11 - Evangelical tradition in America

Summary

Ever since the eighteenth century, Jonathan Edwards's legacy and the fate of evangelicals in America have been symbiotically linked. As Edwards's reputation has fared, so has the evangelical movement. There are many reasons for this, not all of them anchored in his eminence. Yet more than any other thinker, Edwards has aided evangelicals in gaining credibility and in furthering their agenda in American public life. Not surprisingly, then, evangelicals have usually championed Edwards more wholeheartedly - less hesitantly, and often much less critically - than has any other group. Not all of them have favored Edwards's Calvinistic commitments. Since the time of the Civil War, most have dissented from Calvinism. But all have shared in Edwards's passionate pursuit of “true religion, ” the kind of vital Christian piety that stems from regeneration (spiritual rebirth) and sets its subjects apart from nominal Christianity.

As Edwards preached in 1740, “[t]here is such a thing as conversion, ” and “ 'tis the most important thing in the world; and they are happy that have been the subjects of it and they most miserable that have not. ” This doctrine has since become a hallmark of the evangelical movement, distinguishing it from other forms of traditional Protestantism. Indeed, for the purposes of this chapter, evangelicalism will be defined as orthodox Protestantism transformed and reconfigured by the transatlantic awakenings of the early eighteenth century. “