What Is Evangelicalism? | Christianity Today
In this article, Bruce Hindmarsh of Regent College seeks to give a historical definition to Evangelicalsm. Please be aware that as he does this he uses the term “Christianity” referring to all professing Christianity. According to his definition of “evangelicalism” fundamentalism would be a subset of evangelicalism. It is important for us to understand how other people are using these terms. KS.
Evangelicalism is one of the largest and most dynamic forms of Christianity in the modern world, but there is an amorphous quality to many words that end with the suffix “-ism,” and “evangelicalism” is no exception. “Evangelicalism” does not have the hard and crisp denotation of a concrete noun such as “Jesuit.” This confusion goes back to lexical roots. The English language uses the Anglo-Saxon noun “gospel” for the Greek “evangel” but retains the Greek root for the adjective “evangelical” and the abstract class-noun “evangelicalism.” There was a time when certain Protestants were called Gospellers, but the obvious link between “gospel” and “evangelical” has now been largely obscured. As an abstract noun naming things that cannot be heard, seen, or touched, “evangelicalism” seems always in need of more concrete definition.
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