William M. Shea
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195139860
- eISBN:
- 9780199835232
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195139860.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter begins with an explanation of the enmity between American evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, which can be traced back to colonial period. It then discusses scholarly literature ...
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This chapter begins with an explanation of the enmity between American evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, which can be traced back to colonial period. It then discusses scholarly literature on evangelical-Catholic relations, and analyzes three myths: the Protestant myth, Roman Catholic myth, and the Enlightenment myth. An overview of the chapters in this volume is also presented.Less
This chapter begins with an explanation of the enmity between American evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics, which can be traced back to colonial period. It then discusses scholarly literature on evangelical-Catholic relations, and analyzes three myths: the Protestant myth, Roman Catholic myth, and the Enlightenment myth. An overview of the chapters in this volume is also presented.
William M. Shea
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195139860
- eISBN:
- 9780199835232
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195139860.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The most important decision faced by American Evangelicals in the late 20th century was whether to regard the Catholic Church as either an apostate church or a heretical church. Those who hold the ...
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The most important decision faced by American Evangelicals in the late 20th century was whether to regard the Catholic Church as either an apostate church or a heretical church. Those who hold the traditional judgment of apostasy are called “hard” evangelicals; those who have modified this judgment are called “soft” evangelicals. This chapter reviews some recent examples of the “hard” evangelical option.Less
The most important decision faced by American Evangelicals in the late 20th century was whether to regard the Catholic Church as either an apostate church or a heretical church. Those who hold the traditional judgment of apostasy are called “hard” evangelicals; those who have modified this judgment are called “soft” evangelicals. This chapter reviews some recent examples of the “hard” evangelical option.
Lydia Bean
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161303
- eISBN:
- 9781400852611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161303.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
This concluding chapter discusses how the Christian Right is no longer the only public voice speaking for American evangelicals. Since 2004, alternative leaders and advocacy groups have stepped out ...
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This concluding chapter discusses how the Christian Right is no longer the only public voice speaking for American evangelicals. Since 2004, alternative leaders and advocacy groups have stepped out of the shadows to broaden the evangelical agenda. New voices appeal to evangelicals to consider poverty, creation care, and racial reconciliation as important moral issues. But this broadened political agenda will only gain traction with rank-and-file evangelicals if it becomes part of local religious practice. It is not enough to engage in top-down messaging about moral values. If these elites seek to challenge the hegemony of the Christian Right, they need to find substitutes for the powerful identity-work that goes on every week in evangelical congregations.Less
This concluding chapter discusses how the Christian Right is no longer the only public voice speaking for American evangelicals. Since 2004, alternative leaders and advocacy groups have stepped out of the shadows to broaden the evangelical agenda. New voices appeal to evangelicals to consider poverty, creation care, and racial reconciliation as important moral issues. But this broadened political agenda will only gain traction with rank-and-file evangelicals if it becomes part of local religious practice. It is not enough to engage in top-down messaging about moral values. If these elites seek to challenge the hegemony of the Christian Right, they need to find substitutes for the powerful identity-work that goes on every week in evangelical congregations.
Lydia Bean
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161303
- eISBN:
- 9781400852611
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161303.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
It is now a common refrain among liberals that Christian Right pastors and television pundits have hijacked evangelical Christianity for partisan gain. This book challenges this notion, arguing that ...
