Product Description

Has Evangelical Christianity become a political entity?
What is the difference between “evangelical” and “evangelism”?
Do evangelicals literally believe the Bible?

Thirty-five percent of Americans today are evangelical Christians, yet many people are uncertain of what that term actually means. The Beliefnet® Guide to Evangelical Christianity offers a clear, unbiased description of evangelical beliefs and practices—including how they have changed throughout history and what they are now. It also dispels many current misconceptions about this faith group and its followers.

The Beliefnet® Guide to Evangelical Christianity addresses topics such as evangelical Christians’ approach to the accuracy of the Bible, their relationship with Jesus Christ, and the connection to conservative politics. Its nuts-and-bolts approach will appeal both to evangelicals who want to know more about the history of their religion and community and to general readers who want to understand the rise of evangelicalism over the past decades.

From the premier source of information on religion and spirituality, the Beliefnet® Guides introduce you to the major traditions, leaders, and issues of faith in the world today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1473269 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-14
• Released on: 2005-06-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Here we have evangelical Christianity in a nutshell, written by a former Time and Christianity Today journalist who describes herself as an evangelical. Using Beliefnet's characteristically breezy and accessible writing style, Zoba tells the truth about evangelical Christians. They are not all in agreement on political issues such as abortion and homosexuality; they don't all reject the theory of evolution; and while most believe in the inerrancy of the Bible ("when scripture says something, it is telling the truth"), they interpret scripture in a variety of ways. This guide claims that evangelicals share certain core religious values: they believe humans must have a "born again" experience to become Christians, emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, trust in the reliability of the Bible and "feel obliged to share their faith in Jesus (which they believe saves them from eternal damnation) with other people, in order to save them, too, from eternal damnation." The book works overtime to rescue evangelical Christianity from the notion that it promotes only individual concerns, with Zoba emphasizing the many ways evangelicals are working hard toward social justice and the alleviation of poverty. This guide delivers what it promises—a broad view of evangelicalism designed to help readers be more tolerant and accepting of this branch of Christianity. (June 14)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Citing a 2003 poll, Zoba reports common knowledge: "Americans generally" dislike evangelicals "more than any other social sector, except for prostitutes." In response, she says she will dispel confusion about evangelicals and point out evangelical strengths. She lists four evangelical essentials and thereafter sketches evangelicals' spin on Christian theology and evangelical history. The four basics are the born-again experience, a personal relationship with Jesus, the ultimate authority of the Bible, and sharing the faith to promote others' salvation. Really, she says later, the four are shared by virtually all Christians, certainly including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and mainstream Protestants. By then, she has so illuminated evangelical perspectives and history--especially the fact that, since the Reformation, there have been, besides the expected Baptists and Anabaptists, evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and even Catholics--that it seems perverse not to concur without dumping Christianity, or at least theism, altogether. She has also shown that the apoplectic anti-abortion and anti-gay demonstrators so beloved by the media are a waning phenomenon, and that evangelicals modestly doing good works vastly outnumber them. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1

Who Are Evangelicals?

I know a man who resigned from his evangelical church as a result of a youth-sponsored coffee house (it was a fund-raiser for a missions trip). The kids were hosting several youth bands, and one of them played that Mick Jagger classic "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." That same night, two middle-aged women who'd grown up on the Stones bobbed, weaved, and clapped hands overhead like something out of Woodstock. They too considered themselves evangelicals. Full disclosure: I was one of those two women.

The point being, as with every mode of religious expression on the American landscape, evangelical Christianity has its contradictions and champions, saints and sinners, workhorses and weirdos. There is not one "bloc" of the American population that fits into a category called evangelicalism. Evangelicals can be white, African-American, Asian, or Hispanic. There are the educated and the uneducated; the rich, the middle, and the under-class; the tax-paying upright citizens; the down-and-out drug addicts and prostitutes; the right-wing conservatives and left-wing liberals. It is better to think of evangelicalism as a river carrying life-giving water to its many branches and streams.

The individuals who inhabit the landscape may come and go. But the river remains, a mystical life force that nourishes otherwise disparate groups and, in a way, holds them together. When today's inhabitants are gone, the river will do the same for those yet to dwell upon the land.

It can, and does, get messy when a mighty river cuts through the crags of everyday life. For believing evangelicals, the source of the river abides in absolutes. But this results in complications. First, evangelicals themselves do not agree upon the interpretation of these absolutes; and second, they desire so sincerely to obey the mandates of faith that they sometimes take irrevocable stands for or against things with the best of intentions. The man who left the church because of Mick Jagger's song did right by his convictions. The rocking, dancing women expressed God-given delight over great music. In their minds they were responding as King David himself did when the Ark of the Covenant was carried to Jerusalem: Let's rock and roll!

"The lyrics are Augustinian," I later commented to my fellow rocker, upon learning of the man's antipathy. St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions (a work widely cited by evangelicals): "You made us for Yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You." Compare: "I've tried, and I've tried, and I've tried, and I've tried . . . I can't get no satisfaction." In Augustinian terms, Mick Jagger makes perfect sense.

