Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Whats the difference between...

Options
  • 08-05-2008 11:07pm
    #1
    Doctor DooM
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 25,868 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Non Denomination Christianity and Evangelicism?

    Something mentioned by PDN on the Atheist forum.

    I note Evangelicals (Sorry, I dont want to offend anyone by saying evangelism, i know thats different) always post here, I am a little confused?

    By the name, is it that you speak ot about the religion more? Is there something more I am missing in my ignorance?

    Thanks for your time.


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    SDooM wrote: »
    Non Denomination Christianity and Evangelicals?
    The term "evangelical" derives from the greek for 'good news/good messenger' and in the general sense, applies to the holder of any idea which the holder wishes to propagate. In christianity, it originally applied to the four gospel writers, and more recently it self-describes christians who wish to emphasize their interest in propagating their religious beliefs. In certain religious groups, the term also seems synonymous with 'protestant' and the idea that one's own personal interpretation of the bible is the correct one, but that meaning is not used, or actively rejected, by other religious groups.

    "Non-denomination christianity" is a relatively recent development and seems to be used pretty much exclusively to describe a increasingly large subset of protestant variations of christianity, mostly in the USA. It's been suggested that this is part of a process of "detribalization" of the religious marketplace, to permit religions to react faster to market forces and maintain market share -- hence many "non-denomination" religious outlets tend to avoid looking like churches (no spires, few outward religious symbols, no clerical garb and so on), and in recent years, quite a few formerly denominated churches have changed congregation-specific names in favor of blander ones.

    In general, the two terms are not synonymous, but there's a good deal of overlap nonetheless.


  • Options
    #3
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    The word Evangelical generally refers to Christians who believe that you become a Christian though making a conscious decision to accept the Gospel of Christ and, by faith, you are 'born again'. This obviously differentiates them from those such as Catholics and Lutherans who baptise children into 'Christianity'.

    Some denominations have evangelical wings. For example, in the Anglican communion some churches are indistinguishable from Roman Catholicism. However, there are also Anglican Churches that are solidly evangelical such as Holy Trinity Brompton that gave birth to the Alpha courses.

    There is also a movement that designates themselves as Evangelical Catholics. They preach the need to be born again by faith yet retain membership within Catholicism.

    The term Evangelical came into popular use as a consequence of the fundamentalist/liberal controversy of the early Twentieth Century. A group of Christians protested against the inroads of liberal theology into many Protestant Churches. The main focus was in the American Presbyterian Church where ministers gathered around a shared faith in fundamentals that they believed to be under attack (belief in the inspiration of Scripture, virgin birth, deity of Christ, His atoning death, literal resurrection and the Second Coming etc).

    However, Fundamentalism gradually came to denote a very judgmental form of Christianity, more defined by what it was against than what it was for. Many Christians who believed in the Bible had no wish to be associated with something that they saw as too narrow-minded. Therefore, under the influence of people like Billy Graham, this 'softer' or 'user friendly' version of fundamentalism attracted many Christians under the banner of Evangelical.

    People like Jerry Falwell would be viewed more as Fundamentalist, and those like Billy Graham as being Evangelical.

    The rise of non-denominational churches reflects a growing suspicion of authority and hierarchies. Most, but not all, non-denominational churches would be evangelical.

    One of the problems with Evangelicals is that they are often undercounted on census reports etc because they lack an overall structure. So, in the last Irish census, they used a variety of labels to describe themselves: Christian; Born-Again, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Non-denominational, Evangelical, House Church, or else used the name of their individual church or denomination (Assemblies of God, Church of God, Baptist etc.) This produces some strange results. For example, we often hear about "the four main churches" (Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist). Yet, in just about every town in Ireland, you will find Evangelical or Pentecostal congregations that outnumber the 3 'main' Protestant churches. The attendance at morning worship in my own church, for example, exceeds the combined attendance of C of I, Methodists and Presbyterians in our town.


  • Options
    #4
    Doctor DooM
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 25,868 Mod ✭✭✭✭Doctor DooM


    Thanks for the responses.

    Would it be too cheeky to ask what charismatic means in reference to non denominational Christians?

    What you said rings very true, I have no end of friends who say they feel there is something which rings true about Christianity, yet don't feel comfortable with religious hierarchies telling them what is wrong or right.


  • Options
    #5
    PDN
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,686 ✭✭✭✭PDN


    SDooM wrote: »
    Thanks for the responses.

    Would it be too cheeky to ask what charismatic means in reference to non denominational Christians?

    What you said rings very true, I have no end of friends who say they feel there is something which rings true about Christianity, yet don't feel comfortable with religious hierarchies telling them what is wrong or right.

    Charismatic (from the Greek charismata - literally 'graces') refers to those who believe in the existence of supernatural gifts such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Many evangelicals (eg Southern Baptists) are cessationists, believing that such manifestations were only for the apostolic age and then ceased.

    Pentecostals believe in these gifts, of course, but the term Pentecostal is more usually applied to mainstream Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God, Church of God, Apostolic Church, Elim Church etc which are all about 100 years old. Charismatics may be part of older Protestant denominations (Charismatic Anglicans or Methodists) or indeed may be Charismatic Catholics. Nondenominational churches that believe in the charismatic gifts may reject the label Pentecostal because they see it as referring to specific denominations with their attendant structures.


  • Options
    #6
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    SDooM wrote: »
    Would it be too cheeky to ask what charismatic means in reference to non denominational Christians?
    'Charism', like 'evangelical' also derives from the greek and roughly means 'grace', and it understood to be a gift provided by a deity to a believer to perform some function, generally with a meaning and a name specific to the religion and little or no meaning outside the religion.

    For christian believers, and protestants particularly, charisms very often involve high-profile public displays of one kind of devotional activity or another. These include random speech-like ululations ('speaking in tongues'), the distinctly spooky occurrences of uncontrollable laughter (the 'toronto blessing') as well as the more mundane determination of the deity's wishes and friend-or-foe identification (both called 'discernment'), and many more.

    I suspect that some christians also conflate the word with the more normal everyday use, and understand it to mean, in part, 'friendly' and 'lovable'.


  • Advertisement
Advertisement