Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 37:2 (Spring 2023)
Article: Rediscovering An Evangelical Heritage
Author: J. G. Brown

PP 37:2 (Spring 2023) p. 14

Rediscovering An Evangelical Heritage

Joan G. Brown

Joan Brown’s journey with biblical equality began years ago when she helped found the Albany, New York, chapter of the Evangelical Women’s Caucus and then later followed Catherine Kroeger into Christians for Biblical Equality. Professionally, Joan taught history on the high school and college levels until retiring in 2011. She now teaches English to refugees from all over the world who are making St. Louis, Missouri, their new home.

In 1976 Donald Dayton wrote a book entitled Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, largely focusing on the leading role that evangelicalism played in nineteenth-century reform movements. He covers a wide range of personalities and institutions (Protestant denominations, colleges, seminaries) that led the way in the abolition of slavery and the advancement of women’s rights. Evangelicalism articulated the philosophical framework for these reforms—all people, women and men, Black and White, are created in the image of God and equally loved by a God who redeems and empowers all believers to do kingdom work. This message reached the masses through the revivals that spread across the English-speaking world during the early nineteenth century. That vitality was then lost in the twentieth century, largely due to what some scholars call “the great reversal.”1 Evangelical social reform was eclipsed by the devastation of the Civil War and World War I, by theological issues such as the fundamentalist/modernist split and the rise of pre-millennialism, as well as by social developments such as the arrival of thousands of new immigrants from non-Protestant backgrounds.2

In the mid-twentieth century, when evangelicalism in the United States re-emerged into the public square, it was decidedly reactionary, especially on the issue of women’s roles in the church and family. This was indeed a great reversal of the trajectory established in the nineteenth century. Consequently, today, some people within the church and most nonbelievers are convinced that evangelicalism (and Christianity in general) is and always has been essentially misogynistic. For many Americans today, the best way to deal with Christianity is either to marginalize it or to remake it into a more socially progressive institution. Jesus followers today, however, need to rediscover their evangelical heritage. The historical record could actually be a powerful apologetic for our faith. What if Christianity was/is the fundamental source of Western notions of equality under the law, social justice, and equity? What if Christianity is the primary reason women in the West enjoy the freedoms and opportunitie...