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It is now a common refrain among liberals that Christian Right pastors and television pundits have hijacked evangelical Christianity for partisan gain. This book challenges this notion, arguing that the hijacking metaphor paints a fundamentally distorted picture of how evangelical churches have become politicized. The book reveals how the powerful coalition between evangelicals and the Republican Party is not merely a creation of political elites who have framed conservative issues in religious language, but is anchored in the lives of local congregations. Drawing on research at evangelical churches near the U.S. border with Canada, this book compares how American and Canadian evangelicals talk about politics in congregational settings. While Canadian evangelicals share the same theology and conservative moral attitudes as their American counterparts, their politics are quite different. On the U.S. side of the border, political conservatism is woven into the very fabric of everyday religious practice. The book shows how subtle partisan cues emerge in small group interactions as members define how “we Christians” should relate to others in the broader civic arena, while liberals are cast in the role of adversaries. It explains how the most explicit partisan cues come not from clergy but rather from lay opinion leaders who help their less politically engaged peers to link evangelical identity to conservative politics. This book demonstrates how deep the ties remain between political conservatism and evangelical Christianity in America.Less
It is now a common refrain among liberals that Christian Right pastors and television pundits have hijacked evangelical Christianity for partisan gain. This book challenges this notion, arguing that the hijacking metaphor paints a fundamentally distorted picture of how evangelical churches have become politicized. The book reveals how the powerful coalition between evangelicals and the Republican Party is not merely a creation of political elites who have framed conservative issues in religious language, but is anchored in the lives of local congregations. Drawing on research at evangelical churches near the U.S. border with Canada, this book compares how American and Canadian evangelicals talk about politics in congregational settings. While Canadian evangelicals share the same theology and conservative moral attitudes as their American counterparts, their politics are quite different. On the U.S. side of the border, political conservatism is woven into the very fabric of everyday religious practice. The book shows how subtle partisan cues emerge in small group interactions as members define how “we Christians” should relate to others in the broader civic arena, while liberals are cast in the role of adversaries. It explains how the most explicit partisan cues come not from clergy but rather from lay opinion leaders who help their less politically engaged peers to link evangelical identity to conservative politics. This book demonstrates how deep the ties remain between political conservatism and evangelical Christianity in America.
Robert T. Handy
- Published in print:
- 1976
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269106
- eISBN:
- 9780191683572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269106.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter provides a discussion on the growth and conflict of American Evangelical Protestantism during 1860–1920. It starts by introducing the Evangelical Protestantism of the Civil War and the ...
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This chapter provides a discussion on the growth and conflict of American Evangelical Protestantism during 1860–1920. It starts by introducing the Evangelical Protestantism of the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction. Topics covered include the expansion of black Protestantism, the evangelicals and their ‘Empire’, Sunday schools and public schools, Sabbath observance and temperance, theological tensions, evangelical dissenters, social Christianity, unitive trends, and the war to end all wars. The main themes of the movement brought together the evangelistic, missionary, co-operative, and social concerns of the Anglo-American churches. Though the Civil and Spanish-American wars had been faced in a crusading spirit by the churches, many Christians supported the burgeoning peace movement in the buoyant, optimistic opening years of the new century. Evangelical styles had been evolving over a long period of time, and as a new era opened following the successful completion of the war the methods that had been developed seemed full of promise. The problems ahead seemed surmountable and were being faced in a confident, optimistic spirit.Less
This chapter provides a discussion on the growth and conflict of American Evangelical Protestantism during 1860–1920. It starts by introducing the Evangelical Protestantism of the Civil War and the period of Reconstruction. Topics covered include the expansion of black Protestantism, the evangelicals and their ‘Empire’, Sunday schools and public schools, Sabbath observance and temperance, theological tensions, evangelical dissenters, social Christianity, unitive trends, and the war to end all wars. The main themes of the movement brought together the evangelistic, missionary, co-operative, and social concerns of the Anglo-American churches. Though the Civil and Spanish-American wars had been faced in a crusading spirit by the churches, many Christians supported the burgeoning peace movement in the buoyant, optimistic opening years of the new century. Evangelical styles had been evolving over a long period of time, and as a new era opened following the successful completion of the war the methods that had been developed seemed full of promise. The problems ahead seemed surmountable and were being faced in a confident, optimistic spirit.
Joseph L. Thomas and Douglas A. Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195310566
- eISBN:
- 9780199851072
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310566.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of ...
