Laurie Guy writes...
I have been thinking. Yes, I have. It's partly linked with 2007 being the bi-centennial of the abolition of the slave trade through the efforts of people like William Wilberforce and his 'Clapham Sect'. Thinking about this has been fuelled by the film Amazing Grace which, in my view, was one of the most evangelistic films I have ever seen (mainly because it presented such an attractive and powerful Christianity).
My thinking has been further fuelled through currently teaching a postgraduate class at the university on religious movements in nineteenth century Britain. The Wilberforce group were evangelical Anglicans. In 1800 less than 5% of the Anglican clergy were evangelical. Half a century later maybe 40% were.
Evangelicals transformed society, socially and spiritually.
I find the funerals of these two men, Wilberforce and Shaftesbury, particularly impressive. Thousands attended Wilberforce's funeral. He was described as 'the conscience of his country' and 'the most loved and respected man in England'. Shaftesbury's funeral was even bigger. On the day of Shaftesbury's funeral a visitor to central London said that it seemed that every third person was in mourning. Thousands lined the streets to honour the funeral
procession.
Why were the early Evangelicals so successful? Two features are striking. One was the bigness of their gospel: concerned with souls, soap and society. The other feature was their warmth and humanity. Wilberforce and Shaftesbury loved people. People mattered. It was their humanitarian care that gave them popular favour, that caused them to be listened to and loved.
Much of later evangelicalism lost some of those earlier qualities. It often became more inwardly and escapist focused - too concerned for 'my soul' and the other world at the expense of society and this world. And too often its narrowness made its gospel seem killjoy. It's the early evangelicals that are more the exemplar of how to be a Christian in society than are their successors.
This is often a tough time for Christian witness in the West. Some of it is our own fault - the evangelical image is often one of pettiness and harshness. Why?
The big and warm gospel of Wilberforce and Shaftesbury is a pointer for the future. Imagine if we had Christians respected in New Zealand today as 'the conscience of New Zealand' and 'the most loved people in New Zealand'.