Today’s guest post is by author pod-caster blogger, Billy Kangas. When he’s not spending time with his wife and family, he keeps busy by pursuing a doctorate in Liturgy and working at Bread For the World. Billy is a smart and interesting guy, and pretty much everything he does is worth checking out. In this post, he answers the challenging question of what people actually mean when they say: “Evangelical”.

Do you know what makes an “Evangelical” an “Evangelical” and not something else? There have been many attempts at defining evangelicals, but in many ways they are illusive. There is no central evangelical headquarters, no evangelical pope, no all-encompassing evangelical organization, or a universal evangelical creed. So how do we know an evangelical when we see one?

Alister E. McGrath offers this set of affirmations that would define an evangelical. Evangelicals believe in:

• the supreme authority of Scripture for knowledge of God and as guide to Christian living

• the majesty of Jesus Christ as incarnate God and Lord, and the Savior of sinful humanity

• the lordship of the Holy Spirit

• the need for personal conversion

• the priority of evangelism for both individual Christians and for the church as a whole

• the importance of Christian community for spiritual nourishment, fellowship, and growth

(Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity, 1995, 51.)

Although this list is useful, I think it misses the main thing that makes an Evangelical what they are. In my opinion Evangelicals are a group of Christians who have been formed through persisting in the belief that proclaiming the message of Jesus should guide all other concerns and have been formed historically by struggling against movements within their tradition that have distracted from this central Goal.

Here is a brief history of the movements that have created “Evangelicals” as we know them today:

First there was the Protestant Reformation which was set off by the (well grounded) concern that the message people were hearing about salvation was less about what Jesus did and more concerned with what individuals did.

Secondly there was the influx of Puritanism and Pietism in North America and the British Colonies which highlighted the need for individuals to put Jesus at the center of their own lives, rather than adopt a religion of the state.

Thirdly there was the influx of missionary movements in the last two centuries as these awakened communities recognized the call to proclaim the message of Jesus extended over the whole earth

Fourthly as the church began to respond to the challenges of the enlightenment controversies arose over what was at the core of Christian doctrine creating a split between liberals and fundamentalists

Fifthly evangelicals split with fundamentalist in the 20th century believing that their communities had become inward focused and were not engaging the culture enough with the message of Jesus.

Finally evangelicals have been able to rally together around common causes and have become a global force and phenomenon

Through this history evangelicals have emerged as every generation has dealt with the temptation to move the focus of their faith away from Jesus and onto other concerns. Although I don’t always agree with the theology that goes along with this focus I am consistently inspired by this effort to keep their eyes on Jesus. As a Catholic I couldn’t agree more.

I recently read through the forthcoming “Evangelical Theology” by Michael F. Bird. In this book Bird attempts to create a new theology textbook for use in evangelical churches, colleges and seminaries. Unlike previous evangelically oriented texts, like that by Wayne Grudem, which had crafted their theology around scripture alone. Bird argues that going to scripture alone can be problematic, because one person can easily make errors that may have been hatched out long ago and so scripture should be interpreted in light of tradition (as a Catholic I wholeheartedly agree). Instead of placing the Bible at the center of everything, Bird places the Gospel at the center of everything.

By the Gospel, Bird means the message that through Jesus’ life death and resurrection God has entered into human life in its brokenness and raised us up to salvation with Christ for all who put their trust in Jesus.

This move is designed to serve as an “inoculation” against “unwholesome deviations” that serve to distract from the central revelation of God made in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now that we are sitting 500 years from the protestant reformation, in many ways Evangelicals are finding that they are a lot closer to the traditions of Rome than they are to their fellow protestant church down the street and there seems to be an increasing openness to what the tradition has to say. Instead of simply proof texting theology from the Bible, Bird’s book attempts to incorporate the wider tradition of the fathers, the councils, and the creeds.

I am encouraged by the openness that Bird, and others like him, have to letting tradition take part in their theological process. As new doors are opened between Evangelicals and Catholics it is important that we, as Catholics, are open to the gifts that our separated brethren have to offer.

Keeping Jesus as the first and final word.

One of the temptations that I face as a Catholic is to lose sight of Jesus. There are so many good things to get involved with and amazing things to learn about in the Catholic tradition sometimes people can get distracted. We can become obsessed with mass translations, Marian apparitions, social justice initiatives, smart-ass apologetics, political platforms, complex theological arguments and a whole slew of other issues. Sometimes Jesus can get lost in the mix. Evangelicals remind us that in spite of all the complexity of Catholic life and teaching there is only one revelation from God that supports it all, and that is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In my own work as an advocate on behalf of hungry people in Washington D.C. with Bread for the World I am so thankful for my evangelical partners that continually remind me what the core of our work is. We believe that we love and serve those in need because, in Christ, God first loved us.

You can check out more of Billy’s musings on ecumenism, ancient worship, and our present world at the TheOrant.