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This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of evangelical ministry across the racial divide, accommodations made to slavery and segregation, the rise of independent of black churches, and the impact of African American Christianity on white evangelicalism. This leads to better understanding of its manifest shortcomings as well as the positive strivings that evangelicalism has made in creating a less prejudiced and more inclusive church. However, it is observed that the biblical themes of spiritual liberation and human equality have worked together in the history of evangelicalism to make the Christian church a more biblical one, if not yet a perfect one. The history of evangelicalism indicates that one needs to the spiritual resources to find a solution to the present miasma.Less
This chapter offers an introductory and reflective history of American Evangelical Christianity as it wrestled with the issues of race and ethnicity. In particular, it examines the history of evangelical ministry across the racial divide, accommodations made to slavery and segregation, the rise of independent of black churches, and the impact of African American Christianity on white evangelicalism. This leads to better understanding of its manifest shortcomings as well as the positive strivings that evangelicalism has made in creating a less prejudiced and more inclusive church. However, it is observed that the biblical themes of spiritual liberation and human equality have worked together in the history of evangelicalism to make the Christian church a more biblical one, if not yet a perfect one. The history of evangelicalism indicates that one needs to the spiritual resources to find a solution to the present miasma.
Charles F. Irons
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807831946
- eISBN:
- 9781469604640
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807888896_irons
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together. Even though white evangelicals claimed spiritual fellowship with those of African ...
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In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together. Even though white evangelicals claimed spiritual fellowship with those of African descent, they nonetheless emerged as the most effective defenders of race-based slavery. As this book argues, white evangelicals' ideas about slavery grew directly out of their interactions with black evangelicals. Set in Virginia, the largest slaveholding state and the hearth of the southern evangelical movement, this book draws from church records, denominational newspapers, slave narratives, and private letters and diaries to illuminate the dynamic relationship between whites and blacks within the evangelical fold. It reveals that when whites theorized about their moral responsibilities toward slaves, they thought first of their relationships with bondmen in their own churches. Thus, African American evangelicals inadvertently shaped the nature of the proslavery argument. When they chose which churches to join, used the procedures set up for church discipline, rejected colonization, or built quasi-independent congregations, for example, black churchgoers spurred their white coreligionists to further develop the religious defense of slavery.Less
In the colonial and antebellum South, black and white evangelicals frequently prayed, sang, and worshipped together. Even though white evangelicals claimed spiritual fellowship with those of African descent, they nonetheless emerged as the most effective defenders of race-based slavery. As this book argues, white evangelicals' ideas about slavery grew directly out of their interactions with black evangelicals. Set in Virginia, the largest slaveholding state and the hearth of the southern evangelical movement, this book draws from church records, denominational newspapers, slave narratives, and private letters and diaries to illuminate the dynamic relationship between whites and blacks within the evangelical fold. It reveals that when whites theorized about their moral responsibilities toward slaves, they thought first of their relationships with bondmen in their own churches. Thus, African American evangelicals inadvertently shaped the nature of the proslavery argument. When they chose which churches to join, used the procedures set up for church discipline, rejected colonization, or built quasi-independent congregations, for example, black churchgoers spurred their white coreligionists to further develop the religious defense of slavery.
Benjamin T. Lynerd
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199363551
- eISBN:
- 9780199363582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363551.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Political Theory
Before unfolding republican theology and its story, some preliminary discussions will need to set the stage. In particular, the project needs to situate the evangelical community as a stable but ...
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Before unfolding republican theology and its story, some preliminary discussions will need to set the stage. In particular, the project needs to situate the evangelical community as a stable but autonomous constituent of the American right wing, a task that demands a clear description of these various species. This opening chapter offers a portrait of American evangelicals as a religious community as well as a portrait of the New Right flank in America, along with evidence of their present alignment on an ideology of conservatism. The chapter also presents an overview of the long and continuing tradition of moral activism that would appear to undercut evangelicals’ alliance with libertarians. The chapter concludes by considering the variables that withstand this tension, all of which point to a unique political theology among American evangelicals that seeks to reconcile these apparently contrary aims.Less
Before unfolding republican theology and its story, some preliminary discussions will need to set the stage. In particular, the project needs to situate the evangelical community as a stable but autonomous constituent of the American right wing, a task that demands a clear description of these various species. This opening chapter offers a portrait of American evangelicals as a religious community as well as a portrait of the New Right flank in America, along with evidence of their present alignment on an ideology of conservatism. The chapter also presents an overview of the long and continuing tradition of moral activism that would appear to undercut evangelicals’ alliance with libertarians. The chapter concludes by considering the variables that withstand this tension, all of which point to a unique political theology among American evangelicals that seeks to reconcile these apparently contrary aims.
