Evangelical
Protestantism
emerged in Britain during the 1730s. The conversion of John
Wesley in 1738 is often regarded as the beginning of the evangelical
movement. Evangelicals like Wesley insisted on rigorous standards
of personal conduct, frequent examination of conscience, the infallibility
of the Bible, detailed Bible study and lay activity. Unwelcome in
Church of England
pulpits, Wesley was forced to preach out of doors and to eventually
develop an organisation of his own. As well as the Wesleyan
Methodists and Primitive Methodists,
evangelicals came from older Nonconformist
bodies such as the Congregationalists
and Baptists.
At the end of the 18th century evangelicalism had spread to the Church
of England. Charles
Simeon at Cambridge University began
encouraging the training of Evangelical clergymen. Simeon argued that
there was a great need to raise moral enthusiasm and ethical standards
among the clergy. The Clapham Sect, whose
group included William Wilberforce
and Granville Sharp, was another centre
of the evangelical movement in the Anglican Church. Their primary
interest was in the moral improvement of the working classes. This
involved some evangelicals such as Lord Ashley
and Michael Sadler becoming involved in
the campaign against child labour. Evangelicals also played a important
role in the Anti-Slavery movement
and the Temperance
Society. Wealthy individuals such as Angela
Burdett-Coutts were inspired by the Evangelical movement to give
away their money to good causes.
In 1848 saw the emergence of the Christian
Socialist movement. Preachers such as Frederick
Denison Maurice, Charles Kingsley
and Thomas Hughes. began to influence many
that Jesus Christ was the world first socialist. One of those who
became convinced of this was James Keir Hardie,
a trade union leader and lay preacher for the Evangelical
Union Church. Later, Hardie was the become the founder of the
Labour Party.
(1)
James Keir Hardie, From Serfdom to Socialism (1907)
This
generation has grown up ignorant of the fact that socialism is as
old as the human race. When civilization dawned upon the world, primitive
man was living his rude Communistic life, sharing all things in common
with every member of the tribe. Later when the race lived in villages,
man, the communist, moved about among the communal flocks and herds
on communal land. The peoples who have carved their names most deeply
on the tables of human story all set out on their conquering career
as communists, and their downward path begins with the day when they
finally turned away from it and began to gather personal possessions.
When the old civilizations were putrefying, the still small voice
of Jesus the Communist stole over the earth like a soft refreshing
breeze carrying healing wherever it went.
(2)
In 1910 James Keir Hardie explained the influence that Christianity
had on his political beliefs.
I
have said, both in writing and from the platform many times, that
the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and the
inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more from
the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources combined.
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