangelicalism— United States—History—19th century. 3. Catholic Church— United States—History—19th century. 4. Slavery—United States— History—19th century. 5. Christianity and politics—United States— History—19th century. I. Title. BR525.W34 2010 282'.7509034—dc22 2010024340 ∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. © 2010 University of Notre Dame Press Introduction Between 1835 and 1860, evangelical pulpits and religious journals in the North aggressively attacked slaveholders and Catholics as threats to American values. Criticisms of these two groups could often be found in the same northern evangelical journal, if not on the same page. Words such as “despotism” and “tyranny” described both the theological condi- tion of the Catholic Church and the political condition of the South. Slavery and Catholicism were labeled incompatible with republican insti- tutions and bereft of the virtues necessary to sustain a democratic people.
    [Show full text]
  • The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement: How a Liberal Catholic Campaign Became a Conservative Evangelical Cause
    Religions 2015, 6, 451–475; doi:10.3390/rel6020451 OPEN ACCESS religions ISSN 2077-1444 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Article The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement: How a Liberal Catholic Campaign Became a Conservative Evangelical Cause Daniel K. Williams Department of History, University of West Georgia, 1601 Maple St., Carrollton, GA 30118, USA; E-Mail: [email protected]; Tel.: +1-678-839-6034 Academic Editor: Darren Dochuk Received: 25 February 2015 / Accepted: 3 April 2015 / Published: 16 April 2015 Abstract: This article employs a historical analysis of the religious composition of the pro-life movement to explain why the partisan identity of the movement shifted from the left to the right between the late 1960s and the 1980s. Many of the Catholics who formed the first anti-abortion organizations in the late 1960s were liberal Democrats who viewed their campaign to save the unborn as a rights-based movement that was fully in keeping with the principles of New Deal and Great Society liberalism, but when evangelical Protestants joined the movement in the late 1970s, they reframed the pro-life cause as a politically conservative campaign linked not to the ideology of human rights but to the politics of moral order and “family values.” This article explains why the Catholic effort to build a pro-life coalition of liberal Democrats failed after Roe v. Wade, why evangelicals became interested in the antiabortion movement, and why the evangelicals succeeded in their effort to rebrand the pro-life campaign as a conservative cause. Keywords: Pro-life; abortion; Catholic; evangelical; conservatism 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Sola Scriptura (Various)
    Rock Valley Bible Church (www.rvbc.cc) # 2015-023 June 7, 2015 by Steve Brandon Sola Scriptura (Various) In 1521 the German Reformer, Martin Luther, was summoned to appear in Worms before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V to defend what he had taught and written. Soon after he arrived, it was clear that he wasn't brought there to defend his views; he was brought there to recant his views. Laid out on the table were 25 books or articles that Martin Luther had written. The titles were read. Then, Luther was asked if these, indeed were written by him, and if so, to recant their contents. Luther requested more time to respond. So, he was given until 4pm the next day to respond. When 4pm arrived, and Luther stood before the counsel, he said, "The works are mine, but ... Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason--I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other--my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen." For Luther, it was all about the Bible. It was all about the teaching of the Scripture. He didn't trust the pope. He didn't trust the councils. He had seen how they contradicted the Bible and each other. He had seen their corruption, and he couldn't trust them. Martin Luther trusted in the Scriptures alone. And we should as well.
    [Show full text]
  • C:\WW Manuscripts\Back Issues\11-3 Lutheranism\11
    Word & World 11/3 (1991) Copyright © 1991 by Word & World, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. All rights reserved. page 276 A North American Perspective TODD W. NICHOL Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary, Saint Paul, Minnesota Thirty years ago, historian Winthrop Hudson called Lutheranism the last, best hope of Protestantism in the United States. Insularity, Hudson said in his widely read study American Protestantism, had protected Lutherans from the theological disintegration and lack of connection to historical tradition he thought characteristic of most other American Protestants. As Hudson saw it, a history of more or less intentional parochialism had given Lutherans specific advantages that could put them in the vanguard of a Protestant renewal in the United States: the effect of impending mergers, rising membership, a confessional tradition, liturgical practice, and a sense of community based in part on sociological factors.1 A generation later, however, it appears that Hudson missed his guess. In the last three decades, questions regarding merger and membership, theology and worship, and the contours of community have troubled and sometimes divided American Lutherans. That these things matter to some Lutherans is, of course, evidence that Winthrop Hudson’s optimistic assessment of Lutheranism in the United States was not entirely without basis. Yet few knowledgeable Lutherans in 1991 would be prepared to claim that their churches have taken the leading role in a renewal of Protestantism in North America or that they are now in a position to do so. American Lutheranism is now more difficult to assess than even so distinguished an historian of American religion as Winthrop Hudson was able to predict thirty years ago.
    [Show full text]
  • Francis Schaeffer's Burdens
    “The Church Before the Watching World:” Francis Schaeffer’s Burdens Andrew Fellows Andrew Fellows is a teacher and conference speaker, and the director of apologetics for Christian Heritage, Cambridge. After serving a term in the pastorate he spent twenty one years with his family in the English branch of L’Abri Fellowship and from 2011 to 2016 served as the Chairman of L’Abri International. Andrew has recently writtenSmuggling Jesus Back Into the Church; How the Church Became Worldly and What to do About It due for publication by IVP in early 2022. He has several other books in the pipeline written for skeptics. Andrew has a special interest in cultural apologetics. In this article I am arguing for a retrieval and serious re-engagement with Francis Schaeffer’s message to the church. There is no doubting that Schaeffer left a considerable and enduring legacy—one I would argue is worthy of our attention today. For many he is best known for L’Abri, the community he founded in Switzerland with his wife Edith in 1955. Among its various purposes, this “shelter” served as a place of asylum for doubters who had questions the church failed to take seriously. Schaeffer also achieved notoriety for his work as an apologist to sceptics. Through his lectures, writings and documentary styled films he argued for the credibility of the faith, encour- aging a generation of evangelicals to be confident in the truth. Others may remember him for bravely tackling the ethical issues of the day. His book entitled, Whatever Happened to the Human Race (later turned into a film) brought issues like abortion infanticide and euthanasia to the attention of Christians who otherwise would have remained oblivious to such matters.
    [Show full text]