Final Visual Project - Evangelical Christianity

The Wikipedia article has this to say about Evangelical Christians:

'Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s. Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion (or being "born again"); some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for Biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus. David Bebbington has termed these four distinctive aspects conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism, saying, "Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism."'

My parents converted to Christianity when I was six years old. They were having some serious marital strife and they ended up seeing a Christian marriage counselor. They've been Christians ever since. My mother converted from Judaism and my father from Catholicism. They started attending a Congregational church until I was 13 and then they began attending an Evangelical church. I was required to attend church services and participate in Sunday schools, youth groups, etc. until I was 18 years old. This blog will attempt to explain what makes an Evangelical Christian different from "mainstream Christianity" (i.e. more socially liberal groups) and Fundamentalist Christianity. It is important to note that these differences that I will be discussing are not end-all-be-all types of differences. As in all religious sects, there is a lot of breathing room for diverse versions of religion/faith that exist under the same label.


Both Evangelicals and Fundamentalists put a lot of faith in the Bible but Evangelical Christianity differs from Fundamentalist Christianity most notably in the way that Scripture is dealt with. Fundamentalists take the Bible much more literally than Evangelicals. Evangelicals often interpret the Bible in a more progressive manner that applies more obviously to modern times. Fundamentalists see this as blasphemous (or something similar to blasphemy but less offensive). Due to this key difference Evangelicals are often less socially conservative than Fundamentalists, however very few Evangelicals would be called Liberals in terms of social beliefs.

In recent years the gap between many "mainstream" forms of Christianity and Evangelicalism has been shrinking. The main difference is between these two groups is, again, in how they deal with the Bible. Most "mainstream" Christian groups do not hold the Bible to be absolutely true, but instead use the text as more of a well-intentioned guide. Most Evangelical Christians hold the belief that you are only able to accept and believe all that the Bible offers or you cannot believe any of it. This is the thing about Evangelicalism that often makes them seem like Fundamentalists at first glance.

Because the Evangelical denomination has grown so much in recent years it is very difficult to put a finger on commonalities when it comes to systems of symbols. In order to make this less of a problem, I will focus on Evangelical Christianity within the United States.

The only common symbol for the majority of Evangelical Christians is the style of sanctuary within the actual church building. No physical representations of Jesus are allowed within the sanctuary--the idea being that physical representations of Jesus would lead to people worshiping an image (i.e. Golden Calf phenomenon when Moses returned from Mount Sinai with 10 Commandments). Here are some pictures of Evangelical church buildings and their respective sanctuaries:







As you can see, all of these sanctuaries focus on a cross with no image of Jesus present. This is to promote meditation upon the crucifixion (the most important event for Evangelicals) with the simplest of symbols in order to keep from being distracted. Another interesting thing to note is that most Evangelical churches use the lowest height of platform possible in the front (lowest possible in order for everyone to see). This is an attempt to keep the attendees from focusing too much on an individual and glorifying them. It is also interesting to note that Fundamentalists do not allow images of Jesus in the church either. However, you will notice a key difference between the two types of services after attending: most Evangelical services attempt to be modern/progressive in instrumentation for singing (i.e. including drums). This is something that most Fundamentalists frown upon.