Benjamin T. Lynerd
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199363551
- eISBN:
- 9780199363582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363551.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Political Theory
Protestant evangelicals in the United States exhibit a pronounced affinity for limited government. This ideological commitment forms the basis of the New Right coalition, which has merged free market ...
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Protestant evangelicals in the United States exhibit a pronounced affinity for limited government. This ideological commitment forms the basis of the New Right coalition, which has merged free market libertarians and evangelicals within the Republican Party since the 1980s. Evangelicals, however, make an exception to the limited government ethos on issues relating to private morality, such as recreational drug use and sexuality, sometimes promoting an agenda of moral activism that seems dissonant against the free market spirit. What explains this apparent tension in their civil religion is a unique political theology that weds the Lockean social contract to the gospel of moral conversion. This intellectual tradition, called “republican theology” in this book, has roots in the American Revolution and a discernible presence in American evangelical thinking ever since.Less
Protestant evangelicals in the United States exhibit a pronounced affinity for limited government. This ideological commitment forms the basis of the New Right coalition, which has merged free market libertarians and evangelicals within the Republican Party since the 1980s. Evangelicals, however, make an exception to the limited government ethos on issues relating to private morality, such as recreational drug use and sexuality, sometimes promoting an agenda of moral activism that seems dissonant against the free market spirit. What explains this apparent tension in their civil religion is a unique political theology that weds the Lockean social contract to the gospel of moral conversion. This intellectual tradition, called “republican theology” in this book, has roots in the American Revolution and a discernible presence in American evangelical thinking ever since.
Caitlin Carenen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814741047
- eISBN:
- 9780814708378
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814741047.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the United States and Israel continue on as partners in an ...
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When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the United States and Israel continue on as partners in an at times controversial alliance—an alliance, many argue, that is powerfully influenced by the Christian Right. This book chronicles the American Christian relationship with Israel, tracing first mainline Protestant and then evangelical support for Zionism. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, American liberal Protestants argued that America had a moral humanitarian duty to support Israel. Christian anti-Semitism had helped bring about the Holocaust, they declared, and so Christians must help make amends. Moreover, a stable and democratic Israel would no doubt make the Middle East a safer place for future American interests. The book argues that it was this mainline Protestant position that laid the foundation for the current evangelical Protestant support for Israel, which is based primarily on theological grounds. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material from the Central Zionist Archives in Israel, the book tells the full story of the American Christian–Israel relationship, bringing the various “players”—American liberal Protestants, American Evangelicals, American Jews, and Israelis—together into one historical narrative.Less
When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Harry Truman issued a memo recognizing the Israeli government within eleven minutes. Today, the United States and Israel continue on as partners in an at times controversial alliance—an alliance, many argue, that is powerfully influenced by the Christian Right. This book chronicles the American Christian relationship with Israel, tracing first mainline Protestant and then evangelical support for Zionism. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, American liberal Protestants argued that America had a moral humanitarian duty to support Israel. Christian anti-Semitism had helped bring about the Holocaust, they declared, and so Christians must help make amends. Moreover, a stable and democratic Israel would no doubt make the Middle East a safer place for future American interests. The book argues that it was this mainline Protestant position that laid the foundation for the current evangelical Protestant support for Israel, which is based primarily on theological grounds. Drawing on previously unexplored archival material from the Central Zionist Archives in Israel, the book tells the full story of the American Christian–Israel relationship, bringing the various “players”—American liberal Protestants, American Evangelicals, American Jews, and Israelis—together into one historical narrative.
James S. Bielo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789544
- eISBN:
- 9780814723234
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789544.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative Evangelical sub-culture. It is a ...
