The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (749 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Evangelical Alliance
.
An interdenominational body formed in 1846 as a response to
Tractarianism
and as an expression of unity ‘on the basis of great evangelical principles’. The Alliance's 20th-cent. work in England was given more vigorous expression after the Second World War by promoting evangelistic crusades, conferences for ministers, accommodation for overseas students, and active co-operation among interdenominational missionary societies. Prominent amongst its more recent achievements was the formation of TEAR Fund which raises money for relief work throughout the world.
Evangelical and Reformed Church
.
Formed in 1934 by a merger of two American churches of German background: the Reformed Church in the United States (called ‘German Reformed Church’ until 1869), and the Evangelical Synod of North America. The new denomination accepted Reformed and
Lutheran
standards of belief equally. In 1957 it merged with the
Congregational
Christian churches to become the
United Church of Christ
.
Evangelicals
.
Protestant
Christians who stress belief in personal conversion and salvation by faith in the atoning death of Christ, and in the Bible as the sole authority in matters of faith: stress is also laid on evangelism.
Evangelist
.
1
In the New Testament (e.g. Ephesians 4. 11), an itinerant missionary.
2
Any of the authors of the four canonical
gospels
: Sts
Matthew
,
Mark
,
Luke
, and John. This usage dates from the 3rd cent. The four evangelists are traditionally symbolized by a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, respectively, on the basis of Ezekiel 10. 14 and Revelation 4. 6–10. The four signs are known as
(Gk.) tetramorphs.
Evans-Pritchard, Sir Edward
(1902–73).
British anthropologist who concentrated on religion and related cultural phenomena. Involved with fieldwork in the S. Sudan during the period 1926–39, Evans-Pritchard's main intention was to show the rationality and coherence of the cultural domain, in order to refute the Lévy-Bruhl thesis of primitive mentality.
Theories of Primitive Religion
(1965) is a sustained attack on scientific theories of religion, and
Nuer Religion
(1956) is one of the first detailed studies of a pre-literate religion in which the religious domain is treated non-reductionistically. His approach (known as
hermeneutic
explanation) is in strong contrast to
nomothetic
explanation
(Gk.,
nomos
, ‘a law’) which seeks to find covering laws or generalizations—e.g. Evans-Pritchard's near-contemporary, A. Radcliffe-Brown (1881–1955). Radcliffe-Brown sought to establish structural principles governing human relationships.

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