{"id":1504,"date":"2014-09-30T16:22:08","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/inklingations\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2014-09-30T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T20:52:10","slug":"the-great-big-american-liberal-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/inklingations\/2014\/09\/30\/the-great-big-american-liberal-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Big American Liberal God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Buried underneath endless sediment of vitriol, spite and calcified heterodoxy, Matthew Paul Turner\u2019s book Our Great Big American God<\/em> <\/a>has something meaningful to say. I think it has something to do with how we as a culture try to project our own nature onto God. Mark Twain, a person likely as hostile to evangelicalism as Mr. Turner, still managed to make an articulate point: \u201cIn the beginning God made man in His image; man, being\"\" a gentleman, has sought to return the favor.\u201d About midway through his book, I asked myself why Mr. Turner wrote Our Great Big American God<\/em>,\u00a0rather than simply tweeting\u00a0Mr. Twain\u2019s quote and going to bed?\u00a0It would have saved him and us (mostly us) much trouble.<\/p>\n

Our Great Big American God<\/em> opens the way so much of Religious Left\u2019s literature does: By\u00a0giving a microphone to\u00a0the poorest theology of evangelicalism. \u201cAmerica\u2019s been very good to God,\u201d Turner\u2019s friend tells him over coffee. \u201cWhere would God be without America?\u201d Apparently this absurdity deserves more than a laugh (to the tune of 200+ pages). Turner then announces he will tour America\u2019s Christian history in order to understand its complicated relationship with God. The book doesn\u2019t really\u00a0have\u00a0a guiding thesis; the reader is asked to more or less assume that a sermonizing satire on evangelicalism is good for its own sake.<\/p>\n

Turner\u2019s first stop in his tour of America\u2019s Christianity is the Puritan arrival in the New World. Turner emphasizes the supposed continuity between biblical Israel and the Puritan sojourners that was taught by men like John Cotton. Cotton \u201csingle-handedly steered the course of God\u2019s future in the same direction that the Puritans were headed.\u201d (21) This early replacement theology set the stage, Turner writes, for the Puritans\u2019 integration of religious\u00a0and civil authority as well America\u2019s sense of divine destiny.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t imagine this thesis is seriously controversial, especially within the circles that will buy and share Turner\u2019s book. It\u2019s been written about plenty <\/a>of times<\/a>\u00a0before, and from where I sit, those evangelicals who would read books about evangelicalism are seeking to better sieve their faith of its strictly red, white and blue doctrines. The same is true of Turner\u2019s later arguments, including the individualizing, populist appeal of 19th century evangelical revivalism, the religious debates over slavery and the weaponizing of Christianity for the Religious Right.\u00a0It\u2019s not that his general points in these sections are terribly incorrect; it\u2019s that they\u2019ve all been heard before.<\/p>\n

Luckily the book gets more interesting. Not content to heap scorn on any Christian born before the 20th century, Turner punctuates his \u201chistory\u201d with rants about the theologians and theologies he finds offensive. And boy, is he offended.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s just say that Turner really hates Calvinists. I mean, really<\/strong>\u00a0hates them. His section on the Puritans feels like it will never end for his constant platforming about how evil these theologians were. His animus builds\u00a0towards a crescendo that sounds just like a page out of Chris Hitchens:<\/p>\n

Many Calvinists today celebrate grace like hunters celebrate a fresh kill, jumping proudly around it like it\u2019s a carcass that they own and fully intend to cut up, freeze, and eventually eat. Sometimes they stuff it or hang it in their offices so others can see and enjoy from afar the grace they shot and killed. Calvinists aren\u2019t exactly selfish with grace; they just know that hunted \u201cgrace\u201d is an acquired taste and not intended for everybody.(46)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This paragraph comes after a very awkwardly placed diatribe against Justin Taylor and John Piper for their well-known reactions to Rob Bell\u2019s book Love Wins<\/em>. Turner is especially incensed at Piper\u2019s (in)famous \u201cFarewell\u201d tweet: \u201cThat\u2019s what happens when God is left in the hands of angry people of faith\u2026The big sovereign God that Christians usually boast about becomes\u00a0a small and narrow-minded deity\u2026\u201d (30). The placement is intentional, of course; Turner wants us to associate criticism of Bell\u2019s views with cruel Puritanism. Still, the naked rage Turner is unable (or unwilling) to restrain undermines his credibility as a historian.<\/p>\n

Not that his credibility is that good to begin with. Turner\u2019s treatment of the Anne Hutchinson controversy is highly misleading. He frames the issue\u00a0in terms of\u00a0her gender and spirituality; never once does he mention Hutchinson\u2019s well-known antinomianism. Likewise he portrays Roger Williams as a helpless victim of the ruthless Calvinistic enforcers; yet if \"\"Calvinism is what Mr. Turner says it is, didn\u2019t the Calvinistic Roger Williams (a little fact unmentioned by the author)\u00a0simply reap what he sowed?<\/p>\n

Turner wants to tie in American evangelical history with\u00a0a searing critique of traditionalist faith. The problem in his approach is a glaring absence of actual Scripture. Turner discusses not one biblical passage in-depth, nor does he care to do actual theology in evaluating evangelical trends. Given his one salient point\u2013that\u00a0America has shaped God to fit its image\u2013this is a very disappointing trait. It handicaps the usefulness of the book. Progressives will hear what they already think, though without any new evidence,\u00a0and conservatives will spot a drive-by. Again, I have to ask: Why was this book created?<\/p>\n

Turner\u2019s experience as an editor for CCM Magazine<\/em> (he was fired in 2002) does warrant some interest in his take on evangelical subculture. Unfortunately, Our Great Big American God<\/em> features not one perspective that would require unique life experiences. It\u2019s the recycled rancor of Emergent Village, the outrage culture of a movement that blasts the values of Lifeway but still think it unfair that their books aren\u2019t sold there. There are things evangelicals can learn from the Religious Left, but they aren\u2019t here.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried underneath endless sediment of vitriol, spite and calcified heterodoxy, Matthew Paul Turner\u2019s book Our Great Big American God has something meaningful to say. I think it has something to do with how we as a culture try to project our own nature onto God. Mark Twain, a person likely as hostile to evangelicalism as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2058,"featured_media":1670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,9],"tags":[71,90,127],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-2","category-christianity","category-liberal-christianity","tag-evangelical-liberalism","tag-great-big-american-god","tag-matthew-paul-turner"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Great Big American Liberal God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Buried underneath endless sediment of vitriol, spite and calcified heterodoxy, Matthew Paul Turner's book Our Great Big American God has something\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/inklingations\/2014\/09\/30\/the-great-big-american-liberal-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Great Big American Liberal God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Buried underneath endless sediment of vitriol, spite and calcified heterodoxy, Matthew Paul Turner's book Our Great Big American God has something\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/inklingations\/2014\/09\/30\/the-great-big-american-liberal-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Samuel D. 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