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The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative Evangelical sub-culture. It is a response to the increasing divide between conservative Evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith. A core feature of their response is a challenge to traditional congregational models, often focusing on new church plants and creating networks of related house churches. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores the impact of the Emerging Church movement on American Evangelicals. It combines ethnographic analysis with discussions of the movement's history, discursive contours, defining practices, cultural logics, and contentious interactions with conservative Evangelical critics to rethink the boundaries of “Evangelical” as a category. Ultimately, the book makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the important changes at work among American Protestants, and illuminates how Emerging Evangelicals interact with the cultural conditions of modernity, late modernity, and visions of “postmodern” Christianity.Less
The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative Evangelical sub-culture. It is a response to the increasing divide between conservative Evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith. A core feature of their response is a challenge to traditional congregational models, often focusing on new church plants and creating networks of related house churches. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, the book explores the impact of the Emerging Church movement on American Evangelicals. It combines ethnographic analysis with discussions of the movement's history, discursive contours, defining practices, cultural logics, and contentious interactions with conservative Evangelical critics to rethink the boundaries of “Evangelical” as a category. Ultimately, the book makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the important changes at work among American Protestants, and illuminates how Emerging Evangelicals interact with the cultural conditions of modernity, late modernity, and visions of “postmodern” Christianity.
James S. Bielo
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814789544
- eISBN:
- 9780814723234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814789544.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores how some American Evangelicals are consuming and enacting knowledge produced as part of the Emerging Church movement. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it shows that Emerging ...
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This book explores how some American Evangelicals are consuming and enacting knowledge produced as part of the Emerging Church movement. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it shows that Emerging Evangelicalism is organized by cultural critique, a desire for change, and grounded in the conditions of both modernity and late modernity. In its analysis of the Emerging Church movement, the book highlights a variety of themes ranging from sense of place and urbanism to dialogue, improvisation, irony, embodiment, narrative, textuality, community, ecclesiology, social memory, denominationalism, and everyday religious subjectivity. These themes reveal the inner spiritual lives of the Emerging Church's adherents, their outer practices and institutions, and their relationship to American social conditions. This introductory chapter provides an overview of Emerging Evangelicalism, explains why “authenticity” is used as the book's organizing theme, and discusses the kinds of fieldwork on which the book is based.Less
This book explores how some American Evangelicals are consuming and enacting knowledge produced as part of the Emerging Church movement. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it shows that Emerging Evangelicalism is organized by cultural critique, a desire for change, and grounded in the conditions of both modernity and late modernity. In its analysis of the Emerging Church movement, the book highlights a variety of themes ranging from sense of place and urbanism to dialogue, improvisation, irony, embodiment, narrative, textuality, community, ecclesiology, social memory, denominationalism, and everyday religious subjectivity. These themes reveal the inner spiritual lives of the Emerging Church's adherents, their outer practices and institutions, and their relationship to American social conditions. This introductory chapter provides an overview of Emerging Evangelicalism, explains why “authenticity” is used as the book's organizing theme, and discusses the kinds of fieldwork on which the book is based.
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199987634
- eISBN:
- 9780199367818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199987634.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
American Evangelicals have been involved in international affairs in two major ways: first, through direct global engagement as part of the missionary enterprise; and second, through public policy ...
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American Evangelicals have been involved in international affairs in two major ways: first, through direct global engagement as part of the missionary enterprise; and second, through public policy advocacy. The significant growth of Evangelicals in the post-Cold War era has resulted in a shift in influence from mainline Protestantism to Evangelicalism. This shift has been accompanied by a growth in Evangelical public policy advocacy. The aim of this book is to describe and assess the extraordinary role Evangelicals play in international affairs, focusing on both their direct and indirect influence on American global engagement.Less
American Evangelicals have been involved in international affairs in two major ways: first, through direct global engagement as part of the missionary enterprise; and second, through public policy advocacy. The significant growth of Evangelicals in the post-Cold War era has resulted in a shift in influence from mainline Protestantism to Evangelicalism. This shift has been accompanied by a growth in Evangelical public policy advocacy. The aim of this book is to describe and assess the extraordinary role Evangelicals play in international affairs, focusing on both their direct and indirect influence on American global engagement.
