Jonathan Edwards and the Jesus Movement
At some point near the end of the 19th Century, revivalism became redefined as a movement centered on mass evangelism rather than as a comprehensive renewal movement affecting the whole church and the surrounding culture. It became Fundamentalism, a desperate attempt to hold on to the consensus of Reformation orthodoxy and to enforce it politically within major denominations. This effort failed. The result was that the evangelical stream divided, and the components involved in its original wholeness were distributed in varying combinations among ‘liberals,’ ‘moderates’ and ‘conservatives.’
As early as the 2nd century, the church begins to adopt the OT concept of decline and renewal as part of the historical life of the church. For example: New spiritual life broke out in the church wherever Lutheran doctrines were preached. However, subsequent generations were able to turn Luther’s teaching into dead orthodoxy. The one-sided emphasis on justification, along with the resulting neglect of sanctification and the uses of the law, often produced what Bonhoeffer has bitingly called ‘cheap grace.’ The counter reaction was the birth of Puritanism and Pietism.
