Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity, or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, transdenominational movement within
Protestant Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of the
Gospel consists of the doctrine of
salvation by
grace through
faith in
Jesus Christ's
atonement. Evangelicals believe in the centrality of the conversion or
"born again" experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the
Bible as
God's revelation to humanity, and in
spreading the Christian message. The movement has had a long presence in the
Anglosphere before spreading further afield in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.
Its origins are usually traced to 1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation, including English
Methodism, the
Moravian Church (in particular its bishop
Nicolaus Zinzendorf and his community at
Herrnhut), and German
Lutheran Pietism. Preeminently,
John Wesley and other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during the
First Great Awakening. Today, evangelicals are found across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not subsumed to a specific branch. Among leaders and major figures of the evangelical Protestant movement were
John Wesley,
George Whitefield,
Jonathan Edwards,
Billy Graham,
Bill Bright,
Harold John Ockenga,
John Stott and
Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The movement gained great momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the
Great Awakenings in Great Britain and the United States.