Have you encountered any evangelical church members?
Evangelicalism, also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian gospel. The term evangelical is derived from the Koine Greek word εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion), meaning "good news," in reference to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Evangelicalism typically places a strong emphasis on personal conversion, often described as being "born again", and regards the Bible as the ultimate authority in matters of faith and practice. The definition and scope of evangelicalism are subjects of debate among theologians and scholars. Some critics argue that the term encompasses a wide and diverse range of beliefs and practices, making it difficult to define as a coherent or unified movement.
The theological roots of evangelicalism can be traced to the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe, which emphasized the authority of Scripture and the preaching of the gospel. The modern evangelical movement is generally dated to around 1738, influenced by theological currents such as Pietism, Puritanism, Quakerism, and Moravianism—notably the work of Nicolaus Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut community. Evangelicalism gained momentum during the First Great Awakening, with figures like John Wesley and the early Methodists playing central roles.
It has had a longstanding presence in the Anglosphere, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, before expanding globally in the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. The movement grew substantially during the 18th and 19th centuries, notably through the series of religious revivals known as the Great Awakening in the United States and various revival movements and reform efforts in Britain. Today, evangelicals are found across many Protestant denominations and global contexts, without being confined to a single tradition. Notable evangelical leaders have included Zinzendorf, George Fox, Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold Ockenga, Gudina Tumsa, John Stott, Francisco Olazábal, William J. Seymour, Luis Palau, Os Guinness, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
The World Evangelical Alliance claims 600 million believers in 2025, accounting for roughly one in four Christians. In the United States, evangelicals make up about a quarter of the population and represent the largest religious group. A growing number of individuals, often referred to as exvangelicals, have left evangelicalism due to discrimination, abuse, or theological disillusionment. Evangelicalism is a transdenominational movement found across many Protestant denominations, including Reformed traditions such as Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, Anglicanism, Plymouth Brethren, Baptists, Methodism (especially in the Wesleyan–Arminian tradition), Lutheranism, Moravians, Free Church bodies, Mennonites, Quakers, Pentecostal and charismatic movements, and various non-denominational churches.
The Reformed, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Churches of Christ, Plymouth Brethren, charismatic Protestant, and nondenominational Protestant traditions have all had strong influence within contemporary evangelicalism. Some Anabaptist denominations (such as the Brethren Church) are evangelical, and some Lutherans self-identify as evangelicals. There are also evangelical Anglicans and Quakers.
In the early 20th century, evangelical influence declined within mainline Protestantism and Christian fundamentalism developed as a distinct religious movement. Between 1950 and 2000 a mainstream evangelical consensus developed that sought to be more inclusive and more culturally relevant than fundamentalism while maintaining theologically conservative Protestant teaching. According to Brian Stanley, professor of world Christianity, this new postwar consensus is termed neoevangelicalism, the new evangelicalism, or simply evangelicalism in the United States, while in Great Britain and in other English-speaking countries, it is commonly termed conservative evangelicalism. Over the years, less conservative evangelicals have challenged this mainstream consensus to varying degrees. Such movements have been classified by a variety of labels, such as progressive, open, postconservative, and postevangelical.
Outside of self-consciously evangelical denominations, there is a broader "evangelical streak" in mainline Protestantism. Mainline Protestant churches predominantly have a liberal theology while evangelical churches predominantly have a fundamentalist or moderate conservative theology.
Some commentators have complained that Evangelicalism as a movement is too broad and its definition too vague to be of any practical value. Theologian Donald Dayton has called for a "moratorium" on use of the term. Historian D. G. Hart has also argued that "evangelicalism needs to be relinquished as a religious identity because it does not exist".
Christian fundamentalism has been called a subset or "subspecies" of Evangelicalism. Fundamentalism regards biblical literalism, the virgin birth of Jesus, penal substitutionary atonement, the literal resurrection of Christ, and the Second Coming of Christ as fundamental Christian doctrines. Fundamentalism arose among evangelicals in the 1920s—primarily as an American phenomenon, but with counterparts in Britain and British Empire—to combat modernist or liberal theology in mainline Protestant churches. Failing to reform the mainline churches, fundamentalists separated from them and established their own churches, refusing to participate in ecumenical organizations (such as the National Council of Churches, founded in 1950), and making separatism (rigid separation from nonfundamentalist churches and their culture) a true test of faith. Most fundamentalists are Baptists and dispensationalist or Pentecostals and Charismatics.