Janet Moore Lindman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814727805
- eISBN:
- 9780814728475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814727805.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter examines masculinity and ministry during the American Revolution. Beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century, the emergence of evangelical revivalism led to a new form of manhood, ...
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This chapter examines masculinity and ministry during the American Revolution. Beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century, the emergence of evangelical revivalism led to a new form of manhood, one based on Christian concepts of humility, piety, and sobriety. American evangelicals counseled withdrawal from secular society in favor of prayer, contemplation, and circumspect behavior, as male converts to evangelical Christianity trod a new path toward manhood. The exemplar of this ideal was the minister, who provided male leadership within the church but also endorsed and acted out Christian principles of prudence, temperance, meditation, and abstention from sinful activities and worldly pursuits. When the war against Britain began, this exemplary role was taken on by military chaplains, pious believers who abhorred violence and dissension and yet wished to serve their country as men. Two different modes of white masculinity came together in the role of the military chaplain during the American Revolutionary War. Clergy who served as chaplains with the American forces censored the customs of military life at the same time that they bolstered traditional manliness through religious leadership and rhetoric. Chaplains functioned as gender brokers in this military context, fusing the seeming contradiction of traditional male traits, such as contention and combativeness, with the female characteristics of clerical service: nurturing the sick, consoling the dying, and tending to the dead.Less
This chapter examines masculinity and ministry during the American Revolution. Beginning in the middle of the eighteenth century, the emergence of evangelical revivalism led to a new form of manhood, one based on Christian concepts of humility, piety, and sobriety. American evangelicals counseled withdrawal from secular society in favor of prayer, contemplation, and circumspect behavior, as male converts to evangelical Christianity trod a new path toward manhood. The exemplar of this ideal was the minister, who provided male leadership within the church but also endorsed and acted out Christian principles of prudence, temperance, meditation, and abstention from sinful activities and worldly pursuits. When the war against Britain began, this exemplary role was taken on by military chaplains, pious believers who abhorred violence and dissension and yet wished to serve their country as men. Two different modes of white masculinity came together in the role of the military chaplain during the American Revolutionary War. Clergy who served as chaplains with the American forces censored the customs of military life at the same time that they bolstered traditional manliness through religious leadership and rhetoric. Chaplains functioned as gender brokers in this military context, fusing the seeming contradiction of traditional male traits, such as contention and combativeness, with the female characteristics of clerical service: nurturing the sick, consoling the dying, and tending to the dead.
Heather D. Curtis
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198798071
- eISBN:
- 9780191839344
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198798071.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores how American Evangelicals have employed popular media to maintain and augment their vitality in the United States during a supposedly secular age. By focusing on the story of ...
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This chapter explores how American Evangelicals have employed popular media to maintain and augment their vitality in the United States during a supposedly secular age. By focusing on the story of the Christian Herald, an evangelical newspaper that greatly expanded its circulation and influence during the 1890s, it elucidates the innovative strategies publishers adopted to attract and retain the attention of a significant segment of the American Protestant public. By embracing ground-breaking printing and photographic technologies, novel approaches to popular journalism, and modern advertising techniques, the Christian Herald became the most successful religious newspaper in the world within a decade, a position it held throughout most of the twentieth century. Analysing these enterprising methods alongside the distinctive messages about American exceptionalism that the Christian Herald communicated in its columns also helps to explain why evangelicalism has continued to flourish in the USA in comparison to the UK or Europe.Less
This chapter explores how American Evangelicals have employed popular media to maintain and augment their vitality in the United States during a supposedly secular age. By focusing on the story of the Christian Herald, an evangelical newspaper that greatly expanded its circulation and influence during the 1890s, it elucidates the innovative strategies publishers adopted to attract and retain the attention of a significant segment of the American Protestant public. By embracing ground-breaking printing and photographic technologies, novel approaches to popular journalism, and modern advertising techniques, the Christian Herald became the most successful religious newspaper in the world within a decade, a position it held throughout most of the twentieth century. Analysing these enterprising methods alongside the distinctive messages about American exceptionalism that the Christian Herald communicated in its columns also helps to explain why evangelicalism has continued to flourish in the USA in comparison to the UK or Europe.
