Short answers, pulled from the story.
Evangelicalism is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, the preaching and spreading of the Christian gospel. It places strong emphasis on personal conversion, often described as being born again, and regards the Bible as the ultimate authority in faith and practice.
Historian David Bebbington defined evangelicalism by four priorities: conversionism, biblicism, crucicentrism, and activism. He described them as a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism.
The modern evangelical movement is generally dated to around 1734. Bebbington locates its emergence in the revival under Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, where in the fall of 1734 Edwards preached a sermon series titled Justification By Faith Alone.
The word evangelical comes from the Koine Greek word euangelion, meaning good news, in reference to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The first published use of evangelical in English was in 1531, when William Tyndale wrote that he exhorted believers to proceed constantly in the evangelical truth.
The World Evangelical Alliance claims 600 million evangelical Christians in 2025, roughly one in four Christians. Operation World estimates 700 million, and the World Christian Encyclopedia, counting evangelicals in the broad sense, estimates 937 million worldwide in 2025.
Jonathan Edwards led the first revival in Northampton, Massachusetts, while John Wesley and George Whitefield were central to the First Great Awakening and the founding of Methodism. In the 20th century, Billy Graham and Harold Ockenga, the first president of the National Association of Evangelicals, were leading figures.