Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster, 1921-1998 (review)

Patrick Mitchel, a lecturer in theology at the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin, has written a useful, if somewhat confused, book about certain aspects of evangelicalism in twentieth-century Northern Ireland. The confusion begins with the misleading title, which implies an integrated narrative rather than the series of generally autonomous, if inevitably related, essays of which the text actually consists. Mitchel's effort is divided into two parts: I, "Nationalism, Identity, and Unionism," and II, "Shades of Orange: Differing Versions of Ulster Evangelicalism." Particularly useful essays in the first part include Mitchel's tentative attempts—in "Of Nations and Nationalism," and "National Identity and the Appeal of Nationalism"—to discuss Northern Protestant civilization as a distinct national culture, one equal in dignity to the culture of Irish Catholicism, however that in turn is defined.

Mitchel does not carry his attempt at definition far, but he does offer a distinct contribution to a broader, and as yet much-underdeveloped discussion that is less than a generation old. One finds it refreshing to encounter here Ulster Protestant nationality as a "given," described matter-of-factly rather than not-at-all, or dismissively, as it has been so often in the past. The final essay of Part I, "Paradise Lost; The Rise and Fall of Ulster Unionism," is less compelling, and is a rehearsal of "The Orange State" one has read before.

"Gospel Truth: Describing Evangelicalism," the first essay of Part II could be one of the most useful in this volume, if expanded in a second edition. Unfortunately, Mitchel has great difficulty explaining substantively just what the theological distinctions are that separate the various parties and movements within Irish evangelicalism. Part of his difficulty results from the inability of conservative Protestants to sort themselves out theologically through employment of a common vocabulary. Too often, Mitchel falls back on the impoverished distinction between "Evangelicalism" and "Fundamentalism." Briefly, in this construct, evangelicals are "conservative" or "orthodox" Protestants who believe in "biblical inerrancy" (whatever that means nowadays), who emphasize a "born again" religious experience, and who are "open" to interaction with the broader culture. Protestant Fundamentalists (from the thus-described Evangelical—Mitchel's—standpoint) are the nasty and angry among "regenerated" Protestants: Biblical literalists who are culturally "closed," seeking separation from the "the World." Parenthetically, this distinction is too often employed in this text to construct a caricature of Paisleyism in its present form. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals so described are often unwilling to admit that the other camp is part of the same Protestant movement, which they transparently are. Employing "Evangelical" as an umbrella term to describe conservative nonliturgical Protestants—that is, the so-called fundamentalists, evangelicals, charismatics, and pentecostals—which is already a common practice among these groups seems the best shorthand to this reviewer.

There is more one can say about the content and variety of conservative Irish Protestantism than Mitchel does here. For instance, evangelicals, broadly defined, all believe in "accepting Jesus Christ" for salvation, in the divinity of Jesus, the Fall, certain ordinances or sacraments, the necessity of missions, divine healing, a dramatic End Times return of Jesus Christ, a final judgment, and a "New Heaven and New Earth." The theological substance of conservative Irish Protestant Christianity, and the theological and sociological distinctions to be found among Irish evangelicals, need to be more fully drawn out than they are here.

The remaining four essays in Part II consider briefly and well four tantalizing topics: the generally superficial relationship between the Orange Order and conservative Protestantism; Paisleyism as a religious and political phenomenon (Mitchel does better with the latter than the former, of which he is too often dismissive); modern Irish Presbyterianism, which is trying hard to become political moderate while remaining theological conservative; and the ECONI (Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland) movement. This group is trying hard to become an association of socially aware evangelicals, while not evolving into purely "Social Gospel" liberals—a lost cause, as far as this reviewer can tell. Mitchel...