The Demise of Evangelicalism

Why "neo-evangelicalism" was a monumental mistake
by Phil Johnson



eo-evangelicalism was a movement among evangelicals whose aim was to make evangelicalism seem more intellectually sophisticated and less polemically combative. The movement was strongly influenced by the early drift of Fuller seminary, led by men who were affiliated with Christianity Today and the National Association of Evangelicals, and driven mainly (I think) by a desire for academic respectability, even at the expense of a clear and consistent testimony.

Harold John Ockenga was an extremely influential voice in mid-20th-century evangelicalism. He helped found Fuller Seminary, Gordon Conwell, and the National Association of Evangelicals. He was pastor for many years of Park Street Church in Boston. He also introduced the idea of neo-evangelicalism and proposed that name in a 1948 meeting at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

The vision as Ockenga outlined it was driven by three priorities: First, it was a repudiation of fundamentalist separatism. Second, it was a summons to social involvement. And third (in Ockenga's words) it represented a "determination to engage itself in the theological dialogue of the day."

All three aspects of the neo-evangelical agenda had unintended and unfortunate consequences. The deliberate renunciation of separatism, for example, turned neo-evangelicals against their own fundamentalist brethren (in effect erecting an impassible barrier between the two groups) while deliberately opening the door to fellowship and cooperation with non-evangelicals. The call to "social involvement" was frankly ill-defined, and evangelical social involvement never really materialized on any grand scale, unless you count the rise of the religious Right after the 1970s. And the promised "theological dialogue" never really took place on any serious, sustained level. Instead, the movement trivialized and marginalized its own theology.

In the earliest days of neo-evangelical enthusiasm, the movement included prominent leaders like Harold Lindsell, Carl Henry, and Donald Grey Barnhouse, who were qualified and willing to engage in theological dialogue. But by the end of the century, the mainstream of the evangelical movement could hardly care less about theological dialogue. Evangelical megachurches were best known for their pursuit of shallow entertainments and superficial fads. And somewhere along the line, Christianity Today's editorial board apparently came to the conclusion that engagement in theological dialogue meant giving a platform to practically every theological anomaly that came along except the old evangelical orthodoxies.

You hardly ever hear anyone (except fundamentalists) talk about neo-evangelicalism these days, but the fact is that neo-evangelicalism completely overwhelmed and commandeered the entire evangelical movement, and that is the primary reason the movement itself is no longer truly evangelical.

Face it: the evangelical movement that our grandparents and great-grandparents knew is dead. Evangelical principles live on here and there, but the label has been appropriated by people who have no right to it. It has been bartered away by those who promised to be the movement's guardians and mouthpieces—Christianity Today and the National Association of evangelicals being among the chief culprits. But rank-and-file evangelicals are to blame as well, because they were content to abandon their own heritage and run after cheap amusements.

The average American today thinks evangelicalism is a political position or a religious ghetto rather than a set of biblical beliefs.
The task for the remnant who still believe and teach classic evangelical doctrine is to remain faithful and remember that the gospel—not the combined clout of a large politically-driven movement—is the power of God unto salvation.

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