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Charles Simeon: Anglican Evangelical
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
The leaders of the Evangelical Movement in the Church of England till the end of the nineteenth century can, for convenience sake, be divided into three groups: the Awakeners, the Pastors and Organizers, and the Ecclesiastical Controversialists. The main concern of the first was to awaken the inert and indifferent population by preaching of sin and judgment, of forgiveness and eternal life; that of the Pastors and Organizers was to guide awakened and conscience-stricken people in the paths of righteousness, and to organize their resources for more efficient service to God and man; that of the Ecclesiastical Controversialists was to stem the rising tide of Tractarianism and Biblical criticism which seemed to them to be endangering the purity of the Gospel and to be leading the Church into false paths. It was under the leadership of this last group that the Evangelical Movement became definitely “Low Church” (at first, in distinction from the Latitudinarians, it had been relatively “High Church”) and what today would be called “fundamentalist.” If it be remembered that these groups were not hard and fast, that the Awakeners were pastors and that the Organizers were awakeners, and that the Ecclesiastical Controversialists were trying to be both, they will serve to indicate the general phases of the movement.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1940
References
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