Great emphasis is placed on the literal interpretation of the Bible as the primary method of Bible study as well as the biblical inerrancy and the infallibility of their interpretation.
The Prayer Book of 1662 included the Thirty-Nine Articles emphasized by evangelical Anglicans.
Mainstream evangelicalism is historically divided between two main orientations: confessionalism and revivalism. These two streams have been critical of each other. Confessional evangelicals have been suspicious of unguarded religious experience, while revivalist evangelicals have been critical of overly intellectual teaching that (they suspect) stifles vibrant spirituality. In an effort to broaden their appeal, many contemporary evangelical congregations intentionally avoid identifying with any single form of evangelicalism. These "generic evangelicals" are usually theologically and socially conservative, but their churches often present themselves as nondenominational (or, if a denominational member, strongly deemphasize its ties to such, such as a church name which excludes the denominational name) within the broader evangelical movement.
In the words of Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, confessional evangelicalism refers to "that movement of Christian believers who seek a constant convictional continuity with the theological formulas of the Protestant Reformation". While approving of the evangelical distinctions proposed by Bebbington, confessional evangelicals believe that authentic evangelicalism requires more concrete definition in order to protect the movement from theological liberalism and from heresy. According to confessional evangelicals, subscription to the ecumenical creeds and to the Reformation-era confessions of faith (such as the confessions of the Reformed churches) provides such protection. Confessional evangelicals are represented by conservative Presbyterian churches (emphasizing the Westminster Confession), Baptist churches that emphasize historic Baptist confessions such as the Second London Confession, evangelical Anglicans who emphasize the Thirty-Nine Articles (such as in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia), Methodist churches that adhere to the Articles of Religion, and some confessional Lutherans with pietistic convictions.
The emphasis on historic Protestant orthodoxy among confessional evangelicals stands in direct contrast to an anticreedal outlook that has exerted its own influence on evangelicalism, particularly among churches strongly affected by revivalism and by pietism. Revivalist evangelicals are represented by some quarters of Methodism, the Wesleyan Holiness churches, the Pentecostal and charismatic churches, some Anabaptist churches, and some Baptists and Presbyterians. Revivalist evangelicals tend to place greater emphasis on religious experience than their confessional counterparts.
Evangelicals dissatisfied with the movement's fundamentalism mainstream have been variously described as progressive evangelicals, postconservative evangelicals, open evangelicals and postevangelicals. Progressive evangelicals, also known as the evangelical left, share theological or social views with other progressive Christians while also identifying with evangelicalism. Progressive evangelicals commonly advocate for women's equality, pacifism and social justice.
As described by Baptist theologian Roger E. Olson, postconservative evangelicalism is a theological school of thought that adheres to the four marks of evangelicalism, while being less rigid and more inclusive of other Christians. According to Olson, postconservatives believe that doctrinal truth is secondary to spiritual experience shaped by Scripture. Postconservative evangelicals seek greater dialogue with other Christian traditions and support the development of a multicultural evangelical theology that incorporates the voices of women, racial minorities, and Christians in the developing world. Some postconservative evangelicals also support open theism and the possibility of near universal salvation.
The term "open evangelical" refers to a particular Christian school of thought or churchmanship, primarily in Great Britain (especially in the Church of England). Open evangelicals describe their position as combining a traditional evangelical emphasis on the nature of scriptural authority, the teaching of the ecumenical creeds and other traditional doctrinal teachings, with an approach towards culture and other theological points-of-view which tends to be more inclusive than that taken by other evangelicals. Some open evangelicals aim to take a middle position between conservative and charismatic evangelicals, while others would combine conservative theological emphases with more liberal social positions.
