Bible Students

A personal reflection based on “Christianity’s Dangerous Idea” by McGrath (chapters 6-8)

Chapters six through eight are about Protestantism in the United States. Essentially, this section covers the introduction of the Reformation into America with the first settlers. Protestantism came over to seek a safe-haven for religion. Additionally, this section covered the introduction of the missional cause into the States. 

Chapter six covers the crisis of Protestantism in Europe. The Protestant cause was not a united front, but rather a divided group of individual movements which rose against the Catholicism of the day. However, this Catholicism acted as a sort of melting pot which united the different Protestant reformations into one semi-united group. Though there was much infighting, the shared enemy of the Catholic state brought together the different groups into a one-on-one theological battle between the “united” Protestantism and Catholicism. The Protestants were, from their point of view, the victims of Catholic oppression. Additionally, the Catholic-ran state was beginning to overstep its responsibilities. The Protestants of the time reasoned that if a king were to overstep his power, he no longer was in line with acting as the king, and so whatever he commanded while overstepping was void. If he were to overstep, pushback by the people was permitted. The Bible of the time was not particularly pro-king, and so the King James Bible was ordered to be made. Tyndale developed his own text which had been opposing the king through marginal notes. While the Bible itself had been outlawed by the king, the reprinting of the marginal notes had not been. The marginal notes (which opposed the king’s rule) were added to the King James Bible, and was reprinted for the masses. In the midst of this theological controversy, the Puritans commended the King James Version. During this time the options of atheism and apatheism were made popular and brought into the public square. Individuals were lawfully and socially allowed not to choose any belief or modem of worship. The reason of the time was belief, and rational thoughts about God were exalted as the prime of theistic thought. The Enlightenment introduced these movements. The Enlightenment brought the legitimacy of deism, while also spurred the Christian community to uphold theism as the most reasonable worldview. Protestants responded with revivalism, bringing new people into the folds of Christianity. The Wesleys brought Methodism onto the scene. They desired strong pietism and a “method” of Christianity which demanded serious devotion to God. Anglicanism, another reformation of theology in Europe, was a midway between Catholicism and Protestantism. Eventually, the mixing leaned more toward Protestantism, specifically after the publicity of the Book of Common Prayer. 

Chapter seven covered Protestantism in America. After the problems with Protestantism in Europe, the Reformation made its way overseas to the new world. The Reformation was brought to America as a kind of religious safe-haven, where individuals were free to practice their Protestantism away from the control of Catholicism. The European powers were supportive of Protestantism moving to the West. Modern day Virginia was the first English colony. The individuals who moved under the guise of religious freedom saw themselves as the true church, the spiritual Israel who had gone through an “exodus” from the “Egypt” of Catholic-ruled Europe. Since then, there have been three great awakenings in America. The first was in New England, which revised the dead church of the time. Jonathan Edwards brought this first revival. At the time, the Reformed theology stressed reliance on the promises of Scripture for the assurance of salvation. Rather than any personal feeling, one must depend on the promise of Christ to save the Christian if they have faith in Him. The assurance of salvation is that promise, that even a little faith will be enough. During this revival, however, many individuals had emotional or experiential conversions. While the Christians who moved to the Americas stressed orthodoxy and orthopraxy, especially related to their Reformed theology, the Christians of Edward’s revival expected orthopathic experiences which assured them of their authentic salvation. During the heat of the revival, many groups in America which had grown to be orthopathically dead were brought back to the theological roots of their area (somewhat mirroring the revival of Puritanism). In the end, though the revival had a heavy reliance on experiences for assurance of salvation, these experiences created a revival in the communities of America which brought them back to the theological roots of the previous settlers. Now, Protestantism, especially in America, was not a single group by any means. Another very important preacher of the time, D. L. Moody, helped to shape the theological landscape. As a side-note, Moody has witnessed the use of altar-calls for evangelistic and discipleship messages, and so included altar-calls in his messages. Soon, an area in America known as the Bible Belt was developed, which held some of the strong theological presence in America. In my own reflection, one reason for the persistence of the Bible Belt may be the geographical differences between coastal and dense cities, such as the cities of the eastern coast, especially in the North. I believe the geographical separation of individuals may restrict the spread of new ideas, in a way protecting the beliefs of the area from the constant bombardment of other ideas, as one would expect to receive in a bustling city. Space does not permit a full exploration of this. In the South, Baptist churches became a place for African Americans. In this time, there was a strong divide, especially among churches, between black and white individuals. However, the nature of the States as a melting pot helped to shape the make types of Protestantism present in America for centuries to come. 

Finally, chapter eight discusses mission work. At this time, Protestantism was becoming a global religion. It had spread far and wide outside of Europe, penetrating the corners of the globe. However, though it had gone far and wide, it had not gone deep. Many people in other countries, especially in the Global South and Asia, did not know the gospel. Foreign missions and missionary societies became mainstream. While Protestantism did not originally focus on mission work, they began to at this time. Protestantism was becoming a stable movement which had been around for many hundreds of years. In terms of foreign missions, most Protestant countries did not even have access to the sea. However, through the efforts of many Protestants, including Hudson Taylor, the spark of Protestant and Evangelical missions was lit, and began to burn throughout the world.