Evangelical Christianity

and Romanticism

D.W. Bebbington
Dr. Bebbington is Senior Lecturer in History at the University ofStirling, Scotland. This article is the second
in a series ofthree entitled 'Evangelical Christianity and Western Culture Since the Eighteenth Century' and
was presented by the author in the Staley Lectures at Regent College in April1989. (The first lecture in the
series was published in the December 1989 issue ofCrux.) The lectures were based on research for his book
Evangelicalism in Modem Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s (Unwin Hyman, 1989).

he ftrst of the articles in this series dealt was a feeling in the Romantics for the numinous, in

T with the relationship between Evangelical

Christianity and the Enlightenment. Evan-
gelical Christianity was defmed in terms of four
mountains and seas, in dramatic panoramas. The
artist John Martin, for instance, depicted vast scenes
with rocky crags, precipitous drops and tiny human
salient characteristics: conversionism; activism; beings perched on the edge. A sense of awe was
biblicism; and crucicentricity. It was argued that created by the painters and the writers alike. The
Evangelical Christianity was started by the imping- simplicity that marked Enlightenment poetics was
ing of the Enlightenment on the Protestant tradition very much out of vogue. Metaphysical systematiz-
and that in the eighteenth century and on into the ers were in favour, the greatest being Hegel with his
nineteenth much Evangelical religion displayed great vista of world history. In Hegel and in many
Enlightenment characteristics. There was therefore other thinkers of the era there were distinct signs of
an alignment with the progressive thought of the pantheism. The world was charged with the spiri-
eighteenth century. tual.
We can now turn our attention to Romanticism, In the area of epistemology there was change
to the new cultural mood which supplanted the also. Knowledge was now held not to be the result
Enlightenment at the very end of the eighteenth of passive experience but to be the fruit of creative
century and in the early years of the nineteenth. activity by the mind. Reality was primarily mental.
Perhaps Romanticism is best known in the English- This is the tradition of idealism that stemmed from
speaking world through the Lake Poets, especially Immanuel Kant in Germany. It was to impinge
William Words worth andS.T. Coleridge. The mood increasingly on Anglo-Saxon thought as the nine-
that is the subject of this article, however, extended teenth century wore on. Knowledge was often
beyond the generation of poets who flourished at the thought in the Romantic age to be the result of
beginning of the nineteenth century long into that intuition, a perception outside the categories of sci-
century and indeed on into the twentieth. The ence. Thus, for example, the great music of the age
Romantic phenomenon was the incoming cultural was felt to be the result of spontaneous apprehen-
wave of the nineteenth century. sion. There was a cult of the genius. The music of
What, then, were the features of Romanticism? Berlioz, of Schumann and ofVerdi in different ways
Essentially it replaced the Enlightenment's stress on testiftes to the spirit of the age. Many of the musical
reason with a new stress on will and emotion. More trends culminated in Wagner. The music of the
specifically, in the area of metaphysics there was a period illustrates the surges of feeling which were
greater awareness of the spiritual. According to a characteristic of the new cultural mood.
literary critic of the early twentieth century, T.E. There was a further major emphasis, on history.
Hulme, Romanticism was "spilt religion."' A sense There was a fundamental movement of thought
of the divine ran out from religious institutions to associated with Romantic sensibility which has
consecrate the world of nature and history. There sometimes been called "historicism." The ideal

Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No.1 9

Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

form of society was located not in the future (as it had vespers and the confessional. All this was an expres-
been by the Enlightenment's idea of progress), but sion of Romantic taste impinging on organized reli-
rather in the past. The past was felt to be a time when gion. In the Church of England it is generally
affairs were much better than in the present. Further- accepted that the Oxford Movement of the 1830s
more, according to historicists, groups of human represented to a large extent the impact of Romantic
beings create their own values over time. There is thought. John Henry Newman' s style is quintessen-
therefore no permanent set of values which has tially Romantic. Ritualism, which extended the
absolute intrinsic worth. Thus historicism created a legacy of Oxford movement by imitating Roman
sense of tradition, of the importance of inherited Catholic developments in the liturgy within the
wisdom, of the significance of the customary. The Church of England, was likewise Romantic in inspi-
historical emphasis is clearly exemplified in the ration. And certain aspects ofBroad Church thought
novels of Sir W alter Scott with their colour, their within the Church of England, especially the theol-
awareness of the distinctiveness of past ages and ogy of F.D. Maurice, professor at King's College,
their folk spirit. This folk spirit, a dimension of the London, were deeply influenced by Coleridge and
historicism of the period, undoubtedly gave an his circle and so bore the stamp of the Romantic.
impulse to the nationalism which is one of the most What is less appreciated is that Romanticism
significant creations of nineteenth-century thought. affected Evangelicals too. Evangelical assump-
Nationalism was the driving force behind many of tions, as we have seen, had been integrated with the
the political developments of the age. So in meta- Enlightenment worldview. But during the course of
physics, epistemology and history there were sig- the nineteenth century, in different fields at different
nificant breaks with the past. stages, Evangelicalism came to terms in many ways
The consequence was a different understanding with Romantic thought. It is that process that is
ofhumanity. Whereas the Enlightenment had tended concentrated on here- the ways in which Evangeli-
to see human beings as machines on the model of calism was modified by the Romantic influences.
Newtonian science, Romanticism saw them as or-
ganisms, as part of the growing world of nature. A central figure was Edward Irving. Born in
favourite Romantic metaphor for man was a tree.
Biology rather than physics supplied the imagery.
Human beings, furthermore, were typically treated
A 1792, Irving became a minister of the Church
of Scotland as a protege of the leading Evan-
gelical Thomas Chalmers. In 1822 he went to
as members of communities. Trees, after all, grow London to serve largely a Scottish congregation. He
in the soil of a particular land. The notion of was a striking figure: he stood 6'2" tall, possessed a
organism led on to a sense of group solidarity. very strong voice and had a squint which added to his
Perhaps the greatest representative in Germany of pulpit power. His hair was parted to right and left in
nearly all these trends was Goethe. His nature affected disorder in the manner of a Romantic gen-
mysticism of colour and substance was near the ius. According to a great friend, Thomas Carlyle, the
heart of the new ways of thinking. All the move- greatest Romantic writer of that generation, Irving's
ments of opinion can be summed up as Romanti- desire to be loved motivated a great deal that he did.
cism. The Romantic tone gradually made inroads His preaching swept London by storm. He was
during the nineteenth century into different fields - mentioned in the House of Commons, carriages
into wallpaper design as much as poetry, challeng- brought members of the peerage to his church and he
ing Enlightenment norms and usually winning the became the talkofthe town. Why? Because his style
victory. was Romantic. He appealed to the elite who admired
It is well known that this way of thinking affected the Lake poets. In idiom and content he was very
the churches. It transformed the style of Roman Coleridgean. He was, in fact, a close friend of
Catholicism during the nineteenth century. Ultra- Coleridge. He regularly visited Coleridge' s house in
montanism, the movement exalting the role of the Hampstead and was deeply swayed by the poet's
papacy within the Catholic Church, was very much way of thinking. As Irving put it in addressing
on its cultural side an expression of Romanticism. Coleridge, "You have been more profitable ... to my
The deliberate adoption outside Italy of the customs spiritual understanding of the Word of God ... than
of Rome bears all the hallmarks of the Romantic. any or all of the men with whom I have entertained
There was a revival of pomp and colour, of Marian friendship.''2 It is not surprising that Irving read

