The Chicago Call:
An Appeal to Evangelicals
Preface
In May of 1977 a significant group of forty-five evangelicals gathered near Chicago to issue a Call toevangelicalism. The essential feature of the statement issued on that occasion was to call evangelicals
back to historic Christianity.
PrologueIn every age the Holy Spirit calls the church to examine its faithfulness to God's revelation inScripture. We recognize with gratitude God's blessing through the evangelical resurgence in thechurch. Yet at such a time of growth we need to be especially sensitive to our weaknesses. We believethat today evangelicals are hindered from achieving full maturity by a reduction of the historic faith.
There is, therefore, a pressing need to reflect upon the substance of the biblical and historic faith andto recover the fullness of this heritage. Without presuming to address all our needs, we have identified
eight of the themes to which we as evangelical Christians must give careful theological consideration.
A Call to Historic Roots and Continuity
We confess that we have often lost the fullness of our Christian heritage, too readily
assuming that the Scriptures and the Spirit make us independent of the past. In sodoing, we have become theologically shallow, spiritually weak, blind to the work of God
in others and married to our cultures.
Therefore we call for a recovery of our full Christian heritage. Throughout the church's history there
has existed an evangelical impulse to proclaim the saving, unmerited grace of Christ, and to reform thechurch according to the Scriptures. This impulse appears in the doctrines of the ecumenical councils,
the piety of the early fathers, the Augustinian theology of grace, the zeal of the monastic reformers,
the devotion of the practical mystics and the scholarly integrity of the Christian humanists. It flowers
in the biblical fidelity of the Protestant Reformers and the ethical earnestness of the Radical
Reformation. It continues in the efforts of the Puritans and Pietists to complete and perfect theReformation. It is reaffirmed in the awakening movements of the 18th and 19th centuries which joined
Lutheran, Reformed, Wesleyan and other evangelicals in an ecumenical effort to renew the church andto extend its mission in the proclamation and social demonstration of the Gospel. It is present at every
point in the history of Christianity where the Gospel has come to expression through the operation of
the Holy Spirit: in some of the strivings toward renewal in Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism
and in biblical insights in forms of Protestantism differing from our own. We dare not move beyond
the biblical limits of the Gospel; but we cannot be fully evangelical without recognizing our need tolearn from other times and movements concerning the whole meaning of that Gospel.
A Call to Biblical Fidelity
We deplore our tendency toward individualistic interpretation of Scripture. This
undercuts the objective character of biblical truth, and denies the guidance of the Holy
Spirit among his people through the ages.

Therefore we affirm that the Bible is to be interpreted in keeping with the best insights of historicaland literary study, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, with respect for the historic understanding ofthe church.
We affirm that the Scriptures, as the infallible Word of God, are the basis of authority in the church.
We acknowledge that God uses the Scriptures to judge and to purify his Body. The church, illuminedand guided by the Holy Spirit, must in every age interpret, proclaim and live out the Scriptures.
A Call to Creedal Identity
We deplore two opposite excesses: a creedal church that merely recites a faith inheritedfrom the past, and a creedless church that languishes in a doctrinal vacuum. We confessthat as evangelicals we are not immune from these defects.
Therefore we affirm the need in our time for a confessing church that will boldly witness to its faith
before the world, even under threat of persecution. In every age the church must state its faith overagainst heresy and paganism. What is needed is a vibrant confession that excludes as well as includes,
and thereby aims to purify faith and practice. Confessional authority is limited by and derived fromthe authority of Scripture, which alone remains ultimately and permanently normative. Nevertheless,as the common insight of those who have been illumined by the Holy Spirit and seek to be the voice ofthe "holy catholic church," a confession should serve as a guide for the interpretation of Scripture.
We affirm the abiding value of the great ecumenical creeds and the Reformation confessions. Sincesuch statements are historically and culturally conditioned, however, the church today needs toexpress its faith afresh, without defecting from the truths apprehended in the past. We need to
articulate our witness against the idolatries and false ideologies of our day.
A Call to Holistic Salvation
We deplore the tendency of evangelicals to understand salvation solely as an individual,
spiritual and otherworldly matter to the neglect of the corporate, physical and thisworldly implication of God's saving activity.
Therefore we urge evangelicals to recapture a holistic view of salvation. The witness of Scripture isthat because of sin our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and creation are broken. Through theatoning work of Christ on the cross, healing is possible for these broken relationships.
