Evangelical Belief in Contemporary England / La Croyance chez les évangéliques de la Grande Bretagne contemporaine - article ; n°1 ; vol.82, pg 169-181

Christopher Sinclair.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1993 - Volume 82 - Numéro 1 - Pages 169-181
13 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1993
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Christopher Sinclair
Evangelical Belief in Contemporary England / La Croyance
chez les évangéliques de la Grande Bretagne contemporaine
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 82, 1993. pp. 169-181.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Sinclair Christopher. Evangelical Belief in Contemporary England / La Croyance chez les évangéliques de la Grande Bretagne
contemporaine. In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 82, 1993. pp. 169-181.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1993.1647
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1993_num_82_1_1647Arch de Sc soc des Rel. 1993 82 avril-juin 169-181
Christopher SINCLAIR
EVANGELICAL BELIEF IN CONTEMPORARY
ENGLAND
progression Cet article du mouvement présente abord évangélique quelques anglais chiffres au qui cours permettent des dernières illustrer décen la
nies Après un essai de définition en seconde partie nous tentons de montrer
que la foi évangélique contemporaine ainsi que le confirment un certain
nombre évolutions récentes est plus complexe on ne le pense habituelle
ment En effet côté une aile de type fondamentaliste vangélisme
anglais possède une aile plus libérale laquelle appartient George Carey
primat de Eglise Angleterre depuis 1991 La remontée de cette aile lib
érale au cours des trente dernières années été favorisée en partie par le
renouveau charismatique qui est expression contemporaine du versant
pietiste de vangélisme Nous nous intéressons en priorité au cas anglais
mais les mêmes tendances se retrouvent au sein des mouvements évangéliques
de bien autres pays
Este art culo presenta en un primer momento cifras que permiten ilustrar
la progresi del movimiento evangélico inglés lo largo de las ltimas dé
cadas Después de un intento de definici en la segunda parte el autor se
concentra en mostrar que la fe evangélica contempor nea como lo parece
confirmarlo una serie de evolutiones recientes es mas compleja que lo que
aparece primera vista En efecto coexistiendo con un ala de tipo fundamen
talista el evangelismo inglés contiene en su seno una ala liberal la
que pertenece George Garey primado de la Iglesia de Inglaterra desde 1991
El desarrollo de esta ala liberal lo largo de los ltimos treinta os ha sido
favorecido en parte por la renovaci carismàtica que es la expresi actual
del aspecto del pietistä del evangelismo El autor se interesa prioritaria
mente al caso inglés pero tendencias semejantes pueden ser identificadas en
el seno de los movimientos evangélicos de otros pa ses
169 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of this article is to suggest that the Protestant Evan
gelical movement displays greater diversity of approaches to belief than is
usually recognized It is possible indeed to distinguish within contemporary
Evangelicalism between more conservative fundamentalist wing and
more liberal wing both of which are examined in this article from the angle
of their epistemology and attitudes towards belief
The first part of the article consists in brief assessment of the numerical
growth of Evangelicalism in recent years The second part attempts to give
general outline of Evangelical belief The third part is presentation of
Conservative which is characterized by its Reformed and fun
damentalist apologetics and has gathered momentum since the late
The fourth part finally describes the re-emergence of more liberal
and ecumenical type of Evangelicalism from the onwards partly under
the influence of the Charismatic movement George Carey who was appointed
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991 belongs to this latter type of Evangelical
ism
We shall concentrate on the English scene but the same trends can be
observed in many other national Evangelical movements in the world
Evangelical growth
Church attendance and membership have continuously declined over the
last 150 years in England Recently in 1989 9.5 of the total adult population
of England attended church on an ordinary Sunday compared with 11 ten
years earlier
But the Evangelical wing of the Christian church of today seems to offer
somewhat different picture This has not always been so but for the last
twenty years denominations have been growing According to the
English Church Census published in 1991 1) between 1975 and 1989 for