10 Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No.1

 Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

Scripture through Romantic spectacles. And that feeling for Wordsworth," it was said, "amounted
produced many fresh interpretations. Aspects of the almost to a passion."4 A copy of W ordsworth was
Bible that perhaps had lain dormant in previous always on his desk and when h,e was unwell the best
generations sprang to life. medicine was Wordsworth. Needless to say he took
Most strikingly, Irving discerned the second his holidays in the Lake District and he would point
advent as a major category that had been neglected. out spots connected with Wordsworth to his long-
In 1827 he published a translation of a strange work suffering wife. The qualities of the poets inevitably
by a Chilean Jesuit entitled The Coming ofMessiah coloured the preaching of ministers such as Thomas.
in Glory and Majesty. Evangelicals in general in the They frequently concentrated, for example, on the
previous generation had supposed that the second gradualgrowthofthesoul,thethemeofWordsworth's
coming was not a literal event. Thomas Scott, an Prelude. An allied motif is evident in the music that
Evangelical Anglican leader, actually said in 1802 became popular amongst Evangelicals later in the
that there would be no visible appearance of Christ nineteenth century. The Sacred Songs and Solos of
on earth. 3 Irving insisted on the contrary that Christ Ira D. Sankey, the companion of the evangelist
would indeed return in person. A strong conviction Dwight L. Moody, have much in their tone which is
of the imminence of the second coming was the Romantic. Sankey' s songs were immensely popular
major theme of the Albury Conferences held in from the 1870s throughout the Evangelical world.
Surrey in the late 1820s and became the subject of The explanation was given by R. W. Dale, an English
many other prophetic conferences as the century Congregational contemporary. "People want to sing,"
advanced. he wrote, "not what they think, but what they feel." 5
The adventism of this movement took a particu- Sankey was catering for a growing Romantic taste at
lar form. Those who attended the Albury Confer- a popular level at the end of the century.
ences decided that postmillennialism, a common Secondly, the supernatural dimension was mag-
belief among eighteenth-century Evangelicals, was nified. There was a craving for immediate contact
mistaken. The widespread view had been that the with the divine in everyday life. The Romantic ethos
second coming would take place after the millen- has been called by a major literary critic "Natural
nium. There would be gradual progress from the Supernaturalism."6 It conditioned the policies of
present age into the good things to come. Irving and Irving. He criticized bodies such as the British and
his successors by contrast, were premillennalists, Foreign Bible Society for using ordinary business
holding that the second coming would take place methods for the purposes of the kingdom of God.
before the millennium, and be associated with judge- The society was pursuing a rational Enlightenment
ments on the present wicked age. Belief in the technique, but it is not surprising that a Romantic
personal advent in premillennial form had existed should regard this approach with contempt as debas-
before. It was common in the seventeenth century. ing the spiritual. Business methods, according to
But it was revived in Irving's circle because of his Irving, contaminated Christian work, which should
Romantic sensibility. The second coming of Jesus employ distinctive godly ways. Committee meet-
Christ was of a piece with the dramatic personal ings, for example, should begin with prayer. Like-
intervention of a hero in the affairs of the nation as wise, according to Irving, there must be a new
seen in many a Romantic poet. Because of that departure in missionary methods. He repudiated
sensibility, Irving became aware of something in the much of what William Carey had called "means."
Bible that others had not recently seen. Following Instead of the elaborate structure of home support
adventism there was a gradual rise of other attitudes with committees, bankers and subscribers, Irving
which can be identified as similar to the Romantic urged that there should be no such help at all.
spirit of the age. As the nineteenth century wore on, Missionaries should go out as men of faith, like the
more and more Romantic characteristics began to earliest apostles, trusting God to provide for all their
mark Evangelical Christians. needs without any preliminary arrangements. Here
Several can be listed. First there was poetic sen- was the birth of the faith mission principle which has
sibility. There was a stress on feeling at many levels. grown so widespread in the twentieth century.
Preachers became keen on Romantic authors. David Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mis-
Thomas, a Congregational minister at Bristol in the sion, well illustrates the attitude of the fresh mission-
mid-nineteenth century is a good example. "His ary tradition. On a voyage to China, Hudson Taylor

Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No. 1 11

Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

gave away his life-belt quite deliberately to show questions of ecclesiology, much more than Enlight-
that his trust was in God alone. The faith principle enment thinkers. Evangelical sympathies were very
was adopted by the newer missionary societies es- marked for the Oxford Movement in its early phases.
tablished in the wake of the China Inland Mission. In J.H. Newman knew he had substantial Evangelical
its origins it was a Romantic attitude springing from support for his campaign to restore dignity to the
a new reading of scriptural passages by Irving and Church of England right up until 1838, when sec-
his generation. tions of the movement began to adopt a pro-Roman
Thirdly, there was a sense of history. Evangeli- Catholic course. In the later nineteenth century
cals became more aware of the past. Irving culti- many clergy in the Church of England, starting as
vated in the pulpit what was called the "Miltonic or Evangelicals, eventually by nearly imperceptible
Old-English Puritan style" of declamation.7 He steps became High Churchmen. The spirit of the age
adopted a theological stance that he called Calvin- elevated theirchurchmanship almost unconsciously.
ism. He stressed the sovereignty of God, but his Irving founded a separate Catholic Apostolic Church.
version of Calvinism was not based on close study of It observed an elaborate ritual and upheld the doc-
sixteenth- or seventeenth-century teaching. He trine of the real presence. Irving was certainly an
believed, for example, that God is so powerful that Evangelical, but the church that he created had a
the atonement must have been intended for all, not complex structure with twelve apostles, and a di-
just the elect. That is a subversion of much Calvin- verse hierarchy in each congregation. The Christian
istic teaching of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- community was to be properly ordered. The same
turies. Nevertheless he saw himself as a Calvinist, element, a conviction of the importance of the corpo-
believing in the omnipotence of God in a very strong rate expression of the faith, was evident in the origins
sense. Historiography at times seems similarly of the Brethren in the same decade of the 1830s. The
cavalier. Merle D' Aubigne's History of the Refor- Brethren, generally called the "Plymouth Brethren,"
mation, an immensely popular text, has very little emphasized the purity of the church and urged people
concern with accurate portrayals. Rather its purpose to leave their existing denominations to gather to the
is to evoke the atmosphere of past times, to depict the name of the Lord only. Loyalty to Jesus Christ, they
heroic rediscovery of pure doctrine in the midst of held,demandednewChristian assemblies. Corpora-
popish decadence. The growth of anti-Catholicism tism, then, was a mark of the age that steadily made
amongst Evangelicals from the 1830s was not sim- progress among Evangelicals.
ply a consequence of social developments. A large Fifthly, there was the field of aesthetics. Atten-
number of Catholic Irish, it is true, came into areas tion for the beautiful was a Romantic preoccupation
where traditionally Protestantism had been domi- which certainly affected the churches. Commonly it
nant. Nevertheless there was also a sense of ideo- was a concern with nature. Flowers were very
logical struggle inherited from the past, light versus popular. In the first half of the nineteenth century no
darkness, Protestant truth versus Roman error. That Evangelical congregation of any type would have
was no more than an expression of the historical had floral decoration in its place of worship. Indeed
consciousness that marked the nineteenth century as flowers were explicitly denounced as a feature of
a whole. heathen religion. Gradually during the second half
Fourthly, there was a corporate emphasis. So- of the century they were introduced into more and
ciety came to the fore rather than the individual. The more churches, and in the end Evangelical congrega-
emergence of "holism," as it is sometimes called, tions succumbed. That was a symptom of the spread
was a break from the Enlightenment's legacy of ofRomantic sensibility. A taste for choral music was
individualism in which each human being was seen parallel. Robed church choirs became widespread in
as a separate unit. Society had been conceived by the Episcopal tradition, although they were not re-
Enlightenment thinkers as no more than an assem- stricted to the Episcopal tradition. Again the novelty
blage of units. To Romantics, by contrast, the fitted Romantic taste. Equally pulpit style altered. It
individual was rooted in a particular community, became more florid and rhetorical. As an illustra-
and therefore community was prior to the individual. tion, here is a paraphrase- admittedly satirical- of
There were implications for Evangelicals in their the Twenty-Third Psalm as it might have been given
theory of the church. They stressed the community by R. Winter Hamilton, a Leeds Congregational
of Christians, the doctrine of the church, and related minister of the 1840s:

