9 THINGS THAT IT COULD BE USEFUL TO KNOW ABOUT ITALIAN EVANGELICALISM

Often on international websites appear reports from and on Italian Evangelicalism. Usually this notes are or from missionaries ministering in Italy or from Italian who want let know their own ministry, organization, initiative and so on.

The notes of mine are formulated as a contribution from an Italian point of view and from the perspective of an Italian belonging to fourth or fifth generation of Evangelical professants.

A premise

Italian Evangelicalism is present among a complex historical, social and cultural reality.

In effect, Italy is not only the country of pizza and pasta. In the last few decades many Italian intellectuals contributed to shape the postmodern culture of Western countries. It could be useful just to remember the linguist Umberto Eco and the philosopher Gianni Vattimo.

Other than, meanwhile English world, in the twentieth Century, was completely absorbed in the russellian atheistic logic, resumed by the famous “Why I am not a Christian”, Italy had been the cradle of another more subtle form of atheism, resumed by the famous phrase of the philosopher Benedetto Croce: Why we Cannot Not call ourselves ‘Christians’. This at the present appears as the very foundation of a Christian–nominal worldview.

On the base of this premise I suggest the following nine things in the hope to offer a contribution to better understand Italian Evangelicalism.

1. To understand from where contemporary Evangelicalism comes it is inadequate the “gap theory”: I mean the theory that presupposes to find a previous expression of an Italian biblical faith we should look for in Bible pages (Hebrew 13), or to go back to the time of Reformation. In Italy a well planted Evangelicalism exists since the last two centuries. Although it is a minority, it has continually, slowly but relentless, grown–up. 

2. The contemporary Evangelicalism is the result of two well recognizable waves of awakenings: the latest (at the beginning of XX Century) had been the diffusion of Pentecostalism in the South and among the low social classes. The oldest wave, dates back to the beginning of Nineteenth Century. It was this awakening that permitted the emergence of Evangelicalism more or less as we know it today.

(Colportore della Editrice Claudiana a fianco del suo "carro biblico")

3. The emergence of Evangelicalism in 1800 was interwoven very much with the fight for the unification of the nation, the Risorgimento. Many leaders of the Evangelical movement were also convinced patriots: they considered themselves citizens of heavens and were completely involved in finding out an earthly homeland. Other than, it was an awakening that spread among high classes, starting with the conversion in the thirties of Count Piero Guicciardini, descendent from the renowned Florentine family, and among the low social classes too 

(See the Biographical Dictionary of Protestants in Italy, http://www.studivaldesi.org/dizionario/evan_det.php?evan_id=261).

4. Than, the general picture of contemporary Evangelicalism could be grossly represented (assuming historical but also theological and spiritual features) with three blocks.

–        At one side we find the historical Protestant Churches (Waldensians, Methodists, Baptists, etc), united in a National Federation (Federazione delle Chiese Evangeliche) and characterized by a theology more or less equivalent to the mainline Protestantism of North America.

–        At the other side we find the universe of Pentecostal Churces with the almost 1000 Assemblies of God, some other Pentecostal Bodies and a plethora of free Charismatic Churches.

–        At the Center, the experience of nineteenth awakening Evangelicalism represented above all by Plymouth Brethren (almost 300 churches, http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/p/protestantesimo3_02.htm) is continuing. All around these churches, in the Center, there is an area of other churches (Christian Churches), churches arisen from new ecclesiastical experiments or arisen from unavoidable divisions or founded by missionaries.

What will be said in next points I believe will be particularly appropriate for the central area of this picture. (For a full vision, see the entry “Protestantesimo” in the Encyclopedia of Religion in Italy, http://www.cesnur.org/religioni_italia/protestantesimo.htm, in Italian).

5. The historical condition in which modern Evangelicalism surfaced was perceived by Evangelicals as a new opportunity to spread the biblical Gospel in a kind of virgin place (the Regno  d’Italia), in the hearth of Europe, and in the presence of the more powerful “Christian” organization, the Papal Church of Roma. For these reasons they did not feel completely comfortable in the ecclesial experiences coming from Reformation (the different denominations arrived in Italy). The motto coined  at the time, and today very present also in Pentecostal circles, was: “We are neither Catholic nor Protestant”.