Benjamin T. Lynerd
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199363551
- eISBN:
- 9780199363582
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363551.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Political Theory
Since the founding of the United States of America, American evangelicals have espoused a political theology that sees limited government as a condition for a thriving church and accordingly tilts ...
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Since the founding of the United States of America, American evangelicals have espoused a political theology that sees limited government as a condition for a thriving church and accordingly tilts toward libertarian politics. This “republican theology,” however, also predicates the republic’s longevity on the church’s capacity to elevate civic virtue, an impulse toward moral activism that often cuts against the libertarian grain. How evangelicals navigate the logic of their civil religion forms the subtext of their participation in American politics. Republican theology helps to explain, for instance, evangelicals’ support of the Revolution, their involvement in such diverse movements as abolitionism and temperance in the nineteenth century, their financial backing of the YMCA (coupled with their suspicion of industrial unions) during the Gilded Age, as well as their alliance with small-government partisans in the New Right coalition of the late twentieth century. This book analyzes sermons and pamphlets to document the presence of republican theology in the rhetoric of evangelicals in every era of American history.Less
Since the founding of the United States of America, American evangelicals have espoused a political theology that sees limited government as a condition for a thriving church and accordingly tilts toward libertarian politics. This “republican theology,” however, also predicates the republic’s longevity on the church’s capacity to elevate civic virtue, an impulse toward moral activism that often cuts against the libertarian grain. How evangelicals navigate the logic of their civil religion forms the subtext of their participation in American politics. Republican theology helps to explain, for instance, evangelicals’ support of the Revolution, their involvement in such diverse movements as abolitionism and temperance in the nineteenth century, their financial backing of the YMCA (coupled with their suspicion of industrial unions) during the Gilded Age, as well as their alliance with small-government partisans in the New Right coalition of the late twentieth century. This book analyzes sermons and pamphlets to document the presence of republican theology in the rhetoric of evangelicals in every era of American history.
Amy Derogatis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199942251
- eISBN:
- 9780199392612
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199942251.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines a few texts that discuss sexuality aimed at an African American born-again audience. In this chapter I consider the difference between texts on sexuality written by white ...
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This chapter examines a few texts that discuss sexuality aimed at an African American born-again audience. In this chapter I consider the difference between texts on sexuality written by white evangelicals who assume a universal audience and texts written by African Americans who presume a specific readership.Less
This chapter examines a few texts that discuss sexuality aimed at an African American born-again audience. In this chapter I consider the difference between texts on sexuality written by white evangelicals who assume a universal audience and texts written by African Americans who presume a specific readership.
Jeffrey Guhin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190244743
- eISBN:
- 9780190244767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190244743.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Religious Studies
The first chapter outlines the book’s central theoretical questions and contributions, emphasizing the importance of boundaries and authorities. These boundaries—politics, gender, sex, and the ...
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The first chapter outlines the book’s central theoretical questions and contributions, emphasizing the importance of boundaries and authorities. These boundaries—politics, gender, sex, and the Internet—help to establish the distinctions from the outside world that ground each school’s identity. That identity is then experienced as real through certain practices, and those practices are maintained via certain “external authorities,” especially scripture, prayer, and science. These external authorities are at once practices themselves and the institutionalization (what some might call reification) of these practices, things that people do (read the Bible, pray, invoke science) but at the same time, things that seem to exist above and beyond any individual person, and seemingly with the ability to act on people themselves. The chapter ends by describing the four high schools—two Sunni Muslim and two Evangelical Protestant—where the author conducted fieldwork.Less
The first chapter outlines the book’s central theoretical questions and contributions, emphasizing the importance of boundaries and authorities. These boundaries—politics, gender, sex, and the Internet—help to establish the distinctions from the outside world that ground each school’s identity. That identity is then experienced as real through certain practices, and those practices are maintained via certain “external authorities,” especially scripture, prayer, and science. These external authorities are at once practices themselves and the institutionalization (what some might call reification) of these practices, things that people do (read the Bible, pray, invoke science) but at the same time, things that seem to exist above and beyond any individual person, and seemingly with the ability to act on people themselves. The chapter ends by describing the four high schools—two Sunni Muslim and two Evangelical Protestant—where the author conducted fieldwork.
