ETS 2006- H. Chris Ross: Promoting Evangelical Faith Through New Media

November 18, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

H. Chris Ross “Promoting Evangelical Faith Through New Media: Lessons from the English Reformation”

As Bob Dylan sang, “The time they are a-changin’.” Though he was describing the social changes of the 60’s, he could have said the same of sixteenth century Europe, or our situation today. The internet is often viewed as “the Guttenberg press of our time,” noting the similarities of the Reformation and current time periods. Mr. Ross believes these similarities have practical applications for Christians today.

The development of devotional literature in England provides important historical lessons. With the invention of the printing press, literacy levels rose and eventually the Bible and theological literature became more popular to larger groups of people. Much of the literature produced was works that used to be copied by hand.

In the latter sixteenth century, outlawed Catholic works started making their way into England. This was mostly devotional literature that appealed to both Protestants and Catholics. Due to the doctrinal emphasis of the Reformation, Protestants had not produced new spiritual literature of their own. Instead, some people, such as Edmund Bunny, adapted popular Catholic books by taking out the conflicting Catholic parts and republishing them as Protestant literature (this was before any real copyright restrictions).

It wasn’t until Richard Rogers published his Seven Treatises in 1602 that Protestants had a distinct devotional work that reflected the spiritual needs of the time. After this, more followed, but it took some time for Protestants to recognize the need and opportunity for such literature.

Mr. Ross suggested three significant parallels to today:

1) Then, as there is today, there was unprecedented religious plurality.

2) Those in the time of the Reformation were living between two forms of culture- oral and print. Today we live between print and electronic. The changes are gradual, but monumental.

3) In both time periods, people gained a greater sense of spiritual autonomy, which makes them vulnerable to spiritual consumerism.

There are two lessons he believes we can draw from this bit of church history:

1) Evangelical leaders need to be students of the present. We must at least be aware of new media and how it is impacting us.

2) Evangelicals need to exploit the new media to spread the Gospel. We should utilize the most effective means to communicate the Gospel, which may mean utilizing electronic media.