Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:35:31.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Private Hopes of American Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, 1925-1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2018

David Harrington Watt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Much of the best recent scholarship on conservative Protestantism in the middle decades of this Century focuses on what is sometimes called the “mainstream” of interdenominational evangelicalism. Although this variety of evangelicalism was deeply influenced by and, indeed, in some respects the direct successor to the fundamentalist movement of the 1910's, 1920's, and 1930's, it did not begin to assume its present shape until the early 1940's. The formation of the National Association of Evangelicals in 1942 is a convenient symbol of the emergence of what we now think of as constituting the evangelical mainstream.

Drafting a perfect definition of this mainstream is impossible; drafting a good working description of it is not. In the present context, “evangelical mainstream” simply refers to that network of born-again Christians associated with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Campus Crusade for Christ; with schools such as the Moody Bible Institute, Füller Seminary, and Wheaton College; with publishing firms like Eerdman's and Zondervan; and with magazines such as Christianity Today, Eternity, and Moody Monthly.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , Summer 1991 , pp. 155 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. This article is based, in part, on research supported by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., and by Temple University. I would like to thank William R. Hutchison, David Herbert Donald, and Michael Simon for their help in clarifying my thinking about the topics treated in this essay.

2. For a more detailed description of the evangelical mainstream, see David Harrington Watt, “A Transforming Faith: Essays on the History of American Evangelicalism in the Middle Decades of the Twentieth Century” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1987). Marsden, George M., “Introduction: The Evangelical Denomination,” in Evangelicalism and Modern America, ed. Marsden, George M. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), vii–xix Google Scholar, is an extremely lucid discussion of the conceptual difficulties associated with the word “evangelicalism.” Marsden's delineation of the fundamentalist mainstream may be found in his fundamentalism and American Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), 228. For discussions of the role that fundamentalists played in the creation of the “evangelical mainstream,” see Joel A. Carpenter, “From Fundamentalism to the New Evangelical Coalition,” in Marsden, ed., Evangelicalism, 3-16; and Carpenter, Joel A., “The Fundamentalist Leaven and the Rise of an Evangelical United Front,” in The Evangelical Tradition in America, ed. Sweet, Leonard I. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1984), 257-88.Google Scholar For cautions against the assumption that generalizations made on the basis of work upon the so-called mainstream will hold for all varieties of evangelicalism, see Murphy, Cullen, “Protestantism and the Evangelicals,” Wilson Quarterly 5 (1981): 105-16.Google Scholar It is perhaps worth explaining that this essa/s terminal dates, while admittedly somewhat arbitrary in nature, were not chosen at random. The essay Covers the years between the conclusion of the famous Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee, and the 1976 presidential campaign—the first in a series of presidential elections in which born-again candidates and causes played a prominent role.

3. Cf. Lasch, Christopher, Haven in a Heartless World (New York: Basic Books, 1977);Google Scholar Susman, Warren I., Culture as History: The Transformation of American Society in the Twentieth Century (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984);Google Scholar and Fox, Richard Wightman and Lears, T. J. Jackson, eds., The Culture of Consumption (New York: Pantheon Books, 1983).Google Scholar

4. Weber, Timothy P., Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987);Google Scholar Marsden, Fundamentalism, 43-71; and Frank, Douglas, Less than Conquerors: How Evangelicals Entered the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 60–102 Google Scholar, are three recent extremely helpful works that shed light on fundamentalists’ views concerning the endtimes.

5. Curriculum materials, File 4, Archives of the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois.

6. Weber, Living, 178-81.

7. “The Blue Eagle,” Revelation, August 1933,286.

8. Sandeen, Ernest, The Roots of Fundamentalism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970)Google Scholar exaggerates—but also effectively documents— dispensationalism's role in shaping the fundamentalist movement.

9. Marsden, Fundamentalism, 64.

10. Gaebelein, Arno C., Hopeless—Yet There Is Hope (New York: Publication Office of Our Hope Magazine, 1935), 10;Google Scholar William Wonderly, “Hope amid Anxiety,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, November 1933, 103; “Why We Believe the Lord's Return Is Near,” Sunday School Times, April 6,1935,237-38; April 20,1935, 277; and April 27,1935,293.