Wherever the church has been faithful to its calling, it has proclaimed personal salvation; it has been achannel of God's healing to those in physical and emotional need; it has sought justice for theoppressed and disinherited; and it has been a good steward of the natural world.
As evangelicals we acknowledge our frequent failure to reflect this holistic view of salvation. We
therefore call the church to participate fully in God's saving activity through work and prayer, and tostrive for justice and liberation for the oppressed, looking forward to the culmination of salvation in
the new heaven and new earth to come.
A Call to Sacramental Integrity
We decry the poverty of sacramental understanding among evangelicals. This is largely
due to the loss of our continuity with the teaching of many of the Fathers and Reformersand results in the deterioration of sacramental life in our churches. Also, the failure toappreciate the sacramental nature of God's activity in the world often leads us todisregard the sacredness of daily living.
Therefore we call evangelicals to awaken to the sacramental implications of creation and incarnation.
For in these doctrines the historic church has affirmed that God's activity is manifested in a materialway. We need to recognize that the grace of God is mediated through faith by the operation of theHoly Spirit in a notable way in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Here the church
proclaims, celebrates and participates in the death and resurrection of Christ in such a way as tonourish her members throughout their lives in anticipation of the consummation of the kingdom. Also,
we should remember our biblical designation as "living epistles," for here the sacramental character of
the Christian's daily life is expressed.
A Call to Spirituality
We suffer from a neglect of authentic spirituality on the one hand, and an excess ofundisciplined spirituality on the other hand. We have too often pursued a superhumanreligiosity rather than the biblical model of a true humanity released from bondage tosin and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
Therefore we call for a spirituality which grasps by faith the full content of Christ's redemptive work:
freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of
his Spirit. We affirm the centrality of the preaching of the Word of God as a primary means by which
his Spirit works to renew the church in its corporate life as well as in the individual lives of believers.
A true spirituality will call for identification with the suffering of the world, as well as the cultivationof personal piety.
We need to rediscover the devotional resources of the whole church, including the evangelicaltraditions of Pietism and Puritanism. We call for an exploration of devotional practice in all traditions
within the church in order to deepen our relationship both with Christ and with other Christians.
Among these resources are such spiritual disciplines as prayer, meditation, silence, fasting, Bible
study and spiritual diaries.
A Call to Church Authority
We deplore our disobedience to the Lordship of Christ as expressed through authority
in his church. This has promoted a spirit of autonomy in persons and groups resulting in
isolationism and competitiveness, even anarchy, within the body of Christ. We regretthat in the absence of godly authority, there have arisen legalistic, domineering leaderson the one hand and indifference to church discipline on the other.
Therefore we affirm that all Christians are to be in practical submission to one another and todesignated leaders in a church under the Lordship of Christ. The church, as the people of God, iscalled to be the visible presence of Christ in the world. Every Christian is called to active priesthood inworship and service through exercising spiritual gifts and ministries. In the church we are in vital
union both with Christ and with one another. This calls for community with deep involvement andmutual commitment of time, energy and possessions. Further, church discipline, biblically based andunder the direction of the Holy Spirit, is essential to the well-being and ministry of God's people.
Moreover, we encourage all Christian organizations to conduct their activities with genuine
accountability to the whole church.
A Call to Church Unity

We deplore the scandalous isolation and separation of Christians from one another. We
believe such division is contrary to Christ's explicit desire for unity among his people
and impedes the witness of the church in the world. Evangelicalism is too frequently
characterized by an ahistorical, sectarian mentality. We fail to appropriate thecatholicity of historic Christianity, as well as the breadth of the biblical revelation.
Therefore we call evangelicals to return to the ecumenical concern of the Reformers and the later
movements of evangelical renewal. We must humbly and critically scrutinize our respective traditions,renounce sacred shibboleths, and recognize that God works within diverse historical streams. We must
resist efforts promoting church union-at-any-cost, but we must also avoid mere spiritualized conceptsof church unity. We are convinced that unity in Christ requires visible and concrete expressions. In
this belief, we welcome the development of encounter and cooperation within Christ's church. While
we seek to avoid doctrinal indifferentism and a false irenicism, we encourage evangelicals to cultivate
increased discussion and cooperation, both within and without their respective traditions, earnestly
seeking common areas of agreement and understanding.