Evangelicals tend to make such justifications. They feel the need to make sense of the culture in theological terms. This can be problematic. The world and even God himself sometimes do not make sense. That is one challenge for evangelicals.

Another challenge is dealing with the negative stereotypes perceived by the public--of evangelicals as right-wing extremists; nerdy Ned Flanders types; sourpuss puffy-haired church ladies; or pasty-faced soft-bellied television Bible thumpers. A survey taken by pollster George Barna in December 2003 noted that Americans generally disliked evangelicals more than any other social sector, except for prostitutes, whom they edged out by only a slight margin. Though true evangelicals wouldn't mind such company (after all, Jesus hung out with prostitutes and other fringe people), one purpose of this book is to clarify contradictions that have aroused public confusion and point out strengths largely undetected in public consciousness.

A few explanations: First, although I employ the masculine pronoun when referring to the Deity and to the Holy Spirit, God possesses no gender (and there are references in the Old Testament where God is likened to a mother). My use of the male pronoun arises from Jesus' description of God as Father, and from evangelicals' use of it to refer to God and the Holy Spirit. Secondly, for the purposes of this book, the two sections of the Bible are denoted as the Old and New Testaments. The former is commonly and rightly known as the Hebrew Scriptures. But evangelicals emphasize a "new covenant" and "new kingdom" inaugurated by Jesus, and look upon the Hebrew Scriptures as Act 1, ultimately fulfilled by Act 2 (the New Testament). The terminology means no disrespect to Judaism, which claims these remarkable writings as their sacred text. Although I have tried to limit my use of insider language, some points cannot be addressed any other way. The reader would be well served to mark the glossary page, as he or she will be turning to it regularly. Finally, I do not presume to speak for all evangelicals in this book. I've consulted many who are knowledgeable in these matters. At the same time, I don't doubt some of what I write will offend and/or be dismissed by others in the evangelical community. I do not intend any offense and regret any that might be taken.


2

The Big Questions

Nowadays, not all who identify themselves as Christians hold to a specific set of beliefs. In America, the term has even taken on cultural nuances--people who decorate a Christmas tree or eat chocolate bunnies at Easter might think of themselves as Christian, even if they have never been inside a church. Some Islamic countries identify Christianity with satellite-beamed U.S. television shows like Baywatch.

Even churchgoing Christians don't all believe the same things. There are three main branches of Christianity: Catholics, who recognize the authority of the Pope; Eastern Orthodox Christians, who follow an ancient liturgy in worship; and Protestant Christians, who reject the authority of the Pope and embrace the Bible as their primary source of inspiration and authority. Evangelicals are Protestants, but not all Protestants are evangelicals.

In a nutshell, evangelicals

• believe they must have a "born-again" experience to become a Christian; many follow their conversion with a public "believer's baptism"; in other cases, however, those who are "born again" have already been baptized as infants.

• emphasize a "personal" relationship with Jesus.

• believe the Bible is historically reliable, and is the best authority for people's lives and relationship with God.

• feel obliged to share their faith in Jesus (which they believe saves them from eternal damnation) with other people, in order to save them, too, from eternal damnation.

Although other Protestants may not object to this approach, many opt for more subtlety. For instance, many Protestants don't emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus or a "born-again" experience, preferring a more gradual approach. They tend to be more private about their faith, and therefore don't share it publicly. They get their inspiration from the Bible by studying the texts--using history, literature, language translation, and archaeology--to figure out what the biblical writers were trying to say. (Despite stereotypes to the contrary, many evangelicals use this approach too--scholarship is not incompatible with the "born-again" experience.)

However, according to evangelicals, the term "Christian" has a very specific meaning. It means claiming Jesus Christ as their champion. They believe that without Jesus' death on the cross, which they see as a sacrifice, union with God is impossible. They also believe that although Jesus died, he rose from death, left them instructions for winning others to life eternal, and then returned to God the Father in heaven. They believe Jesus will return at some future point, and when he does, all will be called to account for their deeds. These beliefs are grounded in the Bible.

In The Beginning

Evangelicals believe humankind was created by God in the persons of Adam and Eve, and that through them, God imbued humanity with a spark of his image. Therefore, evangelicals believe humans were meant to share harmony with God and enjoy the benefits and abundance of the creation about them. Creation is God's masterpiece, of which human beings are the pinnacle. Many evangelicals do not embrace the theory of evolution, which asserts that human life developed out of lower life-forms. They usually explain the fossil record as perhaps one means God used to advance his creation, though crediting God, not natural selection, for intervening in the process. (This topic is discussed further in Chapter 6.)

As the one and only creator, God held the prerogative as to how this harmony was to play out and laid out a single rule. He said to Adam, "Look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants through the earth and all the fruit trees for your food," and added, "you may eat freely any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die." This moment in the creation narrative introduces a critical insidious player who, from this point forward, undertakes ruthlessly to ruin people's confidence in God's good purposes. He is Satan, the onetime high angel Lucifer who fell "like lightning" from God's presence, having tried and failed to usurp God's authority.

