Scholars from around the globe met virtually to discuss their research of evangelicalism and missions. The virtual conference on evangelicalism — held Oct. 2–4 this year — is an annual event hosted by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.
David Bebbington, emeritus professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland and acting nonresident director of Baylor ISR’s Evangelical Studies Program summarized key findings of the presentations.
Bebbington defines evangelicals according to four commitments or emphases, what has been called the “Bebbington quadrilateral”: the Bible as authoritative for faith and practice, Jesus Christ and the cross, the necessity of conversion, and actively communicating the gospel.
Three papers demonstrated the early supporters of missions — beginning in 1817 — as well as those who made missionary appeals were evangelicals, Bebbington noted. He also pointed to research that revealed the term “evangelical” originally was used by Presbyterians and Congregationalists, but not Baptists or Methodists.
Changes in missions
Two papers considered changes in missionary strategy.
Aminta Arrington, of John Brown University in Arkansas, examined a policy change related to the Lisu people in rural China in the early 20th century, in which the mission agency agreed to allow people to convert as families instead of as individuals.
Community was and is a defining trait of the Lisu people. So, they expressed their faith not individually, but together through hymns, Arrington explained.
She pointed out the success of hymns and the introduction of four-part harmony to this culture by missionary musicians was central to the proliferation of the gospel in Lisu communities. Their villages are remote, but they have practiced Christianity corporately through hymns for more than 100 years.
Lisu theology is shaped considerably by their hymnal, which is considered a “closed canon,” though they do write new Christian pop songs without harmony.
Karl Dahlfred, of Chiang Mai Theological Seminary, Thailand, demonstrated a shift from direct to more indirect methods of evangelism, when missionaries with the American Presbyterian Mission in Thailand began to prioritize education over conversion.
The result was “something like a secularizing effect on missionary work,” though the aim had been to permeate society with Christian values, Bebbington noted.
Bebbington suggested the papers by Arrington and Dahlfred taken together show evangelical missionary work across the 20th century changed in practice, “and that’s a very important contention, because it undermines the very frequent supposition that one finds in the literature that evangelical missionaries used constant, unchanging methods. How false that is,” Bebbington explained.
Influence
Other research summarized by Bebbington included:
Dana Robert, of Boston University, showed evangelicals “included married couples as central to the enterprise.”
Mark Smith, of Kellogg College, Oxford, UK, demonstrated that “missionary promotion was central to [William] Wilberforce’s career” and that evangelicalism provided a motivating theology for him.
Boone Aldridge, with Wycliffe Bible Translators, highlighted a constant tension between the academic world of Bible translation, which became more focused on the science of linguistics, and the popular evangelical world of Wycliffe, which was more concerned with providing understandable translations.
“Evangelical biblicism conditioned missions,” Bebbington summarized.
The work of Amos Chewachong, of Newport-on-Tay, Scotland, examining Nigerian Pentecostal missions to Cameroon disputes the assumption that missions is a Western scheme, Bebbington pointed out.
Together, these works clearly show mission among evangelicals wasn’t uniform. It changed. “For that reason, it needs to be studied in detail at each point in time,” he said.
Books will be published soon on several of the scholars’ findings.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Calli Keener and originally published by Baptist Standard.