instance the number of people attending Independent Evangelical churches
Brethren assemblies House churches Free Evangelical churches Brethren
assemblies House churches Free Evangelical churches rose from 167 000
to 292 000 the number of people attending Pentecostal rose from
78 000 to 95 000 and the number Baptist churches
193 000 to 199 During the same period the denominations in which Lib
eral theology prevailed tended to decline in the Methodist church numbers
fell from 450000 to 396000 and attendance fell from 150000 to 114000
in the United Reformed Church As for the Church of England very mixed
denomination comprising Evangelicals Liberals and Anglo-Catholics num
bers declined from 1.3 million to 1.14 million The proportion of people cal
ling themselves Evangelicals however has been growing steadily in the
Anglican church since 1950 In the early fifties only 10 of the clergy and
15 of the laity called themselves Evangelicals in 1977 the proportions had
risen to 35 of the clergy and 25 of the laity and in 1987 to 50 and
170 EVANGELICAL BELIEF IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLAND
35 respectively representing total of more than 300 000 individuals There
are still very few Evangelical bishops 14 Evangelical bishops out of total
of 107 bishops in 1987 Because new bishops are not elected by the rank-
and-file but chosen by the episcopal hierarchy the episcopate has remained
stronghold of the Liberal establishment in spite of Evangelical growth
Nevertheless the appointment of an Evangelical George Carey to the office
of Archbishop of Canterbury in 1991 is tribute paid to the increasing numeri
cal importance of Evangelicalism in the Church of England On this occasion
the Evangelical Alliance received considerable media attention 3)
According to MARC Europe the organization which conducted the 1989
English Church Census) it is possible that the trend towards ever-diminishing
church attendance figures is being reversed in 1990-1991 by the growth of
Evangelicalism The will act as test to reveal whether this hy
pothesis is correct or not
As regards social class it is well known fact that during the last 100
years the Protestant Churches in England for number of reasons have lost
touch with the working classes Evangelicalism is no exception as most
Evangelical groups today can be said to belong to the middle-class However
that is not to say that working-class Evangelicals have totally disappeared
Pentecostal denominations 95 000 people) Salvation Army City Mission and
Shaftesbury Society mission halls approx 65 000 people) as well as some
Anglican parishes or Baptist assemblies in inner-city districts are most
genuine expressions of working-class Evangelicalism Also the development
of Afro-Carribean Evangelical churches approx 60 000 members today has
brought Christian presence in many working-class areas Moreover grow
ing number of churches are getting involved in urban mission
mixture of social action and evangelism in the inner-city It is too early
to affirm that revival of Evangelical religion is under way among the work
ing class but there have been interesting sometimes amazing results 6)
At the other end of the social spectrum the upper classes) it is fair to
say that Evangelical religion is very weak among the aristocracy nowadays
but somewhat stronger among the upper professional or business classes Holy
Trinity Brompton and St Bishopsgate both in London are good ex
amples of thriving Anglican Evangelical parishes whose members belong to
the upper-middle or business class)
Finally one of the strengths of the Evangelical movement today is that
it seems to attract many young people 7)
general outline of Evangelical belief
Having assessed the numerical importance of English Evangelicalism let
us turn to Evangelical belief as such Evangelicalism often claims to represent
orthodox Protestantism and usually lays great stress on the objective nature
of the truths confessed in the creeds of orthodox Christianity One aspect of
this objective view of religious truth is the claim that Christian belief is rooted
in particular events of the past that are both historical and supernatural Crea
tion the Crossing of the Red Sea the Incarnation the Resurrection etc.
Evangelical organizations often have basis of faith document that re-
171 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
affirms the eredal truths of Christian orthodoxy some of the articles in these
documents are likely to stress the factuality of interventions in his
tory e.g the miraculous way in which Jesus-Christ was conceived or his
supernatural bodily resurrection One of the articles of faith moreover is
likely to deal with the Bible as the inspired Word of God and with the