Neo-evangelicalism

Background

In early twentieth-century American Protestantism, conservative fundamentalism and liberal theology clashed over the authority of the Bible and the reality of miracles. This dispute is known as the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy. In its aftermath, part of the fundamentalist camp placed strong emphasis on separatism, the view that believers must break ties with denominations and organizations that had accepted liberalism. This camp was also seen as disengaged from scholarship and social issues. Around the time of World War II, a group of young theologians emerged who held that conservative theology should be maintained but that such separatism and anti-intellectualism (a tendency to disparage scholarship) should be overcome.

Development

• 1942: The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) was founded. The NAE did not follow the fundamentalist principle of separation, which called for breaking with apostates. Harold Ockenga of Park Street Church in Boston served as its first president.
• 1947: Radio evangelist Charles Fuller and Ockenga founded Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Ockenga became its first president, but he led the school from a distance while continuing his pastorate in Boston.
• The same year: Carl Henry published The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. In this book Henry criticized conservative Christians for neglecting social problems, and the work came to be read as something of a manifesto for the movement. Henry joined the Fuller faculty that September.
• 1947 or 1948: In an address at Fuller Theological Seminary, Ockenga first used the term "new evangelicalism." Some sources date this address to 1947 and others to 1948.
• 1948: Carl McIntire founded the separatist International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC). The NAE is regarded as having kept its distance from both the ICCC and the World Council of Churches.
• Late 1950s: The movement that had been called "progressive fundamentalism" in the 1940s became widely known as "neo-evangelicalism." Henry later left the seminary to serve as editor of the magazine Christianity Today.

Outcomes and Influence

The movement's early leaders included Ockenga, Henry, Edward Carnell, and Harold Lindsell. Most of them were young intellectuals who had earned doctorates at universities such as Harvard and Boston University. Neo-evangelicals sought to uphold core doctrines such as the authority of Scripture while engaging actively with culture, pursuing theology as a scholarly discipline, and cooperating with other Christians. Ockenga also took part in founding Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1969. He is counted among the figures who shaped the framework of the contemporary American evangelical movement.

Assessment

• Supporters credit neo-evangelicalism with restoring scholarly credibility to conservative faith and with leading conservative churches to take an interest in social issues.
• Separatist fundamentalists criticize neo-evangelicalism for compromising with liberalism. In this critique, biblical inerrancy (the doctrine that the Bible is without error) is cited as a touchstone. In the movement's early years all of its leaders held to inerrancy, but critics contend that around 1970 Fuller Theological Seminary retreated from this position. Lindsell, one of the movement's early leaders, responded by defending inerrancy in his book The Battle for the Bible. Assessments of this debate, however, differ depending on how the scope of inerrancy is defined.
• The term is also used in Korean churches. It sometimes refers to a conservative faith that strikes a balance between fundamentalism and liberalism, and it is sometimes used by separation-minded conservatives as a label for criticizing tendencies toward compromise.