Evangelicals battle Satan's attempts to sabotage God's plans by preying upon the weakest spot in every human's heart, including (especially) theirs. He started with Eve and Adam, planting the slightest seed of doubt with the simple words: "Did God say . . . ?" Evangelicals believe that from the moment our ancestors doubted God and ate the fruit forbidden to them, so alluringly held out to them by the Great Antagonist, the earth and everything in it fell under Satan's dominion. That is why evangelicals call this moment "the Fall."

Was God powerless to stop his children from making this bad choice? Was he a ...

Customer Reviews

Moderately helpful...
I decided to read Wendy Murray Zoba's "Evangelical Christianity" without really knowing what to expect. An evangelical Christian myself, I thought it might be interesting to see what a good author like Murray Zoba would have to say about evangelicalism, as I have appreciated her work in the evangelical standard-bearer magazine, "Christianity Today."

Ultimately, I would say that she does a reasonable job of summarizing a diverse, amorphous, hard-to-define movement like evangelical Christianity. The book hits all of the major points (high regard for Scripture, emphasis on personal conversion experience, etc.), without obsessing about any peripheral issues. It is even-handed, fair-minded, and appropriately critical of some of the foibles of evangelicalism, while also offering sympathetic explanations of some of the evangelical positions that befuddle outsiders. And the writing style is very readable, neither overly academic nor dumbed-down.

However, as much as I generally appreciated the style and content of the book, I wasn't particularly engaged. Maybe this disconnect is due to my familiarity with evangelicalism, but I'm not sure that I gained much from reading this book. As an evangelical insider, my primary response to the book was simply, "Yup, that's about right." But I can't say that I really learned anything significant or that I was particularly challenged or inspired.

So, the value of this book really rests on its audience and their expectations. For those outside the evangelical world, this book could function well as a primer. Though guilty of occasional over-generalization or over-simplification (and I'm not sure you could write a book about something as nebulous as evangelical Christianity without some of this), Murray Zoba offers a helpful summary of evangelicals that is accessible, informative, and thoughtfully written. I'm not inclined to recommend it to my evangelical friends, but it can definitely serve a purpose of educating the non-evangelical world about who we evangelicals are.

Questionable Usefulness
The Beliefnet® Guide to Evangelical Christianity presents an overview of Evangelical Christianity covering evangelicalism's definition, beliefs, history, and current status politically and culturally. It includes a glossary of "church-speak" and a very good reading list. The book comes across in a friendly manner and is claimed to be written by an insider. Zoba does well in her attempt to dispel the negative stereotypes surrounding Evangelicalism, although she does not flinch from reporting its more embarrassing features. She also prefaces the book by stating that she does not speak for all evangelicals, a welcome admission considering some of her later statements.

She gives a good definition of this difficult-to-define movement which can be summarized as those Christians having: an emphasis on a born again experience, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, belief in a reliable and authoritative Bible, and an obligation to share their faith. This is followed by a very good section on just what the gospel is and why it was necessary for Christ to die for sin. The book is certainly not perfect, however. While no single error necessarily makes the book completely unacceptable, there are many of them and taken together make the book of questionable value.

While the author often distinguishes between those doctrinal features of Evangelicalism that fall within a range of acceptable possibilities and those that do not, she makes questionable or even false claims in other areas that she implies are fairly unanimous. One troublesome assertion is her explanation of the Trinity which smacks of heretical Modalism. There is also a repeated referral to a "strangely warming" sensation that Evangelicals allegedly equate with the influence of the Holy Spirit. I have been an Evangelical for over 15 years and the only time I have heard a phrase like this referring to God's interaction with us was from Mormons. A somewhat vague Charismaticism is assumed without mention of those who hold to Cessationism. Some important questions are also left open making it appear as though Evangelicalism is still struggling with issues that have actually been adequately answered (e.g. the fate of those who never heard the gospel is said to be a "mystery beyond human reckoning").

Her sections on morality leave much to be desired as well. The homosexual issue is considered to be more of an marketing problem for Evangelicals than a true moral dilemma, and the abortion debate is relegated to politics. In her section on the former she allows the ridiculous question "How did homosexuality leap over murder and adultery?" to stand as an assessment of culture's influence on Evangelicalism rather than its reliance on Scripture. She even makes the bizarre conclusion from Romans 1:26-27 that "the seemingly really bad sins as well as innocuous ones carry the same result" (which is the opposite of Paul's discussion here). Other statements like "the evangelical approach to justice [is] restorative, not retributive" are also less than representative.

It would have been better to simply state only her views (as such) or always include all options. Mixing the two without notice paints an inaccurate picture of the evangelical landscape. The uninformed reader will likely be far more confused after a perusal of this "premier source of information" than they were before they began.