Jesus v. Evangelicals

A Biblical Critique of a Wayward Movement

By: Constantine R. Campbell

Narrated by: John Behrens

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

American evangelicalism is at a crisis point.

The naked grasping at political power at the expense of moral credibility has revealed a movement in disarray. Evangelicals are now faced with a quandary: will they double-down and continue along this perilous path, or will they stop, reflect, and change course? And while support of Donald Trump has produced the tipping point of the evangelical crisis, it is not by any means its only problem.

Evangelicals claim the Bible as the supreme authority in matters of faith. But in reality, it is particular readings of the Bible that govern evangelical faith. Some evangelical readings of the Bible can be highly selective. They distort the Bible's teaching in crucial ways and often lead evangelicals to misguided attempts to relate to the world around them. Many Christians who once self-professed as "evangelicals" can no longer use the term of themselves because of what it has come to represent—power-mongering, divisiveness, judgementalism, hypocrisy, pride, greed. Some leave not just evangelicalism but Christianity for good.

Jesus v. Evangelicals is an insider's critique of the evangelical movement according to its own rules. Since evangelicals regard themselves governed by the Bible, biblical scholar Constantine Campbell engages the Bible to critique evangelicals and to call out the problems within the contemporary evangelical movement. By revealing evangelical distortions of the Bible, this book seeks to restore the dignity of the Christian faith and to renew public interest in Jesus, while calling evangelicals back to his teaching. Constantine Campbell appeals to evangelicals to break free from the grid that has distorted their understanding of the Bible and to restore public respect for Christianity in spite of its misrepresentations by the evangelical church.

©2023 Constantine R. Campbell (P)2023 Zondervan

Essential reading for Christians

For those who feel a sense of profound unease about the sad state of ‘evangelical’ Christianity today, especially in the US in the era of Trump, this is essential reading. Similar to developments in mainstream politics, the crazy fringe has come to occupy the centre of Evangelicalism. This book should be in the reading list for every student at theological college, should be read widely in Evangelical churches. Thoughtfully written by Constantine Campbell and we’ll read by John Behrens.

An Important Work

Whether you side with Campbell’s arguments or not, this book is worth reckoning with. It’s a helpful summary of the current culture of evangelicalism, and how we can head forward. This work both critiques and shares a hopeful vision for the future. Read it!

A Needed Message

Evangelicals must face the pitiful place that their abandonment of the core teachings of Jesus Christ have landed them.

Truthful, inspiring, rewarding

Thank you, Con, for writing such an important book that sheds light on how the Christian movement has steered so far away from Jesus and the importance of finding Him and making Him our focus for good. I loved this book and will be sharing it with friends and family, believers and non-believers.

Shines a spotlight on Evangelicalism’s devolution

Contemporary American Evangelicalism’s hopping in the sack with partisan politics, it’s love affair with with celebrity pastors, and it’s autoerotic fixation on self-help has created bastardized disciples who idolize Country and conflate patriotism to Christian allegiance. Campbell shines the spotlight on these (and other) blindspots and encourages us to realize that Christ is ultimately central.

Agreed with some, disagreed with some…

I wanted to like this book. I appreciated the author’s attempt to address the theological problems with current Evangelicalism. I too see some problems inherent in this tribe.

The Good:
I appreciate his attempt to define Evangelicalism. I think he made sense of a otherwise broad label.
I truly appreciated his take on the politicization of the Church. I couldn’t agree more with his take.
I also agreed with his assessment that the EC has at times been judgmental and beat it’s own for specific sins.
I appreciate his attempt to call out Celebrity culture in today’s Church.

The Bad:
He spent a lot of time talking about his theological approach to justify his divorce. While I agree with him that the Church has treated divorce wrong at times. But this portion felt more like a dis-track than I cared for. For those who experienced it, I’m sure they appreciated it. My concern is that his take on Divorce passages felt eerily similar to what is happening with homosexuality and Scripture today. This was more of a minor put off than anything he said.
The bigger issue I have is his section on MegaChurches being “unhealthy” church models. This content did not fit the theme and felt more personal than biblical. His use of Scripture to explain why churches shouldn’t be a certain size felt disingenuous. He used a couple bad examples and then broad brushed all mega churches as only caring about entertaining people and not discipling people. He also pointed to one small personal example of his own church experience and survey to say that all forms of multi-site are unhealthy. He paints all pastors of larger churches and selfish and egotistical. This felt very unfair and inconsistent with MANY pastors I know. His biblical uses to denounce these churches was weak to say the least. Call out bad church leaders if you want, but don’t declare all larger churches as anti-discipleship and consumer machines when you haven’t done thorough research to substantiate your position. He also never calls out “smaller” churches for being anti-evangelistic, which has at times been the case for many that do not grow.

I wanted to like this book. I agreed with about 60% of what he said. His personal slant toward this discussion turned me off.