British author Dave Tomlinson coined the phrase postevangelical to describe a movement comprising various trends of dissatisfaction among evangelicals. Others use the term with comparable intent, often to distinguish evangelicals in the emerging church movement from postevangelicals and antievangelicals. Tomlinson argues that "linguistically, the distinction [between evangelical and postevangelical] resembles the one that sociologists make between the modern and postmodern eras".
The theological roots of evangelicalism can be traced to the Protestant Reformation in 16th-century Europe, which emphasized the authority of Scripture and the preaching of the gospel. The modern evangelical movement is generally dated to around 1738, influenced by theological currents such as Pietism, Puritanism, Quakerism, and Moravianism—notably the work of Nicolaus Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut community. Evangelicalism gained momentum during the First Great Awakening, with figures like John Wesley and the early Methodists playing central roles.
It has had a longstanding presence in the Anglosphere, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States, before expanding globally in the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. The movement grew substantially during the 18th and 19th centuries, notably through the series of religious revivals known as the Great Awakening in the United States and various revival movements and reform efforts in Britain. Today, evangelicals are found across many Protestant denominations and global contexts, without being confined to a single tradition. Notable evangelical leaders have included Zinzendorf, George Fox, Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold Ockenga, Gudina Tumsa, John Stott, Francisco Olazábal, William J. Seymour, Luis Palau, Os Guinness, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
The World Evangelical Alliance claims 600 million believers in 2025, accounting for roughly one in four Christians. In the United States, evangelicals make up about a quarter of the population and represent the largest religious group. A growing number of individuals, often referred to as exvangelicals, have left evangelicalism due to discrimination, abuse, or theological disillusionment. Evangelicalism is a transdenominational movement found across many Protestant denominations, including Reformed traditions such as Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, Anglicanism, Plymouth Brethren, Baptists, Methodism (especially in the Wesleyan–Arminian tradition), Lutheranism, Moravians, Free Church bodies, Mennonites, Quakers, Pentecostal and charismatic movements, and various non-denominational churches.
The Reformed, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Churches of Christ, Plymouth Brethren, charismatic Protestant, and nondenominational Protestant traditions have all had strong influence within contemporary evangelicalism. Some Anabaptist denominations (such as the Brethren Church) are evangelical, and some Lutherans self-identify as evangelicals. There are also evangelical Anglicans and Quakers.
In the early 20th century, evangelical influence declined within mainline Protestantism and Christian fundamentalism developed as a distinct religious movement. Between 1950 and 2000 a mainstream evangelical consensus developed that sought to be more inclusive and more culturally relevant than fundamentalism while maintaining theologically conservative Protestant teaching. According to Brian Stanley, professor of world Christianity, this new postwar consensus is termed neoevangelicalism, the new evangelicalism, or simply evangelicalism in the United States, while in Great Britain and in other English-speaking countries, it is commonly termed conservative evangelicalism. Over the years, less conservative evangelicals have challenged this mainstream consensus to varying degrees. Such movements have been classified by a variety of labels, such as progressive, open, postconservative, and postevangelical.
Outside of self-consciously evangelical denominations, there is a broader "evangelical streak" in mainline Protestantism. Mainline Protestant churches predominantly have a liberal theology while evangelical churches predominantly have a fundamentalist or moderate conservative theology.
Some commentators have complained that Evangelicalism as a movement is too broad and its definition too vague to be of any practical value. Theologian Donald Dayton has called for a "moratorium" on use of the term. Historian D. G. Hart has also argued that "evangelicalism needs to be relinquished as a religious identity because it does not exist".
Christian fundamentalism has been called a subset or "subspecies" of Evangelicalism. Fundamentalism regards biblical literalism, the virgin birth of Jesus, penal substitutionary atonement, the literal resurrection of Christ, and the Second Coming of Christ as fundamental Christian doctrines. Fundamentalism arose among evangelicals in the 1920s—primarily as an American phenomenon, but with counterparts in Britain and British Empire—to combat modernist or liberal theology in mainline Protestant churches. Failing to reform the mainline churches, fundamentalists separated from them and established their own churches, refusing to participate in ecumenical organizations (such as the National Council of Churches, founded in 1950), and making separatism (rigid separation from nonfundamentalist churches and their culture) a true test of faith. Most fundamentalists are Baptists and dispensationalist or Pentecostals and Charismatics.
