Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster, 1921-1998

Church History, June, 2005 by Edward J. Gitre

Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster, 1921-1998. By Patrick Mitchel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. xii 362 pp. $99.00 cloth.

In this lucidly written history of Irish evangelical unionism, Patrick Mitchel applies that elusive biblical mandate that the Christian should "be in the world but not of it" to a Northern Irish context. Based on Miroslav Volf's paradigm of "exclusion and embrace," Evangelicalism and National Identity in Ulster seeks to do far more than recount the various evangelical positions on the conflict. Here, rather, Mitchel dons the hat of a religious critic--part historian, part theologian, part committed Christian--definitely the latter-and argues that Protestant unionists have failed on two elemental counts. Not only have they failed to embrace their Catholic neighbors but also, irresponsibly, the evangelical message. That message is at base conciliatory--and not nationalistic.

How, Mitchel asks, has evangelicalism been shaped by or helped to shape "the violent and destructive whirlwind that blew across the land for much of the twentieth century" (2)? Before tackling that complicated question, he devotes a significant amount of text to defining nationalism. Following the "myth and symbol" school through Clifford Geertz, with a substantial dose of Anthony D. Smith, he argues that both Northern Catholic nationalism and Protestant unionism are related forms of nationalism. Both seek a national identity based on a "rational and coherent ideology" (41); both are "competing political perspectives" (76).

Based largely on institutional documents, Mitchel explicates the development of four strands of Northern Irish evangelicalism from Partition in 1921 to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement: "Orangeism," "Paisleyism," Irish Presbyterianism, and the Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland (ECONI). He arranges the four along a spectrum from "closed evangelical" to "open evangelical." The former--"Orangeism" and "Paisleyism"--belonging to the defensive "closed" camp; the latter--Presbyterianism and ECONI--the more porous, to "open." This scheme, he argues, allows for a capacious construction of evangelicalism that gives room for a marked degree of divergence and, significantly, disagreement.

Mitchel follows the "World of Orangeism" from its origin in 1795--and by extension backwards to the Glorious Revolution of 1688--to its modern-day role as defender of the historic Protestant faith. The Order was forged in the nineteenth century's "second reformation"--namely, to combat a resurgence of Catholic nationalism. And it was "spectacularly successful" (165). It was ubiquitous during Ulster Unionism's "golden era," involved at all levels of government in suppressing Catholic nationalists. Thus inseparable from secular unionism, Orangeism fails in Volf's framework for "belonging without distance."

Although Paisleyism--a neologism based on the name of the inflammatory Irish fundamentalist preacher Ian R. K. Paisley--is far more strident in its Protestant spirituality, it falls equally in the same camp as "closed" for being "militantly defensive." To put it bluntly, Mitchel writes, "Paisleyism explicitly denies that the Protestants of Ulster are in some general sense God's people. The faithful are a very much more select group than that" (186). Where the "apostates" of Ulster Unionism have failed, Paisley and his minions will succeed. Such militancy gained ground as the "golden era" met its moribund fate in "The Troubles." Its absolutist confidence gave battered unionists hope in a time of uncertainty. Paisleyism is more than just "belonging without distance"; it is an impassioned form of belonging (210). Mitchel avers, "Paisleyism represents a retreat into an inviolable Pharisaical self-righteousness that idolizes the myth of the Protestants of Ulster as God's people in God's chosen land. At its core, Paisleyism is fundamentally opposed to the radical, boundary-breaking Good News of the Gospel" (212).

"At Ease in Zion" Presbyterianism suffers from a different fate, belonging without much caring. That at least is the impression given. Though markedly evangelical in theology--thus more pietistic and consequently antiauthoritarian in practice--Presbyterianism, by not confronting oppression, became an important ally for the Order of the Orange. "Just as Orangeism had come to embody the alliance of unionism with Ulster evangelicalism, so Presbyterianism had followed the same path of 'spiritually anointing' the cause of unionism" (225). Ambivalence led to inaction. And attempts at distance were "effectively impotent" (259). Only a radical break with the past could salvage the Church's prophetic role, Mitchel suggests.

ECONI was born out of this realization in the 1980s, "For God and His Glory Alone" (not as it had been "For God and Ulster"). Caught between "fundamentalist fuming" and "evangelical silence," ECONI forges a third Irish (antiunionist) evangelical "identity." For these committed Christians, allegiance to religious nationalism is anathema. How successful they will be at creating an alternative redemptive identity remains to be seen, Mitchel notes, yet he sees hope in their growing transevangelical appeal. Christianity in Ireland need not succumb to the same fate as so-called Protestant unionism.