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Theological Controversies in the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, 1865-1915: The Rise of Liberal Evangelicalism
Theological Controversies in the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales 18651915 The Rise of Liberal Evangelicalism Author:Peter Barnes This book demonstrates how the movement served as a prelude to the acceptance of extreme liberalism in the person of Rev. Professor Samuel Angus, who avoided heresy charges in the 1930s. From the middle of the nineteenth century, Protestant Churches across the Western world increasingly had to contend with the rise of theological liberalism. The... more » resultant shift in theology - on such key matters as the doctrines of revelation, Christ and salvation, and the place of miracles - was not immediately obvious to all, and a common theological response has been labeled Liberal Evangelicalism. This proved to be a fluid position - or, to change the image, a halfway house - and developed into a more pronounced theological liberalism during the twentieth century. Sydney Ahlstrom has called this theological shift 'the most fundamental controversy to wrack the churches since the age of the Reformation.' This work attempts to trace the rise of Liberal Evangelicalism in the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales in Australia from 1865 to 1915. It proved to be the prelude to the acceptance of extreme liberalism in the person of Rev. Professor Samuel Angus who, famously or infamously, was able to avoid heresy charges in the 1930s. Theological shifts usually take place one step at a time. So it proved in the Protestant Churches of the West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.« less