Evangelicalism History

Millions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even "none and done". As one of America's leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals.

The first comprehensive history of modern American evangelicalism to appear in a generation, American Apocalypse shows how a group of radical Protestants, anticipating the end of the world, paradoxically transformed it.

In this concise presentation of evangelical theology - the theology that first received expression in the New Testament writings and was later rediscovered by the Reformation - Barth discusses the place of theology, theological existence, the threat to theology, and theological work.

In A Burning House, Brandon Washington contends that American Evangelicalism is a house ablaze: burning in the destructive fires of discrimination and injustice. The stain of segregation remains prevalent, not only in our national institutions, but also in our churches, and this has long tarnished the witness of Christianity and hampered our progress toward a Christ-like vision of Shalom—peace, justice, and wholeness—in the world. Common doctrine may unite black and white evangelicals, but rifts such as social ethics and cultural influences still separate us.

Doctrinal identity unites black and white evangelicals, but divisions along ethnic and cultural lines have long tarnished the movement's witness. With desegregation on the horizon, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house." As with the country, if we hope to fully integrate the American Evangelical church, we must do so as firefighters. In A Burning House Audio Study, pastor Brandon Washington challenges American Evangelicalism to embrace its historical commitment to orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

Apocalyptic millennialism is one of the most powerful strands in evangelical Christianity. It is not a single belief, but across many powerful evangelical groups there is general adhesion to faith in the physical return of Jesus in the Second Coming, the affirmation of a Rapture heavenward of "saved" believers, a millennium of peace under the rule of Jesus and his saints and, eventually, a final judgement and entry into deep eternity. A key figure in this process was John Nelson Darby.

The prophets of old were not easy to listen to because they did not flatter. They did not cajole. They spoke hard words that often chafed and unsettled their listeners. Like the Old Testament prophets, and more recent prophetic voices like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Eric Mason calls the evangelical church to a much-needed reckoning.

In this provocative tell-all, David Gushee gives an insider's look at the frictions and schisms of evangelical Christianity, based on his experiences that began with becoming a born-again Southern Baptist in 1978 to being kicked out of evangelicalism in 2014 for his stance on LGBT inclusion in the church. But Gushee's religious pilgrimage proves even broader than that, as he leads his listener through his childhood experiences in Roman Catholicism, his difficult days at the liberal Union Seminary in New York, his encounters with the Christian Right, and more. In telling his story, Gushee speaks to the cultural divisions of a generation.

Evangelical Christianity is a paradox. Evangelicals are radically individualist, but devoted to community and family. They believe in the transformative power of a personal relationship with God, but are wary of religious enthusiasm. They are deeply skeptical of secular reason, but eager to find scientific proof that the Bible is true. In this groundbreaking history of modern American evangelicalism, Molly Worthen argues that these contradictions are the products of a crisis of authority that lies at the heart of the faith.

If God is in control of everything, does that mean the Christian can sit back and not bother to evangelize? Or does active evangelism simply imply that God is not sovereign at all? J.I. Packer shows in this classic study how false both these attitudes are. In a careful review of the biblical evidence, he shows how a right understanding of God's sovereignty is not so much a barrier to evangelism as an incentive and powerful support for it.

Faith should be more than rituals and routines. It should move you, challenge you, and shape the way you live. That’s exactly what Pietism set out to do. Born in the quiet corners of 17th-century Europe, this movement turned stagnant religion into a dynamic force—one that put passion back into worship, purpose into belief, and power into the hands of everyday believers. Its impact still ripples through churches, communities, and hearts today. This isn’t just history—it’s the story of a movement that made faith personal. Pietists believed that Christianity wasn’t just about ...

At the start of the 21st century, America was awash in a sea of evangelical talk. The Purpose Driven Life. Joel Osteen. The Left Behind novels. George W. Bush. Evangelicalism had become so powerful and pervasive that political scientist Alan Wolfe wrote of "a sense in which we are all evangelicals now." Steven P. Miller offers a dramatically different perspective: The Bush years, he argues, did not mark the pinnacle of evangelical influence, but rather the beginning of its decline. The Age of Evangelicalism chronicles the place and meaning of evangelical Christianity in America since 1970.

The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.

Evangelism in a Skeptical World is a textbook on evangelism that is ideal for the church or the classroom to equip Christians with the principles and skills they need to tell the unbelievable news about Jesus to friends in a skeptical world.

The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand-year history. As the curtain comes down on the church defined by the 16th century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

Christians often struggle to know where to start when it comes to telling others about God, Jesus, sin, and salvation. In this short book, J. Mack Stiles challenges Christians to view evangelism as something to do together instead of something to do alone, helping churches cultivate a culture of evangelism that goes beyond simply creating new programs or adopting the latest method.

Two truths are certainly stated in the pages of the Holy Bible: 1. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 2. That believers are sent into the world to proclaim this good news. Herein is set forth a reasoned, Biblical call for every individual and every church to be actively involved in the work of evangelism. The Great Commission takes the reader point-by-point through the calling given to every child of God to make the gospel known to others. The Benefits of Public Evangelism sets forth the God-ordained method of reaching the multitudes used by every prophet in the Old ...

In the history of the Moody Bible Institute, founded in 1886 by shoe salesman turned revivalist Dwight Lyman Moody, Timothy Gloege finds an answer to why Christian ethics seem to go hand in hand with free-market capitalism.

Like cascading dominoes, the intentional departure from believing the Bible is inerrant has plunged the church of the 21st century down the treacherous slippery slope of accommodation and compromise. How is the emergent church's push for globalization harmonizing with the new world order in these prophetic last days? The author unfolds the shocking progression of ideas that were birthed in a nest of aberrant church beliefs.

Understand the history, core values, and divisions as they've developed within the Evangelical Christian movement. Four Views on Evangelicalism compares and contrasts four distinct positions on the current fundamentalist-evangelical spectrum. Each author explains and defends his position, which is critiqued by the other three authors.