12 Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No. 1

 Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

vative force.
Deity is my Pastor; I shall not be indigent. He The six factors that have been reviewed illustrate
maketh me to recumb on the verdant lawns; He that Romantic characteristics strongly marked
leadeth me beside the unrippled liquidities; He rein- Evangelicalism. What were their consequences for
stalleth my spirits, andconducteth me in the avenues the development of the Evangelical movement? The
of rectitude, for the celebrity of His appellations. impactofRomanticism was ambiguous, for its influ-
Unquestionably, though I perambulate the glen of ence pointed in two opposite theological directions.
the umbrages of the sepulchral dormitories, I will One trend was conservative; the other was liberal.
not be perturbed by appalling catastrophes; for Thou The conservative trend can be considered first.
art present; Thy word and Thy crook insinuate Various aspects can be discerned. Once more pre-
delectations. Thou spreadest a refection before me millennialismplayed its part. Its growth during the
in the midst of inimical scrutations; Thou perfumest nineteenth century was especially evident amongst
my locks with odiferous unguents, my chalice exu- Anglican Evangelicals. One version that was par-
berates. Indubitably benignity and commiseration ticularly influential was dispensationalism. Going
shall continue all the diutumity of my vitality, and I back toJ ohn Nelson Darby, an early Brethren leader,
will eternalize my habitance in the metropolis of this school of opinion held that history consists of
Nature. 8 contrasting dispensations in which God deals on
different principles with his people. Dispensational-
The idiom of preaching was transformed. And it was ism undoubtedly swayed Evangelicals in a conser-
transformed because of the taste of the times. vative direction, leading, for example, to a repudia-
Sixthly, the politics of Evangelicals were af- tion of the social gospel. Its spread was one of the
fected. There was a reformist impulse in the move- major ways in which a force Romantic in its prove-
ment during the Enlightenment era, but amongst nance stiffened theological conservatism.
those touched by Romanticism it became much less A second area was the reinforcement of biblical
marked. The chief ideological reason for the change inerrancy. The modern form of belief in the iner-
was undoubtedly premillennialism. The rising school rancy of Scripture was an innovation of this period.
of eschatology offered little hope for the improve- The conviction newly adopted in the early nine-
ment of the world. Judgement alone was to be teenth century was that it is possible to deduce the
expected before the imminent second coming. Hence, quality of inerrancy in Scripture from God's truth-
Evangelicals tended to be more conservative, more fulness. The formal argument goes as follows. God
concerned to shore up the existing order than to cannot lie; God speaks his word in the Bible; there-
reform it. Groen Van Prinsterer, a leading Dutch fore the Bible contains no error. That deductive
Evangelical prominent in the Orange Party, for method was an approach common amongst Roman-
instance, wroteatextcalledUnbeliefandRevolution tics. It was not the way that the Enlightenment
in which he traced the French Revolution to the theorists had approached the Bible. The Enlighten-
irreligion of the eighteenth century. He argued that ment had characteristically used not a deductive
what Christians ofEvangelical conviction should do method, but an inductive method. Evangelicals of
in the nineteenth century was to resist revolutionary the eighteenth century were eager to affmn the truth
impulses. In many countries religion of an Evangeli- of Scripture, yet were also happy to admit that minor
cal colouring became a sanction for the politics of discrepancies in the text might be found by investi-
establishment. It became strongly associated with gation. Inerrancy was not part of their worldview.
nationalism, as it did in the British Conservatism of There was an illuminating incident in the career of
the 1840s. The trend to the right was not uniform. In Henry Martyn, the pioneer missionary to the East. In
England, Evangelicals of the Nonconformist modem-day Iran he was questioned by a Persian
churches remained more Liberal in political tone, scholar on whether the New Testament was spoken
just as they remained more conditioned by the En- by God. The Muslim scholar believed the Koran to
lightenment. Nevertheless there was undoubtedly a have that status. Martyn' s reply is most instructive.
swing in the balance of Evangelical politics in the "The sense from God," he said, "but the expression
nineteenth century against reform and in favour of from the different writers of it.''9 Henry Martyn, that
supporting the established order. Romanticism is to say, did not believe in verbal inspiration. The
encouraged political pessimism, and that is a cons er- view that Henry Martyn upheld was the attitude of

Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No. 1 13

Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

the Enlightenment. By the mid-nineteenth century, the first ha1f of the twentieth century. It was the last
a much firmer attitude to the Bible was coming into of three major factors, all stemming from the Ro-
vogue amongst Evangelicals. Its origins can be mantic impulse, that made for conservatism.
traced to Robert Haldane, a Scottish Evangelical, On the other hand, there was a liberalizing trend
who found at Geneva in 1816 a diffuse Germanic which can also be traced to the Romantic movement.
view of inspiration. It was held there that Scripture In the early nineteenth century Romanticism af-
is no more inspired than any poem. In reaction Ha1- fected central doctrines. Its influence was felt most
dane asserted a doctrine of absolute verbal inspira- of all in Germany, the heartland of the Romantic
tion in which every word of the original text of mood. It did not cause specific denia1s of inherited
Scripture was held to be equally inspired. That Christian doctrines. Rather it created a preference
attitude was to spread through the journal The Rec- for vaguer statements of belief. An aversion to
ord to most Evangelical Anglicans. Thus Bishop dogma became genera1. At first the fashion for
J.C. Ryle in the later nineteenth century could de- broader theology, often ca11 "Neologism," was treated
clare, "I feel no hesitation in avowing that I believe in much of the English-speaking world as something
in the plenary inspiration of every word of the to be shunned at all costs. Not only Evangelica1s
original text of Holy Scripture." 10 It is therefore were a1armed by it. E.B. Pusey, one of the leading
untrue to suppose - as it is commonly supposed- divines of the Oxford Movement, detested it as a
that a traditional strong view of the Bible was broken solvent of the structure of Christian thought. Gradu-
down in the late nineteenth century by higher criti- ally, however, this erosion of the sharp edges of
cism. A more accurate perspective on attitudes to Christian teaching was accepted by a number of
the Bible amongst Evangelicals in the nineteenth people in the English-speaking world, especially
century is that a stronger view of the Bible developed those swept along by the new tide of German thought.
overtime. In particular, a higher view of inspiration It was given memorable expression by a Birming-
grew up which was Romantic in style. It had the ham Unitarian called George Dawson. "I love reli-
effect of reinforcing theologica1 conservatism. gion and flowers" he said; "but I hate botany and
Thirdly, there was the higher life movement. theology." 11 He liked the experience of the numi-
From the 1860s a holiness movement developed nous, the direct perception typical of the Romantics,
within Evangelicalism. It taught that sanctification but not the structuring of Christian truths the Enlight-
is available by faith, not by works. It was strongly enment had continued to teach. In the later nine-
indebted to John Wesley, who had taught that per- teenth and early twentieth centuries such attitudes
fection is possible before death. Many Methodists began to make inroads on the Evangelical movement
upheld this teaching, but the holiness tradition re- itself. In America the Congregationalist Horace
ceived a new twist from the 1860s. It began to be Bushnellled the way in reformulating Evangelical
taught that holiness comes not after a long struggle, teaching in broader terms. The effect was to under-
which was Wesley's view, but immediately in re- mine doctrinal conviction. According to the most
sponse to a seeking faith. This constituted a rejec- recent research, there is no doubt that this process
tion of Enlightenment gradualism. The immedia- constituted the chief solvent of Christian orthodoxy
tism of the new school was typical of Romantic amongst English-speaking Protestants in the nine-
thought. In America holiness churches split off from teenth century. Biblical criticism has sometimes
Methodism. The popularity of the new doctrine been awarded the dubious palm. Another possible
ensured that they soon formed a strong sector within claimant has been evolutionary thought inspired by
Evangelicalism. There were some remarkable de- Darwin. In fact neither was the primary agent for the
velopments. The Fire-Baptized Holiness Associa- subversion of orthodoxy. It was rather the tendency
tion of south-eastern Kansas, for example, held in to mystic religiosity, a diffused Romantic influence
the 1890s that beyond the second blessing the be- that was coming in, especia1ly from Germany. The
liever should progress through baptisms of fire, more advanced Evangelical thinkers in the late nine-
dynamite, lyddite, and oxidite. In Britain a much teenth century created a liberal Evangelical move-
milder form of holiness teaching was institutiona1- ment which was to be strong, especially in Congre-
ized at the Keswick Convention from 1875. It was gationalism and amongst Anglican Evangelicals in
a focus of the conservative Evangelical movement the first half of the twentieth century. The very heart
in Britain and the whole English-speaking world in of Romanticism, an imprecise apprehension of the

14 Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No.1

 Evangelical Christianity and Romanticism

supernatural, was an element making for liberal as a whole.

