The material losses that Great Britain suffered in World War II and the end of the British Empire in the years after 1947 had serious effects on the Protestant churches in former British territories. Britain could no longer fund overseas churches as it once had done, and, although Australia, Canada, and the United States provided financial support, change in the government of the local churches occurred with mixed results. In some areas the new leadership was ill-prepared for its role, but in others leaders had been gradually prepared to take control of church government (a process hastened by Britain’s changed circumstances). Thus the so-called younger churches came to be a new fact of world Christianity, led by people who no longer saw the history of Christianity solely through European eyes. This was to be of primary importance in the ecumenical movement. Meanwhile, the secularizing trend of a technological age assailed the old European churches and had an even greater effect upon the areas where the younger churches ministered.
The growth of Protestantism outside its traditional home—Lutheranism in Namibia, Anglicanism in South Africa, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches and sects in South America and Asia—helped compensate for losses in Europe and North America. Because of conversions and population growth, the Protestant church actually increased in size as it changed its scope and ethos in the postwar period.
There were also surprising survivals and reappearances of Protestantism in areas of the world where its demise had been predicted. In 1948–49 the communist seizure of power in China effectively ended Protestant missions there. By 1951 there were few European missionaries left in the country, and the Chinese churches were forced to exist without foreign aid. They came under severe pressure, especially during the so-called Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and ’70s, and could no longer evangelize. The partial reopening of China to the West and the cautious measures granting more freedom of religion and speech beginning in the late 1970s and the 1980s led to new contacts between Chinese Protestants and Westerners. Several million Protestants and other Christians are believed to have endured the persecution of the two previous decades, and, however uncertain their futures remained, they represented a vital group of believers. Conservative and Evangelical forms of Protestantism
The most important movements in Protestantism since the early 20th century are usually called Pentecostalism, Fundamentalism, and Evangelicalism. Often characterized as conservative or reactionary, these traditions offer exuberant expressions of faith that are in some ways progressive. Moreover, these are important for their contribution to the expansion of Protestantism beyond its traditional geographic boundaries. Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism grew out of Wesleyan Holiness movements at the turn of the 20th century in the United States. The movement first appeared in 1901 in Topeka, Kansas, and in 1906 in Los Angeles when the first Pentecostals began to “speak in tongues.” A form of unrepressed speech, this glossolalia involves speaking or singing in unintelligible syllables. Adherents claim that they “yield” themselves to the Lord. Normally the syllables they speak or sing are unintelligible, though some claim that they speak in recognizable foreign tongues as the disciples of Jesus did at the first Pentecost (Acts 2:14), from which the movement derives its name. Pentecostals believe that they must experience a “second baptism,” beyond water baptism, in which the Holy Spirit comes to them. They not only speak in tongues but interpret them; they prophesy; and many engage in healing, claiming that miraculous healing did not cease after the apostolic period, as many other Christians believe.
The Pentecostal movement in the United States developed among rural poor whites and urban blacks in the South. After the mid-20th century, fast-growing denominations like the Assemblies of God made Pentecostalism one of the most visible forms of Protestantism and became increasingly acceptable to the middle classes. After 1960 the movement spread into mainstream faiths like the Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, where participants often called it a “charismatic” movement.
Pentecostalism had its greatest success in the Caribbean, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Many prophetic movements erupted there in which Christians adopted emotional forms of worship and healing. Pentecostalism in these parts of the world was often the religion of the poor, bringing hope to people in nations that were emerging from colonialism. Pentecostals built on the work of the missionaries of a century earlier and were often neither anti-American nor anti-European, as some liberation movements were. They often accented “otherworldliness” and avoided politics or identified with conservative and even repressive regimes. Fundamentalism
The second major movement, Fundamentalism, combined late 19th-century premillennialism (the belief that Jesus will return before the millennium to usher in the messianic kingdom) with defenses of biblical inerrancy. It took its name from The Fundamentals, a series of tracts that were issued between 1910 and 1915 in the United States. In 1919 and 1920, Fundamentalism became a formal and militant party in denominational conflict in the United States.
The growth of Fundamentalism was due to the spread of both Darwinian evolutionary theory and higher criticism of the Bible, both of which found acceptance in liberal Protestant churches. Fundamentalists in the United States felt that these two movements subverted seminaries, bureaus, mission boards, and pulpits in the northern branches of various Protestant denominations. The Scopes trial in 1925, in which the Fundamentalist champion William Jennings Bryan fought against the teaching of evolution in schools and defended the Genesis record as being scientific, coincided with the climactic battles between liberals and fundamentalists in the mainstream Protestant churches.
Despite the setback at the Scopes trial, Fundamentalism exercised great influence on American life in the 20th century. It prospered most when it moved from political passivity to open participation, particularly in support of Ronald Reagan’s successful presidential bids in 1980 and 1984. Although the televangelist Pat Robertson was unsuccessful in his presidential run in 1988, Fundamentalists remained politically active in the 1990s, focusing on opposition to abortion, support for a constitutional amendment to permit prayer in public schools, a large military defense budget, and support for Israel. Fundamentalists also created a network of Bible colleges, radio and television programs, and publishing ventures. In the early 1940s they formed several rival organizations that steadily grew in numbers and assertiveness. In the later 20th century groups like Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and Robertson’s 700 Club demonstrated the continued strength of the movement and the effectiveness of the television ministry. Evangelicalism
The third movement, Evangelicalism, has been best represented by the ministry of Billy Graham and journals like Christianity Today. This group agrees with Fundamentalism on core doctrines such as the virgin birth, substitutionary atonement (that Christ’s suffering and death atoned for man’s sins), the physical resurrection of Jesus, and biblical inerrancy.
Although Evangelicals and Fundamentalists share a number of beliefs, they differ on an equal number of core teachings. Evangelical scholars, for example, doubt that accepting the doctrine of biblical inerrancy is the best way to assert their belief in biblical authority. Many Evangelicals also reject the premillennialism that is popular with Fundamentalists. Evangelicals differ in style, too, and often find Fundamentalists too negative in their attitudes about culture, too withdrawn into sects, too blustery and judgmental. When the National Association of Evangelicals formed in 1942, the Fundamentalist right mounted the same sort of attack on it that had been used against the mainstream moderates and liberals. Most Evangelicals preferred to see themselves not as Fundamentalists but as perpetuators of the 19th-century Protestant mainstream.