Shalom Goldman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781469652412
- eISBN:
- 9781469652436
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469652412.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter traces the growing complexity of the American relationship to Israel: from American telethon fundraisers to concerted criticism to the rise of American Evangelical support for Israel. It ...
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This chapter traces the growing complexity of the American relationship to Israel: from American telethon fundraisers to concerted criticism to the rise of American Evangelical support for Israel. It also details the growing complexities around the question of how to treat the Palestinian territories. Additional topics include the growing phenomenon of “Jerusalem Syndrome,” or cult-like religious zealotry focused on Israel, as well as the treatment of Israel in several American best-selling novels. The chapter concludes with the response to the First Intifada and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.Less
This chapter traces the growing complexity of the American relationship to Israel: from American telethon fundraisers to concerted criticism to the rise of American Evangelical support for Israel. It also details the growing complexities around the question of how to treat the Palestinian territories. Additional topics include the growing phenomenon of “Jerusalem Syndrome,” or cult-like religious zealotry focused on Israel, as well as the treatment of Israel in several American best-selling novels. The chapter concludes with the response to the First Intifada and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
Lauren Frances Turek
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501748912
- eISBN:
- 9781501748936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501748912.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
When American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad ...
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When American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad led them to engage more deeply in foreign policy activism at home. This book tracks these trends and illuminates the complex and significant ways in which religion shaped America's role in the late-Cold War world. The book examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy lobbying groups in the United States beginning in the 1970s, assesses the effectiveness of Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favored regimes, and considers how those same groups promoted the imposition of economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that stifled evangelism. The book links the development of evangelical foreign policy lobbying to the overseas missionary agenda. Its case studies—Guatemala, South Africa, and the Soviet Union—reveal the extent of Christian influence on American foreign policy from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Evangelical policy work also reshaped the lives of Christians overseas and contributed to a reorientation of U.S. human rights policy. Efforts to promote global evangelism and support foreign brethren led activists to push Congress to grant aid to favored, yet repressive, regimes in countries such as Guatemala while imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions on nations that persecuted Christians, such as the Soviet Union. This advocacy shifted the definitions and priorities of U.S. human rights policies with lasting repercussions that can be traced into the twenty-first century.Less
When American evangelicals flocked to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe in the late twentieth century to fulfill their Biblical mandate for global evangelism, their experiences abroad led them to engage more deeply in foreign policy activism at home. This book tracks these trends and illuminates the complex and significant ways in which religion shaped America's role in the late-Cold War world. The book examines the growth and influence of Christian foreign policy lobbying groups in the United States beginning in the 1970s, assesses the effectiveness of Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favored regimes, and considers how those same groups promoted the imposition of economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that stifled evangelism. The book links the development of evangelical foreign policy lobbying to the overseas missionary agenda. Its case studies—Guatemala, South Africa, and the Soviet Union—reveal the extent of Christian influence on American foreign policy from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Evangelical policy work also reshaped the lives of Christians overseas and contributed to a reorientation of U.S. human rights policy. Efforts to promote global evangelism and support foreign brethren led activists to push Congress to grant aid to favored, yet repressive, regimes in countries such as Guatemala while imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions on nations that persecuted Christians, such as the Soviet Union. This advocacy shifted the definitions and priorities of U.S. human rights policies with lasting repercussions that can be traced into the twenty-first century.