Great emphasis is placed on the literal interpretation of the Bible as the primary method of Bible study as well as the biblical inerrancy and the infallibility of their interpretation.
The Prayer Book of 1662 included the Thirty-Nine Articles emphasized by evangelical Anglicans.
Mainstream evangelicalism is historically divided between two main orientations: confessionalism and revivalism. These two streams have been critical of each other. Confessional evangelicals have been suspicious of unguarded religious experience, while revivalist evangelicals have been critical of overly intellectual teaching that (they suspect) stifles vibrant spirituality. In an effort to broaden their appeal, many contemporary evangelical congregations intentionally avoid identifying with any single form of evangelicalism. These "generic evangelicals" are usually theologically and socially conservative, but their churches often present themselves as nondenominational (or, if a denominational member, strongly deemphasize its ties to such, such as a church name which excludes the denominational name) within the broader evangelical movement.
In the words of Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, confessional evangelicalism refers to "that movement of Christian believers who seek a constant convictional continuity with the theological formulas of the Protestant Reformation". While approving of the evangelical distinctions proposed by Bebbington, confessional evangelicals believe that authentic evangelicalism requires more concrete definition in order to protect the movement from theological liberalism and from heresy. According to confessional evangelicals, subscription to the ecumenical creeds and to the Reformation-era confessions of faith (such as the confessions of the Reformed churches) provides such protection. Confessional evangelicals are represented by conservative Presbyterian churches (emphasizing the Westminster Confession), Baptist churches that emphasize historic Baptist confessions such as the Second London Confession, evangelical Anglicans who emphasize the Thirty-Nine Articles (such as in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia), Methodist churches that adhere to the Articles of Religion, and some confessional Lutherans with pietistic convictions.
The emphasis on historic Protestant orthodoxy among confessional evangelicals stands in direct contrast to an anticreedal outlook that has exerted its own influence on evangelicalism, particularly among churches strongly affected by revivalism and by pietism. Revivalist evangelicals are represented by some quarters of Methodism, the Wesleyan Holiness churches, the Pentecostal and charismatic churches, some Anabaptist churches, and some Baptists and Presbyterians. Revivalist evangelicals tend to place greater emphasis on religious experience than their confessional counterparts.
Evangelicals dissatisfied with the movement's fundamentalism mainstream have been variously described as progressive evangelicals, postconservative evangelicals, open evangelicals and postevangelicals. Progressive evangelicals, also known as the evangelical left, share theological or social views with other progressive Christians while also identifying with evangelicalism. Progressive evangelicals commonly advocate for women's equality, pacifism and social justice.
As described by Baptist theologian Roger E. Olson, postconservative evangelicalism is a theological school of thought that adheres to the four marks of evangelicalism, while being less rigid and more inclusive of other Christians. According to Olson, postconservatives believe that doctrinal truth is secondary to spiritual experience shaped by Scripture. Postconservative evangelicals seek greater dialogue with other Christian traditions and support the development of a multicultural evangelical theology that incorporates the voices of women, racial minorities, and Christians in the developing world. Some postconservative evangelicals also support open theism and the possibility of near universal salvation.
The term "open evangelical" refers to a particular Christian school of thought or churchmanship, primarily in Great Britain (especially in the Church of England). Open evangelicals describe their position as combining a traditional evangelical emphasis on the nature of scriptural authority, the teaching of the ecumenical creeds and other traditional doctrinal teachings, with an approach towards culture and other theological points-of-view which tends to be more inclusive than that taken by other evangelicals. Some open evangelicals aim to take a middle position between conservative and charismatic evangelicals, while others would combine conservative theological emphases with more liberal social positions.
British author Dave Tomlinson coined the phrase postevangelical to describe a movement comprising various trends of dissatisfaction among evangelicals. Others use the term with comparable intent, often to distinguish evangelicals in the emerging church movement from postevangelicals and antievangelicals. Tomlinson argues that "linguistically, the distinction [between evangelical and postevangelical] resembles the one that sociologists make between the modern and postmodern eras".
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