Harold Ockenga Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Evangelical reformer and leader == === Fundamentalist controversy === In addition to his pastoral career and writings, Ockenga became a significant leader in a mid-twentieth-century reforming movement known as [[Neo-Evangelicalism]] or the New Evangelicalism. Its roots are found in the theological controversy between Protestant [[Fundamentalists]] and Protestant Liberals or Modernists in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Much of the controversy centered on questions of the historicity of the Bible, [[biblical inerrancy]], biblical interpretation, [[creationism]] and [[evolution]], and various doctrines such as the [[deity]] of Christ, the [[Virgin Birth of Christ]], the Atonement, the bodily [[resurrection of Christ]], and the [[Second Advent of Christ]]. The reaction of many Fundamentalists to the influence of liberal Protestant theology and modern secular beliefs led to a withdrawal from many of the mainline denominations and institutions. In addition, the Fundamentalists believed that anyone, regardless of religious outlook, could be involved with social action and so they wanted to retreat to deal only with the "Spiritual Gospel." {{citation needed|date=September 2016}} However, Ockenga and some other younger and emerging figures inside those churches felt uncomfortable about the militant isolation from culture. Ockenga also believed that Jesus came to deal with the physical well-being in addition to the more serious spiritual well-being of the people he met. Alongside of Ockenga were figures such as [[Carl F. H. Henry]], [[Harold Lindsell]], [[Wilbur M. Smith]], and [[Edward John Carnell]]. === Neo-Evangelical Social Engagement === Towards the end of the Second World War, Ockenga founded War Relief and the War Relief Commission (1944) to deal with the situation abroad. He believed that Neo-Evangelicalism would lack credibility if Christians did not meet the physical needs of those who desperately needed assistance and only preached a spiritual Gospel. War Relief later became World Relief. === Neo-Evangelical Education === In an effort to redress these concerns Ockenga and J. Elwin Wright of the New England Fellowship planned the establishing of a new organisation known as the [[National Association of Evangelicals]]. Ockenga served as its founding president from 1942-1944. Those affiliated with the association were interested in maintaining many of the biblical concerns that militant fundamentalists held to. However they also sought to reform fundamentalism from what they perceived as its anti-cultural and anti-intellectual tendencies. Another indicator of the effort to reform fundamentalism is located in the efforts of the founding fathers of [[Fuller Theological Seminary]] in [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]], [[California]]. The seminary was initially conceived of as the Evangelical [[Caltech]], where excellence in scholarship would dovetail with faithfulness to orthodox Protestant beliefs, and yield a renovation of western culture from secular unbelief. The seminary would become a launching pad for a new generation of zealous evangelicals who would rigorously engage in critical dialogue with Liberal theology and modern secular thought, as well as cultivating skills in those who would propel mass evangelism and worldwide missions. The principal founding figures of Fuller Seminary included [[Charles E. Fuller (Baptist minister)|Charles E. Fuller]] (radio evangelist), Ockenga, Carl Henry, and Harold Lindsell. The seminary opened in September 1947, and Ockenga was appointed seminary president. However, Ockenga was reluctant to relinquish his pastoral post and so much to the chagrin of his seminary colleagues he served as president in absentia from 1947 unti 1954. He was succeeded by Edward John Carnell. Ockenga resumed his post as president in absentia from 1960 until 1963 following Carnell's resignation. This overall ferment for reform in fundamentalism, as exemplified in the establishing of the National Association of Evangelicals, Fuller Seminary and ''Christianity Today'' magazine came to be known as Neo-Evangelicalism. A part of the movement was its opposition to Roman Catholicism, a concern that Ockenga embraced. For example, he was one of the thirty or so leaders who met for a strategy session with Billy Graham in mid-August 1960 in Montreaux, Switzerland, to plan how the movement could best oppose the candidacy of Senator [[John F. Kennedy]] for the presidency that year. They planned a meeting for the new National Conference for Citizens for Religious Freedom the following month in Washington. Ockenga was one of the spokesmen for the group, whose initial gathering on September 7 was pilloried by the media as the "Peale Group," after its chairman, the champion of positive thinking, [[Norman Vincent Peale]].<ref>H. Larry Ingle, Nixon's First Cover-up: The Religious Life of a Quaker President, pp. 101-06 University of Missouri Press, 2015 {{ISBN|978-0-8262-2042-4}}</ref> The term may or may not have been originally coined by Ockenga, but in 1948 at the Civic Auditorium in [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]], [[California]] his speech gave birth to the movement. In the foreword to ''The Battle For the Bible'' by Harold Lindsell, Ockenga further defined the term neo-evangelicalism: <blockquote>Neo-evangelicalism was born in 1948 in connection with a convocation address which I gave in the Civic Auditorium in Pasadena. While reaffirming the theological view of fundamentalism, this address repudiated its ecclesiology and its social theory. The ringing call for a repudiation of separatism and the summons to social involvement received a hearty response from many Evangelicals. ... It differed from fundamentalism in its repudiation of separatism and its determination to engage itself in the theological dialogue of the day. It had a new emphasis upon the application of the gospel to the sociological, political, and economic areas of life.</blockquote> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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