11. Donald Grey Barnhouse, ‘Tomorrow: Summer Is Nigh,” Revelation, September 1934,342.

12. Marsden, Fundamentalism, 63.

13. Gaebelein, Hopeless, 10; Wonderly, “Hope,” 103; and Barnhouse, “Tomorrow,” 342.

14. Barnhouse, ‘Tomorrow,” 352.

15. Cecil V. Phillips, “Why Preach the Second Coming?” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, February 1935, 298, asserted that preaching on the Second Advent could excite sinners to turn from their sins, accept Christ, and thus place themselves in a position where they could look to the Second Coming with hope rather than dread.

16. Paxson, Ruth, Life on the Highest Plane (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1928),Google Scholar is one Standard discussion of the victorious life. For Paxson's assessment of general world conditions, see pages 40,50,85, and 142-43.

17. See, for example, Lehman, Helen Miller, “The Church and World Peace,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, November 1934, 102-3;Google Scholar and Toms, George W., “How Shall We Meet the Current Need of the World?” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, February 1933, 263.Google Scholar

18. Jeffrey, Kirk, “The Family as Utopian Retreat from the City: The Nineteenth-Century Contribution,” Soundings 55 (1972): 21–40;Google Scholar and Lasch, Haven in a Heartless World.

19. Ozment, Seven E., When Fathers Ruled (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983);Google Scholar and McDannell, Colleen, The Christian Home in Victorian America, 1840-1900 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

20. Torrey, R. A., Jr., “Dr. R. A. Torrey in His Home,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, October 1929, 68–70;Google Scholar Allen, J. Henry, “The Home, A Divine Institution,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, July 1930, 531-32;Google Scholar and Stam, Peter, “The Influence of a Christian Home,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly, May 1937,466,478,Google Scholar all illustrate the way that fundamentalists thought about the family.

21. Weber, Living, 204,274.

22. “Foretaste,” Eternity, May 1974,2. See, too, Sailer, William S., “A Second Look at the Second Coming,” Eternity, May 1974, 36–37,62.Google Scholar

23. Smith, Wilbur M., “Wilbur M. Smith Comments on Mid-East Crisis,” Moody Monthly, July-August 1967,58.Google Scholar

24. Walvoord, John F., “Is the Lord's Coming Imminent?” Eternity, January 1954,48.Google Scholar Petersen, William and Board, Stephen, “The Kingdom and the Power: Main Street in Evangelicalville,” Eternity, November 1981, 20–21,Google Scholar discuss dispensationalism's continuing importance at the Moody Bible Institute and at Dallas Theological Seminary. Weber, Living, 204-26; and Albert F. Schenkel, “The Second Coming and Cultural Engagement: Varieties of Premillennialism in Twentieth-Century America,” Seminar paper, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass., 1984, demonstrate dispensationalism's vitality in postwar America.

25. Smith, Wilbur M., “The Testimony of Bible Prophecy,” Moody Monthly, September 1949, 14;Google Scholar and [Billy Graham], “Signs of the Times,” an undated sermon manuscript, Collection 15, Box 1, File 11, Archives of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton, Illinois.

26. Herbert Henry Ehrenstein, review of The Basis of the Premillennial Faith by Charles C. Ryrie, Eternity, Manch 1954,40.

27. Henry, Carl F. H., The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947), 48–57.Google Scholar

28. Ladd, George E., Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1952);Google Scholar Ladd, George E., “Historie Premillennialism,” in The Meaning of the Millennium, ed. Clouse, Robert G. (Downers Grove, 111.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1977), 17–40.Google Scholar Schenkel, “The Second Coming,” provides a helpful analysis of Ladd's work. For other indications of evangelicak’ wavering commitment to dispensationalism, see Quebedeaux, Richard, The Young Evangelicals (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 38;Google Scholar Reiter, Richard D., “A History of the Development of Rapture Positions,” in The Rapture, ed. Reiter, Richard R. et al. (Grand Rapids: Academic Books, 1984), 34–44;Google Scholar Weber, Living, 241-42; and Petersen and Board, “The King-dom,” 22.