thinking within the Evangelical movement. It has to be concluded that the Romantic impact
What then can be concluded overall? First, it can on Evangelicalism was ambiguous. There was loss
be established that Evangelical Christianity is ca- and there was gain. But the adaptability ofEvangeli-
pable of adaptation. It was gradually transposed into calism has a wider lesson. If Evangelical religion
a Romantic key as the nineteenth century went on. could be adapted to a new cultural form in Western
Evangelicalism has not remained static over time, a civilization, it can be adapted to other cultural forms
wooden cultural relic as it has often been depicted in outside Western civilization. Today surely the les-
less discerning historical works. It is commonly son is that Evangelical religion can be successfully
thought to be incapable of change. That is not true. transformed into terms of the civilizations of the
Evangelicalism changed enormously in order to third world. Risks are involved, as the history of the
remain in touch with the spirit of the age. Indeed English-speaking world in the nineteenth century
Evangelicalism responded to the flow of Western illustrates. So long as the risks are carefully guarded
culture as much as any other movement embedded in against, however, translation ofEvangelicalism into
civilization. Romantic sensitivities made Evangeli- a different cultural setting can be achieved without
cals emphasize afresh aspects of the Bible to which compromising the heart of the gospel. Ill
the eyes of previous generations had been closed.
The renewed quest for the supernatural, for ex- Endnotes
ample, ensured that some took up living by faith.
The founder of the Bristol orphanages, George 1. T. E. Hulme, 'Romanticism and Classicism', Specu-
Muller, comes to mind. Muller and others who, like lations, ed. Herbert Read (London, 1936), p. 118.
2. Edward Irving, For MissioTUJries after the Apostoli-
him, lived by faith were trusting God in a radical
cal School: A Series ofOrations (London, 1825), pp. viif.
way. God was undoubtedly honoured. Their will-
3. J. H. Pratt (ed.), The Thought of the Evangelical
ingness to trust God was influenced by the spirit of Leaders [1856] (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 256.
the age. Previously the Evangelical movement had 4. H.A.Thomas,MemorialsoftheRev.DavidThomas,
perhaps been deficient in a sense of God "felt" to be BA., of Bristol (London, 1876), p. 49.
present. The movement therefore gained from what 5. R. W. Dale in George Jackson, Collier of Manch-
Romanticism offered in its new cultural atmosphere. ester: A Friend's Tribute (London, 1923), p. 152n.
Secondly, however, not all was gain from adap- 6. M. H. Abrams,Natural SuperTUJturalism: Tradition
tation to this cultural change. Most obviously there and Revolution in Romantic Literature (London, 1971).
was a sapping of conviction through Romantic re- 7. Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences [1887], ed. C.E.
ligiosity. Romanticism was also responsible for the Norton (London, 1972), p. 195.
8. Clyde Binfield, •A Psalm Gentrified' ,JourTUJl ofthe
polarization ofEvangelicals between those who had
United Reformed Church History Society, Vol. 1, No. 8
their thought influenced by the conservative strands
(1976), p. 227.
in the new ways of thinking and those who were 9. John Sargent, Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn,
influenced by its liberal strands. The result was the B.D., 8th edn (London, 1825), p. 426.
controversy in the 1920s between Fundamentalists 10. J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St.
and Modernists that disgraced America, together John, Vol. 1 (London, 1865), p. vii.
with the related Canadian episodes surrounding T. 11. M. G. Pearse, 'Some Modem Theories tried by an
T. Shields, the Baptist minister of Toronto who split Old Experiment,' W esleyanMethodist Magazine, 6th series,
his convention. Conservative Evangelicals may 8 (1884), p. 8.
have had certain aspects of their faith strengthened
by the Romantic atmosphere, but some of their
energies were diverted from the task of mission to
disputation. Indeed the Romantic sense of struggle
sowed the seeds of the vitriolic denunciation of
opponents which was a discredit to the Christian
faith in the epoch of the Fundamentalist controver-
sies. Teaching with Romantic origins therefore led
in two opposite directions and undoubtedly contrib-
uted to the weakening of the Evangelical movement

Crux: March 1990Nol. XXVI, No.1 15