The First Youth for Christ ‘Congress for World Evangelization’ and Its Impact on Missions in Europe

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Aufsatz untersucht den vom Missionswerk Jugend für Christus im Jahr 1948 in Beatenberg/Schweiz durchgeführten Kongress für Weltevangelisation und seine Auswirkungen auf die Mission in Europa. Er füllt damit ein Forschungsdesiderat, denn obwohl der Kongress mehrfach als einer der einflussreichsten Missionskongresse des 20. Jahrhunderts bezeichnet wurde, fehlte bisher eine wissenschaftliche Darstellung. Der Autor geht auf die Hintergründe und die Motivation für den Kongress ein, der auf einen geistlichen Aufbruch Anfang der 1940er Jahre in Nordamerika zurückgeht, der unter anderen in der Gründung der National Association of Evangelicals aber auch in Gründungen wie des Missionswerks Jugend für Christus mündete. In diesen Kreisen entstand nach Kriegsende ein wachsendes Bewusstsein für die missionarischen Herausforderungen in Europa, oftmals verbunden mit einer Furcht vor einer kommunistischen Machtübernahme auch des westlichen Europas. Während viele wichtige nordamerikanische Evangelikale an dem Kongress teilnahmen, gelang es in Europa im Großen und Ganzen nicht, die evangelikale Leiterebene für Teilnahme zu gewinnen. Der Aufsatz stellt Teilnehmer, Referenten und inhaltliche Schwerpunkte des Kongresses vor und führt aus, wie Teilnehmer die Wirkung des Kongresses beurteilten. Ferner geht er auf die Wirkungsgeschichte des Kongresses ein, die eher indirekt zu sehen ist. So nahmen unter anderen Bob Evans (Gründer von Greater Europe Mission) und Paul Freed (Gründer von Trans World Radio) an der Beatenberger Konferenz teil und erhielten dort wichtige Impulse für ihre zukünftige Arbeit. Auch die Gründung von zwei Bibelschulen in Deutschland kann als eine indirekte Frucht dieses Kongresses gesehen werden.

Chicago 1945

This first chapter describes a 1945 Youth for Christ rally of 75,000 evangelicals at Soldier Field in Chicago. Sponsored by the “Business World” committee, a group of entrepreneurs who manufactured glass, roofing supplies, and iron, the religious event combined the most salient characteristics of postwar evangelicalism: religious piety, free enterprise, anticommunism, and patriotism. These characteristics animated the evangelistic and social activism of member institutions in the National Association of Evangelicals in the years after its 1942 founding and the triumph of World War II. Calling themselves “new evangelicals,” their ambitions became important geopolitically, as missionaries and soldiers sought to free souls, people, and enterprise around the world in the service of Christian Americanism.

The Demise of Tribal Politics, 1955–1985

This chapter examines the demise of Norman Vincent Peale’s tribal politics during the period 1955–1985. Peale viewed politics, like religion, as a very personal matter. His strong commitment to the Prohibition struggle emanated in large part from a sense of tribal loyalty. The chapter first considers Peale’s ties to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) before discussing his personal politics and his involvement in local politics. It then analyzes Peale’s participation in efforts to prevent the nomination of the Roman Catholic Senator John F. Kennedy as presidential candidate in 1960, his friendship with Richard Nixon, and the controversy sparked by the so-called Peale group, which issued a statement indicting the politics of the Roman Catholic Church following a press conference in Washington. It also recounts Peale’s dispute with John Bennett, dean of Union Seminary’s faculty at the time, and concludes with an assessment of his book “The Tough-Minded Optimist.”

United States of America

The chapter considers the development of ecumenism in the United States, noting particular historical, cultural, and religious factors that have influenced relations there between Christians from many different backgrounds. Religious freedom, associated with the separation of Church and state, has given rise to a rich diversity of religious communities, but tolerance has also in some ways blurred confessional boundaries and complicated theological dialogue and the effort for visible Christian unity. The origin and role of the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and Christian Churches Together in the USA are described, together with initiatives which have given rise to the United Church of Christ and to the Church Uniting in Christ. Bilateral dialogues and some of their fruits are considered, as well as many ways in which Christian bodies collaborate more broadly. Continuing issues in the American context are identified and discussed.

An Historical Perspective of the North American Professors of Christian Education

A recounting of the origins and development of the NAPCE, from the early years as a Research Commission of the National Association of Evangelicals to the present.

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

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.

New Claimants to Religious Tolerance and Protection

IntroductionIn The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition, Arthur A. Cohen questionsthe notion that a "Judeo-Christian" tradition even exists, and suggeststhat it is an invention of twentieth century American politics spawned byefforts to form a cultural consensus and, in the process, homogenize religiousidentification and promote interfaith harmony. The conception of such atradition is, in Cohen's words, " ... mythological or, rather, not preciselymythological but ideological and hence, as in all ideologies, shot throughwith falsification, distortion, and untruth."A political use of the term "Judeo-Christian" has gained particular currencyin the latter part of the twentieth century as reliance on certain religiousvalues, symbols and rhetoric in public discourse has both generated andreflected popular approval, the ideal of separation of church and state not withstanding.Common assumptions about the place of religion and moralityin public life are being reevaluated. In an era of greater conformity andconsensus-building, ushered in by a general swing toward conservatism inNorth American politics, an effort is being made to resurrect a shared setof traditional beliefs and values thought once to be the backbone of Americanand Canadian life. Instead of celebrating diversity and pluralism in NorthAmerica, the emphasis has been placed on the merits of unity and a sharedsense of ethics. Conservatives are engaged in an effort to redefine Americanvalues and beliefs and ameliorate what they see as deplorable conditionsprecipitated by the liberalism, secularity and moral relativism of the 1960s.This corrective impulse is proving to be an important factor in reshapingboth the religious and political scene.It is in this context that the meaning of difference has been obscured.A commitment to pluralism has been an important part of the heritage ofNorth American societies, especially Canada, since their inception and yetwhat is meant by reference to the "Judeo-Christian" tradition remains ambiguous.Rather than promoting interfaith harmony, the current use of theconcept functions to exclude those who are judged to deviate from the socialand cultural norm or to be nonbelievers, i.e., persons conceived to be a threatto the bedrock values of America. Observers of the North American religiousscene have noted that religion is used as a means of negotiating one's placein society and establishing identity. Public figures appeal to our sense ofnational identity and patriotism by talking about the United States as a 'judeoChristiannation," which, in effect, serves to exclude other religious groups(such as Muslims) and nonreligious groups from the mainstream of Americansociery.What is implied by reference to "Judeo-Christian" is even narrowerthosewho actually mean to promote an exclusively Christian America6 useit to signify the defense of purportedly Christian-cum-American values andlife-style from the inroads of secular humanism. President Reagan, in his1983 speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando. Florida, ...