29. See, for example, Graham, Billy, World Aflame (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965), 189–263,Google Scholar and Graham, Billy, ‘The Second Coming of Christ,” Eternity, December 1970, 14.Google Scholar

30. Smith, Wilbur M., The Atomic Bomb and the Word of God (Chicago: Moody Press, 1945), 9–10;Google Scholar Cox, Raymond L., “Will the Real Antichrist Please Stand Up!” Eternity, May 1974, 15–17,60.Google Scholar

31. Culbertson, William, “Perspective in Prophecy,” Moody Monthly, July-August 1964, 50 Google Scholar, reports that the staff of the Moody Monthly was puzzled by the emphasis earlier generations had placed on prophecy.

32. Smith, Wilbur M., “World Crisis and the Prophetic Scriptures,” Moody Monthly, June 1950,679,Google Scholar lamented “how little is prophecy discussed in our religious Journals; how few the ministers who speak of the return of the King!”

33. Revelation, January-December 1935; Eternity, January-December, 1975.

34. Gaebelein, Frank E., “Christian Education and the Home: Part II,” Moody Monthly, December 1950,254.Google Scholar

35. Rice, John R., The Home, Courtship, Marriage, and Children (Wheaton, DL: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1945), 7–8.Google Scholar

36. Lars I. Granberg, review of Design for Christian Marriage by Dwight Hervey Small, Eternity, June 1959,38.

37. Ibid.

38. Moody Monthly, January-December, 1975.

39. Graham, Billy, “10 Commandments for the Home,” Decision, June 1974, 1.Google Scholar

40. Hunt, Focus on Family Life (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1970), 9.

41. Zuck, Roy B., “Churches Focus on the Family,” Moody Monthly, July August 1967, 32;Google Scholar Ehrenstein, Herbert Henry, “Your Questions Answered,” Eternity, May 1964,39.Google Scholar

42. Seminars on the family are discussed in Bockelman, Wilfred, Gothard: The Man and His Ministry (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Quill Publications, 1976),Google Scholar and Rydberg, Denny, “Getting a Loose-Leaf on Life,” Wittenberg Door, April-May 1973, 6–18.Google Scholar On national Conferences on the family, see “We Are Planning to Affect Your Family!” (an advertisement), Eternity, August 1975,3.

43. Fowler, Robert Booth, A New Engagement (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 191–212;Google Scholar and Grant Wacker, “Searching for Norman Rockwell,” in Sweet, ed., The Evangelical Tradition, 289-315.

44. See, for instance, the September-October 1976 issue of The Other Side, one of the most prominent publications associated with the evangelical left; that issue was devoted entirely to the family. See, too, the roster of Conference participants listed in “We Are Planning to Affect Your Family!”, 3; it included “progressive” evangelicals such as Letha Scanzoni, Nancy Hardesty, and David Moberg.

45. For analyses of the family's role in postwar American culture as a whole, see Tyler, Elaine May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York: Basic Books, 1988);Google Scholar Zuckerman, Michael, “Dr. Spock: The Confidence Man,” in The Family in History, ed. Rosenberg, Charles E. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1975), 179–207;Google Scholar Cherlin, Andrew J., Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981);Google Scholar and Schneider, David M., American Kinship, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980).Google Scholar On the move to the suburbs, see Jackson, Kenneth T., Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985).Google Scholar

46. For expressions of such sentiments, see Small, Dwight Hervey, Design for Christian Marriage (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1959), 41–42;Google Scholar and Hunt, Family Life, 9,55.

