Changing Patterns

AV1611 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-14-2007, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Just a few decades after the Wesleyan revivals and the establishment of Methodist societies, the Brethren Movement began in Ireland and England. Like Methodism, Brethrenism arose out of discontent with status quo Anglican church life. As such, both the Methodist and Brethren movements share a common heritage in that creative history of religious renewal and dissent that has characterized Anglo-Christianity.

Like Methodism, the religious impact of Brethrenism quickly spread to the New World where its ideas and contributions went beyond the structural forms of the original movement. Out of early Methodism came the Wesleyan tradition which has expressed itself in multiple ecclesial forms and has contributed to the overall shape of American Evangeli*calism. Out of the original Breth n movement came the dispensational tradition which is represented in several ecclesial groupings today and has impacted many more, thus making its own contribution to the developing history of American Evangelicalism.

The histories of these traditions are not parallel in every respect. Methodism built up a strong denominational structure from which it impacted American Christianity ideologically and from which it generated new denominational structures. Brethrenism remained denominationally small in the United States. Its conflicts and inner tensions weakened it rather than proving to be creative outlets for strong denominational expressions.

Dispensationalism, however, spread transdenominationally. Key American clergy reshaped the ecclesiological dynamic of early Brethrenism into a transdenominational affirmation of evangelical unity. This allowed them to add dispensational theology to their existing traditions, reinforcing and spreading dispensationalism in interdenominational Bible and Prophecy conferences. Dispensationalism got its greatest boost through the interdenominational Fundamentalist movement. As a result, dispensationalism came to be widely influential in twentieth century American Evangelical thought.

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