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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Evangelicalism--Iowa--Waterloo; Religion and politics--Iowa--Waterloo; Evangelicalism; Religion and politics; Iowa--Waterloo;

Abstract

This study is primarily concerned with the growing movement in Christianity labeled, loosely albeit, evangelical. The word evangelical has historically had different and changing definitions. Its meaning is traced from its origins in German pietism, Wesley Methodism and the Great Awakening to its present forms and diversifications. This historical grounding has its basis in the theory concerning and surrounding the nature of religion. However, the crux of this study was to answer the question: In what ways and for what motivation, will a person belonging to an evangelical faith combine their religious ideology and their political beliefs? This question, unfortunately does not lend itself to a very straightforward answer. The methodology that was utilized the theory that was discussed all added substance and direction to the manner in which the question could be epistomologically approached. Religion is seen as a form of alienation for individual human beings in their social context. Religion does determine for an individual meaning and definitions with which to act; but these definitions arise from a process of reification. Subsequently, Christianity is viewed from this context. The similarities examined by Weber of Calvin's thought and the new capitalist age are seen as part of this ideological process. Using speeches and writings from the evangelicals of the United States in the last two hundred years, the change in evangelical thought is documented. From the general consensus among the clergy that the post-millenist view was correct; Moberg's 'Great Reversal' is seen as a reaction to the loss of the new 'Garden of Eden' felt by the white settlers of this New World. Instead of preaching heaven on earth; after the Civil War; those ministers calling themselves evangelical (Moody, Sunday) began to preach a nearly opposite position. Their concerns were other-worldly and peculiarly personal. This has been characterized by theologian Martin Marty as the private sector of Protestantism. The division between the private and public sector of Protestantism has been the main characteristic of division within the Protestant faith in this century. Within this mileaux are many churches that could be called evangelical. One of these is Sunnyside Temple in Waterloo, Iowa. Because Sunnyside Temple is the largest evangelical congregation in Iowa, it appeared to be an ideal setting to do empirical research. Sunnyside Temple has many of the attributes of the other evangelical churches: it has media-coverage of many of its events, a non-profit corporation, and a philosophy of growth. Whether it had added a political dimension as well, was yet to be discovered. The results of the questionnaire given to ninety-nine members of this congregation were fairly inconclusive, in certain respects. As far as description, the questionnaire showed that most of the congregation identified themselves as evangelicals and held very strong, very fundamental beliefs about God. The results also pointed out to no unified political beliefs. And, finally, there was no significant correlation between their political beliefs and their religious ideology.

Year of Submission

1980

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work

First Advisor

Ronald E. Roberts

Second Advisor

Gene M. Lutz

Third Advisor

Charles E. Quirk

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to [email protected] and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1980

Object Description

1 PDF file (100 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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