The Relevance of Religious History for Today
Last week I wrote about “Paleo Evangelicals and Syria,” explaining why many traditional evangelicals will not support intervention in Syria’s civil war. Evangelicals are hardly the only Christians opposing intervention; indeed, the Syria question has become one of the most remarkably unifying issues for progressive, Catholic, Orthodox, and evangelical Christians that I can ever recall. [Read More...]
For most of its history, evangelicalism comfortably housed progressive elements within the movement. Some scholars, such the late Timothy L. Smith and Donald Dayton, have argued that the natural tilt of evangelicalism is towards progressive social action. However, one need not fully embrace that thesis to recognize that historically, some branches of the movement demonstrate a [Read More...]
We here at IVCF have a spiritual legacy that over the years has sort of dipped a little bit. Fifteen years ago, our fellowship was made up of a majority of white students, and one of the areas that students and staff began to be convicted about was the lack of connection with the rest [Read More...]
Follow.Jesus.2013’s final meeting, a Sunday morning church service, was striking. It followed a Friday evening roast of Ron Sider, the 40-year face of Evangelicals for Social Action, and Saturday’s more academic consideration of the organization’s legacy. The service was a glimpse of moderate evangelicalism’s future: a woman (Heidi Unruh) presiding, a black worship band leading [Read More...]
Over at the Religion in American History blog, Randall Stephens has a fascinating interview with Larry Eskridge of Wheaton College about his new book God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America (Oxford University Press, 2013), which Anxious Bench contributor John Turner recently reviewed at Christianity Today. Excerpt: Randall Stephens: What first got you interested in [Read More...]
Continuing in the vein of last week’s post on liberal Protestantism, I recently got my hands on the August 21 edition of the Christian Century. The biweekly editorial mentions the suddenly burgeoning historical scholarship on liberal religion (in particular, works by Elesha Coffman, David Hollinger, and Matthew Hedstrom), noting that it complicates the “question of [Read More...]
Jennifer Schuessler at the New York Times introduces cutting-edge historical scholarship to the masses. Last summer, she published a piece on Mormon history, and this past spring an article on scholarship about American capitalism followed (that piece discussed, among other books, Bethany Moreton’s To Serve God and Wal-Mart). Most recently, Schuessler introduced readers to recent [Read More...]
In American memory, the 1950s are often portrayed as a mundane, picturesque prelude to the chaotic, transformative decade that would follow. Popular contemporary television portrayals of the decade such as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966), Father Knows Best (1954-1960) and Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963) helped create the stereotype of the 1950s as an idyllic period of domestic bliss, perpetuating it [Read More...]
It’s hard not to like the Jesus Movement, but until recently, there wasn’t a good history of this revolutionary moment in the evolution of American evangelicalism. Now, there is. Larry Eskridge’s God’s Forever Family is a book you should read. I recently reviewed the book for Christianity Today. A number of years ago, I became [Read More...]
Ever since so many of them embraced the Reagan Revolution during the 1980 election cycle, the political involvement of evangelicals has garnered the attention of scholars and journalists. For many, the story of resurgent evangelical political involvement became one of backlash. Reacting against progressive politics and loosening social mores of the 1960s, evangelicals embraced a [Read More...]
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