[f. EVANGEL + -ISM, as if ad. Gr. *εὐαγγελισμός, f. εὐαγγελίζεσθαι: see EVANGELIZE. Cf. F. évangélisme. In sense 2 f. EVANGEL-IC + -ISM.]
1. The preaching or promulgation of the Gospel; performance of the function of an evangelist.
a. 1626. Bacon, New Atl. (1650), 10. Thus was this Land saved from infidelitie … through the Apostolicall and Miraculous Evangelisme of S. Bartholomew.
1813. Examiner, 17 Jan., 35/1. Evangelism or the Announcement of Good Tidings.
1857. T. B. Bunting, Life J. Bunting, I. vii. 94. The Sunday School … never to be entered … in any spirit but that of an earnest evangelism.
2. a. Attachment to or profession of evangelical doctrines, i.e. = EVANGELICALISM (chiefly in derisive or hostile use). b. The faith of the Gospel. (rare.)
a. 1812. Religionism, 26. But lectureship requires, Grave face, evangelism and curbed desires.
1831. Blackw. Mag., XXIX. 96. Attacking what it calls evangelism and puritanism.
1840. Mrs. Gore, in New Monthly Mag., LX. 52. Taking his sly aim from behind the whited wall of evangelism.
1876. Miss Braddon, J. Haggard’s Dau., II. 95. Triumphant party cries and watch-words of evangelism.
b. 1842. Faber, Provincial Lett. (1844), II. 13. The sure test … of soul-preserving Evangelism or of soul-destroying Heresy.
1888. Spurgeon, in British Weekly, 3 Feb., 275. Here is an inner core of Evangelism in which all true believers are at one.