47. Sparks, Merla Jean, The Creative Christian Home (1974; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1975), 87 Google Scholar, asserts that it is proper for Christians who wish to improve their family life to see non-Christian psychologists; “Books to Strengthen Your Marriage,” Eternity, May 1965, 21, advises Christians to read books by non-evangelicals. My condusion that evangelicals’ fundamental assumptions on the family were similar to those of their non-evangelical neighbors is based on a comparison between the views analyzed in Schneider, David M. and Smith, Raymond T., Class Differences and Sex Rotes in American Kinship and Family Structure (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1973),Google Scholar and the views expressed in evangelical works such as Williams, Norman V., The Christian Home (Chicago: Moody Press, 1952);Google Scholar Small, Design; Brandt, Henry R. and Dowdy, Homer E., Building a Christian Home (Wheaton, Dl.: Scripture Press, 1960);Google Scholar Hubbard, David Allan, Is the Family Here to Stay? (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1971);Google Scholar Getz, Gene A., The Christian Home in a Changing World (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972);Google Scholar Graham, “10 Commandments,” 1-2; and Bock, Lois and Working, Miji, Happiness Is a Family Time Together (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1975).Google Scholar

48. Gaebelein, Frank E., “Christian Education and the Home: Part II,” Moody Monthly, November 1950,149;Google Scholar Lacey Hall, as told to Robert Flood, “What's Happening to the American Family?” Moody Monthly, Jury-August 1967, 26-28, 42; and Collins, Gary, “What Threatens the Family?” Eternity, August 1975, 14–15.Google Scholar Andrew Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, contains a number of helpful, empirically based observations on what was happening to the American family in the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's.

49. Coder, S. Maxwell, “The Christian Family and the Word of God,” Moody Monthly, August 1971,15.Google Scholar

50. Christenson, Larry, The Christian Family (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1970).Google Scholar

51. For Graham's use of statistics, see Graham, “10 Commandments,” 2. For his thoughts on how conversion would affect one's family, see Billy Graham, “The Answer to Broken Homes” (Minneapolis: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1955); and Graham, Billy, The Christ-Centered Home (Minneapolis: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1961), 32.Google Scholar

52. The fragility of Christian families is discussed in Larsen, Horace A., “How to Be Happy though Married,” Moody Monthly, April 1949, 564;Google Scholar Gransberg, Lars I., “Why Christian Homes So Often Fail,” Eternity, May 1965,20–21;Google Scholar and “Foretaste,” Eternity, March 1981, 2. See, too, “The Christian Worker's Forgotten Family,” Moody Monthly, January 1962, 34-35; “I Prayed for the Other Woman,” Christian Life, October 1971,35,44,46, and 62; “What I Learned When My Daughter Ran Away,” Eternity, January 1972,23-24; and Dunker, Marilee P., Days of Glory, Seasons of Night (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984).Google Scholar

53. LaHaye, Tim and LaHaye, Beverly, Sm'rit-Controlled Family Living (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1978), 16.Google Scholar

54. Granberg, “Christian Homes,” 20; and “Foretaste,” Eternity, August 1975,2.

55. The best work that adopts this approach is probably Hunter, James Davison, American Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism and the Quandary of Modernity (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

56. See, for example, Gerrish, B. A., Tradition and the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978);Google Scholar and Wacker, Grant, Augustus H. Strong and the Dilemma ofHistorical Consciousness (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1985).Google Scholar Douglas, Mary, “The Effects of Modernization on Religious Change,” in Religion and America: Spirituality in a Secular Age, ed. Douglas, Mary and Tipton, Steven M. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1983), 25–43,Google Scholar is an exception to my generalization that presents an Interpretation of modernity with some parallels to the argument advanced in this essay.

57. Brinkley, Alan, “Writing the History of Contemporary America: Dilemmas and Challenges,” Daedalus 119 (1984): 121-41;Google Scholar Galambos, Louis, “The Emerging Organizational Synthesis of Modern American History,” Business History Review 44 (1970): 279-90;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Galambos, Louis, “Technology, Political Economy, and Professionalization: Central Themes of the Organizational Synthesis,” Business History Review 57 (1983): 471-93,CrossRefGoogle Scholar seem to me to suggest such an understanding of modernity. See, too, Habermas, Jürgen, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans. Lawrence, Frederick (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987), 1–4.Google Scholar

58. Lasch, Haven; Susman, Culture as History; and Fox and Lears, eds., The Culture of Consumption.