Will the real Evangelicals please stand up? The emergence of the National Association of Evangelicals and the contestations of religious identity in American culture, circa 1940s–1960s

The formation of the National Association of Evangelicals represented one crucial inflection point in 20th-century US religious history. While long recognized as such, the early years have not recently been examined in intricate detail, resulting in some skewed interpretations that this article will contest. The article analyzes the early coalescence and challenges of the National Association of Evangelicals according to coalitional formation, identity construction, institution building, and especially “assemblage theory.” Drawing on this case, the article also seeks to reframe the larger historiographical impasse over the nature of Evangelicalism by arguing that the National Association of Evangelicals represented one in a series of contestations over Evangelical identity across American history.