Evangelical
(adjective)
Of or relating to any of several Christian churches that believe in the sole authority of the gospels.
Examples of Evangelical in the following topics:
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Christian Fundamentalism
- Evangelicals have a national organization called the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
- A fourth strand involved the growing concern among many Evangelical Christians with modernism and an increase in public criticism of the Bible.
- A fifth strand pressed the need for public revivals, a common theme among many Evangelicals who did not become Fundamentalists.
- Both rural and urban in character, the flourishing movement acted as a denominational surrogate and aimed at a militant orthodoxy of evangelical Christianity.
- Moody, evangelical preacher and founder of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.
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The Great Awakening
- Each of these "Great Awakenings" was characterized by widespread revivals led by evangelical Protestant ministers, a sharp increase of interest in religion, a profound sense of conviction and redemption on the part of those affected, an increase in evangelical church membership, and the formation of new religious movements and denominations.
- Ministers from various evangelical Protestant denominations supported the Great Awakening.
- The evangelical movement of the 1740s played a key role in the development of democratic thought, as well as the belief of the free press and the belief that information should be shared and completely unbiased and uncontrolled.
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The Age of Reforms
- It enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations.
- Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.
- Congregationalists set up missionary societies to evangelize the western territory of the Northern Tier.
- The Female Missionary Society and the Maternal Association, both active in Utica, NY, were highly organized and financially sophisticated women's organizations responsible for many of the evangelical converts of the New York frontier.
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The Revival of Domesticity and Religion
- The 1950s saw a boom in the Evangelical church in America.
- In the post–World War II period, a split developed between Evangelicals.
- Many Evangelicals began to express reservations about being known to the world as fundamentalists.
- The new generation of Evangelicals set as their goal to abandon a militant Bible stance.
- The self-identified fundamentalists also cooperated in separating their "neo-Evangelical" opponents from the fundamentalist name, by increasingly seeking to distinguish themselves from the more open group, whom they often characterized derogatorily by "neo-Evangelical" or just Evangelical.
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The Religious Right
- By 1980, evangelical Christians had become an important political and social force in the United States.
- Some 1,300 radio stations in the country were owned and operated by evangelicals.
- For some, evangelism was a business, but most conservative Christians were true believers who were convinced that premarital and extramarital sex, abortion, drug use, homosexuality, and “irreligious” forms of popular and high culture were responsible for a perceived decline in traditional family values that threatened American society.
- Under this leadership, the new Religious Right combines conservative politics with evangelical and fundamentalist teachings.
- However, despite public announcements that excitement among evangelical and Christian right voters to Robertson's presidential campaign triggered the creation of the Christian Coalition, the incorporation records of the State of Virginia reveal that the Christian Coalition, Inc., was actually incorporated on April 30, 1987, with the paperwork filed earlier and with planning having begun before that.
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The Anglican Class
- The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and other evangelicals directly challenged these lax moral standards and refused to tolerate them in their ranks.
- The evangelicals identified the traditional standards of masculinity as sinful, which revolved around gambling, drinking, brawling, and arbitrary control over women, children, and slaves.
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The Second Great Awakening
- Congregationalists set up missionary societies to evangelize the western territory of the Northern Tier.
- The Female Missionary Society and the Maternal Association, both active in Utica, New York, were highly organized and financially sophisticated women's organizations responsible for many of the evangelical converts of the New York frontier.
- Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of nineteenth-century reform movements.
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The Politics of Slavery
- The abolitionist movement in the North was led by social reformers such as free blacks, evangelical reformers, and William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
- Influenced by evangelical Protestantism, Garrison and other abolitionists believed in moral suasion, a technique of appealing to the conscience of the public, especially slaveholders.
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Conclusion: A Maturing Society
- A great deal of optimism, fueled by evangelical Protestantism revivalism, underwrote the moral crusades of the first half of the nineteenth century.
- Evangelical Protestantism pervaded American culture in the antebellum era and fueled a belief in the possibility of changing society for the better.
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Markets and Missionaries
- Progressive Era evangelism included strong political, social, and economic messages, which urged adherents to improve their society.