Reflecting on the 1973 Chicago Declaration: Legacies and Challenges for Christian Higher Education Today

• Published in: Christian scholar's review 2024-01, Vol.53 (2), p.21-36
• Main Authors: Yoder, Laura S. Meitzner, Reynolds, Amy, Huff, Jr., James G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Christianity; Christians; Disorders; Education, Higher; Evangelicalism; Globalization; God; Higher education; Injustice; Oppression; Sexism; Sider, Ron; Smith, Christian; Thanksgiving; Theology; Violence; Wallis, Jim
• ISSN: 0017-2251

United in their yearning for "total discipleship"1 in all areas of public as well as private life, they aimed to craft a shared vision for a renewed United States evangelical "biblical social witness" and commitment toward Christian action on behalf of those suffering marginalization, oppression, and violence.2 After days of earnest discussion and wrestling together, their resulting Declaration cf Evangelical Social Concern (better known as the "Chicago Declaration") was the enthusiastic articulation of aspirations from this group who envisioned the possibility and promise of a national evangelical movement that would embrace justice within their practice of faith and effect significant positive systemic change. "3 Participants hoped that this framing would have tangible, broad-reaching outcomes in socio-political and economic arenas of United States public life, especially focusing on global economic disparity, racial and sexist discrimination, materialistic overconsumption, militarism, and violence.4 Although their hope for a sea change in United States evangelicalism was not realized in subsequent years,5 the Chicago gathering and its Declaration established and continues to encourage a persistent strand that pursues these commitments in the United States evangelical church. Before God and a billion hungry neighbors, we must rethink our values regarding our present standard of living and promote a more just acquisition and distribution of the world's resources. [...]we must challenge the misplaced trust of the nation in economic and military might-a proud trust that promotes a national pathology of war and violence which victimizes our neighbors at home and abroad. Aspiring to build an inclusive movement, the event was initiated and planned by a network of mostly white Christian academic men and deliberately located in Chicago (rather than suburban Wheaton, among other options considered) in order to reflect proximity to the social concerns of the meeting's purpose.18 Several signatories noted that the event included "an extremely diverse group of evangelical leaders" and bridged "generation[al] .. . racial, sexual, and denominational gaps.