‘Truth from the Evangelical Viewpoint’

What ‘Christianity Today’ meant to the movement 50 years ago.

By assembling the personnel, hunting up the financing, and hammering away at the need, Billy Graham was the key figure in starting Christianity Today. In an early appeal, he stressed how “a religious magazine … that will reach the clergy and lay leaders of every denomination, presenting truth from the evangelical viewpoint,” could help overcome the “confused, bewildered, divided, and almost defeated” condition of evangelicals in the United States. Graham’s influence came from where authority has always arisen among evangelicals—from his power as a preacher. Beginning in 1944, as the first full-time employee of Youth for Christ, Graham had established himself as an unusually fresh, straightforward, and convincing voice for traditional evangelical faith.

That his interests also extended to a magazine like CT was, however, unusual. Since the late 19th century, evangelicalism had customarily posed an antithesis between pious preaching and formal intellectual labor. Graham wanted the magazine to function differently, in the fashion of seminaries such as Fuller, Trinity, and Gordon-Conwell, all of which he supported. He hoped CT would not only unite disparate evangelical groups, but also provide a forum for theological depth alongside savvy social analysis. The first editor of the magazine, Carl F. H. Henry, and a host of other educationally ambitious younger evangelical scholars joined him. They shared Graham’s desire for disseminating biblical expositions and evangelistic messages, but also for “discuss[ing] current subjects … from the evangelical viewpoint” (as Graham put it), shunning arguments over the details of prophecy, standing “for social improvement,” and advancing political opinions from the center.

By trying to strengthen evangelicalism with biblical content brought into engagement with public issues, world affairs, and the life of the mind, CT marked a new evangelical openness to intellectual life. Like much else from 1956, it was a harbinger of things to come.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

This article is a sidebar to our October cover story, “Where We Are and How We Got Here“.

More on Christianity Today International’s 50th anniversary is available at our anniversary site.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Where We Are and How We Got Here

What Married Women Want

The Church's Great Malfunctions

Flea Market Believers

A Bioethicist on Genesis

Hope for Shalom

CT Classics

From Eternity to Here

A Greater Vision

Grappling with God

A One-China (Church) Policy

Editorial

Save the E-Word

Editorial

Media in Motion

Genocide and Grace

LBJ and JFK

News

Q&A: Richard Stearns

What's Next: Relief and Development

Review

IDing ID's Designer

What's Next: International Justice

What's Next: Higher Education

Legacy of a Global Leader

Evangelism Plus

Train Wreck Coming

What's Next: Evangelism

What's Next: Culture

Let Us Reason Together About Life

What's Next: Theology

News

To Russia with Fury

What's Next: Publishing & Broadcasting

The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals

What's Next: Politics

What's Next: Missions

News

Go Figure

What's Next: Youth

News

Quotation Marks

What's Next: Local Church

News

One 'Major Step'

News

'Christianity Today' News Briefs

Calvary Reunion: Skip Heitzig Returns to N.M.

News

'They Know We Are Christians'

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A Hint of Peace

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Passages

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Soaking in Blood—Again

Asylum vs. Assistance

Cool on Climate Change

Braves Lose Focus

The Earmark Epidemic

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Axis Denied

News

Indonesia's Death Quota

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Disputed Dismissal

News

The Price of Protest

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