This motto influenced at deep level the spirituality of the majority of Italian Evangelicals. For example, the poor relevance of theological traditions (reformed, dispensationalist, anabaptist, etc.) is less the consequence of an irenic attitude than the influence of the ideas conveyed by the motto.

6. The motto reveals an evident searching for a contextual identity.

Today this search for identity is continuied in different ways: 
- we could identify a romantic plea for a more Protestant characteristic of this identity. 
- There is the tentative to build this identity as a kind of exclusively cultural pole, opposed to Catholic and Secular one. 
- There is the proposal of a kind of alliance around the being Evangelici (Evangelicals) opposed to the mainline Protestantism of the first block quoted before.

It is very evident the lacking of tentatives to find out a convergence around or on the base of simply Evangelo (Gospel).

7. Italian Evangelicalism, daily lives submerged in a context dominated by the presence of Catholicism. The experience of the center of Evangelicalism is the will to shrink from two extremes: on one side ecumenical enterprise; on the other side anti–Catholicism, which retains to be more effective in Christian and Evangelical witness we should be “more protestant”.
In daily witness this second approach with his binary language of we/you  (we Evangelical and Protestant / you Catholic) is not effective in Gospel proclamation. Really, it is not the Gospel! 
On the other side, since the diffusion of the Bible in Catholic world, after the Second Vatican Council, it is possible to experiment the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel on a new common and large base: the diffusion of the Bible, the same time ago prohibited Bible!

8. Local churches are the dorsal spine of Italian Evangelicalism. They are the mixed blessing of our spiritual experience. If leaded by pastors or by an Elders college they represent the doorway for the authentic pulsating heart of Italian Evangelicalism, in every denominational context. Often, foreign missions, para-churches initiatives, preachers, theologians, etc. don’t understand this particular key, so that also good initiatives often create, at the same time, consensus and disapproval in the local churches, until their division.

9 In spite of the lack of formal and (largely) recognized institutions for biblical and theological training, it is unexpected to find out in the center of Evangelicalism, in general, a good degree of biblical and theological literacy. Gospel had been proclaimed for two Centuries; many generations received the Gospel from people before them. This strange situation, that surely needs common and urgent efforts to ameliorate, has different reasons. Just to quote two: in general, the 6% of population is trained in Gymnasium, the school that prepares in Ancient Languages, history and philosophy. Among Evangelicalism, after the Second World War, there had been a circulation of good Evangelical literature. Not a lot, but surely good literature that permitted the access to the biblical content, in line with conservative and historical Evangelical Faith. And surely there are others reasons.

These are mine nine suggestions. There are others. Maybe they could appear a positive tone. Surely we cannot stop and sleep on our success (and we should also not forget our weakness and sins).

However, all in looking to the fidelity of God, to our (Italians) responsibilities, and our sinfulness, it is fair to emphasize that at present Italy is a very free and open nation for Gospel’s proclamation and a nation in which it is possible to live deep Evangelical experiences.

I conclude in this way: when we Italian Evangelicals are able to concentrate our attention on our call, often we sing a song written in 1852 in which the hope for a country filled of salvation is expressed. I apologize, but I believe the better is to read the lyrics in Italian.

Innalzate il vessil della croce

Libertà de bandite agli schiavi

Di salvezza elevate la voce

Dell’Italia fra il duplice mar

Proclamate la buona novella

Della grazia a chi grazia dispera

Annunciate alla gente rubella

Che il Signore è venuto a salvar.

Rimirate la messe biondeggia

È matura pel regno dei cieli

Accrescete del Cristo la greggia

Adducendo nuove alme al Signor

Vi dia il Cristo sapienza e coraggio

Vi sia guida lo Spirto divino,

combattete il livor la violenza

con la prece che viene dal cuor.

(T.P. Rossetti)

Giacomo Carlo Di Gaetano is an Elder in a local Church in the Center of Italy (www.evangelicichieti.it). He is also Chief Executive of Edizioni GBU, the Publishing House (www.edizionigbu.it) among National InterVarsity Student Movement (Gruppi Biblici Universitari, http://www.gbu.it/live/index.php?l=it). He has a PhD in Philosophy and works in the fields of Philosophy of Religion and Evangelical Historical Thought.