What is Evangelicalism?

In a recent post, Nathan Martin shared some interesting observations by Os Guinness about the state of Evangelicalism. It is a thought-provoking post. It made me realize that for all the years I’ve been reading about, and studying, Evangelicalism, self-understanding and self-definition remain, at least as far as I can tell, ever-elusive. What is that? And, for that matter, on this blog site, called, Evangel, do the contributors to this blog site share a common understanding or hold to a common definition of what Evangelicalism is? I’d be very interested to hear what this understanding and definition is.

Mr. Stott, as pointed out by Justin Taylor, has a great essay making an attempt to answer the question. But, I’m still left wondering: what book, or books, could a person point to and say, “Here is the core beliefs of Evangelicals.” Or is such such precision of definition impossible? As a Lutheran, it would be my impression that there are some doctrinal tenets shared in common, but then again would be hard pressed to point to one source for such doctrinal definition, as we Lutherans have it in our Book of Concord.

So, what is Evangelicalism? What does it mean? Where is it found? How is it done?