{"id":7229,"date":"2010-07-14T00:07:05","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T05:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/14\/evangelicalisms-radical-diversity-1\/"},"modified":"2010-07-14T00:07:05","modified_gmt":"2010-07-14T05:07:05","slug":"evangelicalisms-radical-diversity-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/14\/evangelicalisms-radical-diversity-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelicalism’s Radical Diversity 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Choir.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>So just how do you define an evangelical? Do you go with David Bebbington\u2019s four-fold breakdown: Bible, Cross, Conversion and Active Christian living?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
Steve Wilkens and Don Thorsen, both profs at Azusa Pacific, have a new book that takes on misperceptions of evangelicals. I like the title: Everything You Know about Evangelicals Is Wrong (Well, Almost Everything): An Insider\u2019s Look at Myths and Realities<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>.\n
<\/div>\n
While appreciating Bebbington\u2019s focus on the central beliefs, including belief in being behavioral, Wilkens and Thorsen propose a slight variation that is working its way into my own understanding. They see evangelicalism as committed to three things:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Orthodoxy (right belief),\u00a0<\/div>\n
Orthopraxy (right behavior), and\u00a0<\/div>\n
Orthopathy (right experience).\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Overall, if these are the three characteristics, which is the most important to the evangelicals you know and what would be your ordering of the three?<\/b><\/div>\n


\nHere\u2019s my own ordering:\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
1. Orthopathy<\/div>\n
2. Orthodoxy<\/div>\n
3. Orthopraxy<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That is, I believe the single-most important dimension of evangelicals, the single-most important element that grants credibility to a person\u2019s genuineness, is a born-again experience or a testimony to a conversion experience<\/b>. \u00a0Evangelicals can talk all they want about what they believe, and they talk and write about this a good deal \u2014 and I count myself in that group, but when it comes down to it, you\u2019re \u201cin\u201d if you\u2019ve had the experience and you\u2019re under suspicion (and \u201cout\u201d) if you haven\u2019t, no matter what you believe. And how a practice behaves is the least important. And I won\u2019t tread now into what evangelicals believe and how they think\u2026 that\u2019s for another day.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That\u2019s where I stand. What do you think?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As you know, I post on books that I\u2019m either sent or that I buy. (I was sent this one; well, I blurbed the thing so I should have received a copy.) The reason the blog is focusing right now on evangelicalism is because that\u2019s the books that are on my desk of late.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So just how do you define an evangelical? Do you go with David Bebbington\u2019s four-fold breakdown: Bible, Cross, Conversion and Active Christian living?\u00a0 Steve Wilkens and Don Thorsen, both profs at Azusa Pacific, have a new book that takes on misperceptions of evangelicals. I like the title: Everything You Know about Evangelicals Is Wrong (Well, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicalism"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelicalism's Radical Diversity 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So just how do you define an evangelical? 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