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12 - Obeying God Rather Than Men

Uneasy Evangelicals, Conscience, and Politics

from Part II - Conscience According to Major Figures and Traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2021

Jeffrey B. Hammond
Affiliation:
Faulkner University
Helen M. Alvare
Affiliation:
George Mason University, Virginia
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Summary

Micah Watson argues that an active conscience is the outgrowth of the evangelical mind. Evangelicalism is the form of Protestantism that relies on the truths of historical Christianity while navigating between mainline Protestantism and fundamentalism. For evangelicals, conscience is founded in the Bible, particularly the writings of Paul. It also flowered in the post-Reformation world, where it was taught that an active conscience signaled a person’s salvation. Conscience also led evangelicals to be active against all forms of sinfulness. In the United States, this contributed to the proliferation of voluntary societies, where Christians who were “saved for service” could exercise their consciences to spread the Gospel or stamp out perceived evils (like alcohol use). Watson traces the history of evangelical conscience into the twentieth century, and he describes voices like Carl Henry and others who sought harmony between the pious strand of evangelicalism, and adherents who were committed to social action. Later in the twentieth century, evangelicals sought peace in society more than saving it. Still, evangelicals continue to oppose perceived social evils, including same-sex marriage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Christianity and the Laws of Conscience
An Introduction
, pp. 227 - 244
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Recommended Reading

Budziszewski, J., and Weeks, David L.. Evangelicals in the Public Square: Four Formative Voices on Political Thought and Action. Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Academic, 2006.Google Scholar
Decock, Wim, Ballor, Jordan, Germann, Michael, and Waelkens, Laurent, eds. Law and Religion: The Legal Teachings of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Reprecht, 2014.Google Scholar
Dreisbach, Daniel L., and Hall, Mark David, eds. The Sacred Rights of Conscience: Selected Readings on Religious Liberty and Church-State Relations in the American Founding. Indianapolis, in: Liberty Fund, 2009.Google Scholar
Hall, Mark David. “Religious Accommodations and the Common Good.” The Heritage Foundation: Backgrounder 3058, October 26, 2015.Google Scholar
Hart, D.G., ed., Reckoning with the Past: Historical Essays on American Evangelicalism from the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Books, 1995.Google Scholar
Henry, Carl F. H. The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Grand Rapids, mi: Eerdmans, 2003.Google Scholar
Monsma, Stephen V.What Is an Evangelical? And Does It Matter?Christian Scholar’s Review xlvi, no. 4 (Summer 2017): 323–40.Google Scholar
Muller, Richard A.Covenant and Conscience in English Reformed Theology: Three Variations on a 17th Century Theme.” Westminster Theological Journal 42, no. 2 (Spring 1980): 308–34.Google Scholar
Noll, Mark A. The Work We Have to Do: A History of Protestants in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Sandoz, Ellis, ed. Political Sermons of the American Founding Era: 1730–1805, 2 vols. Indianapolis, in: Liberty Fund, 2000.Google Scholar
Shields, Jon A. The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right. Princeton, nj: Princeton University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, Ronald J. The Scandal of Evangelical Politics: Why Are Christians Missing the Chance to Really Change the World? Grand Rapids, mi: Baker Books, 2008.Google Scholar
Smidt, Corwin E. American Evangelicals Today. Lanham, md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.Google Scholar
Witte, John Jr., and Nichols, Joel A.. Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 4th ed. New York, ny: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar

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