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What do you see as the essence of an evangelical?

Unfortunately the word is used rather freely to mean many different things. The most common usage of the term, however, focuses on what in traditional theology are called the formal and the material principles of the Christian faith. "Formal" is cognate to formative; at stake is how you form your faith. We evangelicals form our faith by what the Bible teaches. We accept the Bible as the infallible and inerrant Word of God. I know some claim they've formed their faith by the Bible but don't want to use the terms infallible or inerrant. I look upon them as inconsistent evangelicals, but evangelicals nonetheless.

The "material" principle has to do with the matter or the essential doctrinal content of the faith. It includes salvation through faith in Christ and such items as are summarized in the Apostles' Creed.

Is evangelicalism more influential, or less influential, in our culture than it has been?

My opinion—unprovable, I admit—is that evangelicalism is weaker now than it was 15 years ago, or 50 years ago.

People often think it is stronger because they hear more about it in the public media. It certainly has a better press today than it had anytime since the First World War. Then, too, evangelicals now have a greater sense of their own identity than they did earlier in this century. But the influence of evangelical faith and evangelical ethics on our society is less. As a culture, our nation and, indeed, Western Europe are moving away from biblical Christianity.

Most people don't realize that a hundred years ago the mainline denominations were all evangelical. As late as 1880, for example, you went a long way to find any United Methodist who wasn't an evangelical. An individual member might be liberal, but he knew what his. denomination stood for. And the leadership was evangelical. In the middle of the nineteenth century you really had to turn to the Unitarians to find out-and-out liberals. Now all that has changed. While strong elements of evangelicalism remain in all these denominations, their leadership, and therefore their influence, has become unevangelical. And that in turn has changed the structure of our society.

You portray this strong evangelical history and yet we read that at the founding of our country it was minuscule.

That's true. Most historians believe that membership in the church at the time of the Revolution was less than 10 percent. In the early part of the nineteenth century the percentage was in the low teens. Through the nineteenth century, membership never came close to 50 percent for all churches—Roman Catholic, Protestant, or others. Now 70 percent of the populace are members of the church.

Was the shift due to the Great Awakening that occurred in that era?

It was partly due to the Great Awakening, but also to the fact that in the United States it became the accepted thing to belong to the church.

But it was not at the founding of our country?

No. Back then you didn't join a church unless you professed faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and lived a life in conformity with that profession.

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June (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46