Evangelicalism History

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.

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.

Despite the civil rights progress he fought for and saw on the horizon in the 1950s and '60s, Martin Luther King Jr.—increasingly concerned by America's moral vision, admitted—"I've come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house." In A Burning House, Brandon Washington contends...

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.

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 ...

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.

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.

"Evangelism" is a contested, even conflicted word. But churches are declining in numbers and resources. What if we aren't thinking about evangelism in the right way, culturally or theologically? This book proposes a conversation that contextualizes evangelism in our late modern times and reimagines what the call to outreach means in today's world.

Many of the old methods of evangelism no longer work effectively today. We need new methods to communicate the timeless message of the gospel in culturally relevant ways. In a post-Christian, post-churched, post-reached world, most Christians have been poorly equipped to tell their friends about...

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.

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.

Witnessing used to involve laying out the truth and guiding a person to understand and accept it. But the awareness of basic Christian principles has changed, and so have the needs of pre-believers.

What happens when two decades of rigorous, good-faith arguments fail to change a single mind? For more than twenty years, researcher Brien Norris embarked on an ambitious project in the trenches of real-world interaction—in church basements, at coffee shop debates, and across family dinner tables. He deployed the best tools of logic, science, and historical criticism in conversations with hundreds of committed Evangelicals and Fundamentalists. His goal was simple: to find a definitive method for opening a mind sealed by faith. This book is the result of that exhaustive study. Inside, you ...

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.

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Evangelism in a Skeptical World: Audio Lectures includes high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the...

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 ...

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.

Evangelicalism has lots of critics. Christianity Today deputy editor Bonnie Kristian argues that their most common attacks fall apart under scrutiny, issuing a bold call for evangelicals not to be ashamed of their tradition and, instead, to preserve and deepen it. Evangelicalism is a favorite...

Dallas Theological Seminary is often viewed as a bastion of conservative evangelicalism, marked by an unswerving devotion to theological positions of fundamentalism, biblical inerrancy, and dispensational premillennialism.An Uncomfortable Fraternity, the first book-length history of Dallas...

The Kingdom of God Has No Borders offers a daring new perspective on conservative Christianity by shifting the lens to focus on the world outside US borders. Melani McAlister offers a sweeping narrative of the last 50 years of evangelical history, weaving a fascinating tale that upends much of what we know - or think we know - about American evangelicals.