Steven P. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199777952
- eISBN:
- 9780199362615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777952.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
George W. Bush spoke to the fullness of evangelical relevance at the start of the twenty-first century. Bush's faith-based language of compassionate conservatism garnered appeal beyond the Christian ...
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George W. Bush spoke to the fullness of evangelical relevance at the start of the twenty-first century. Bush's faith-based language of compassionate conservatism garnered appeal beyond the Christian Right proper, as Michael Gerson and John DiIulio demonstrated. Yet the culture wars still raged among Intelligent Design advocates and Bush reelection strategists. Evangelicals were politicized as never before. Egged on by Karl Rove, the Christian Right entered its baroque period. Evangelical popular culture followed a similar trajectory. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series transcended the crossover label, while Mel Gibson's deeply Catholic The Passion of the Christ became a born-again blockbuster. A backlash loomed in the form of a second evangelical scare. Journalists warned of theocratic “dominionism,” the new atheists dismissed religion in the aftermath of 9/11, and The Daily Show offered wit as a way around “Evangophobia.” Opportunities beckoned for evangelical critics of BushLess
George W. Bush spoke to the fullness of evangelical relevance at the start of the twenty-first century. Bush's faith-based language of compassionate conservatism garnered appeal beyond the Christian Right proper, as Michael Gerson and John DiIulio demonstrated. Yet the culture wars still raged among Intelligent Design advocates and Bush reelection strategists. Evangelicals were politicized as never before. Egged on by Karl Rove, the Christian Right entered its baroque period. Evangelical popular culture followed a similar trajectory. Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series transcended the crossover label, while Mel Gibson's deeply Catholic The Passion of the Christ became a born-again blockbuster. A backlash loomed in the form of a second evangelical scare. Journalists warned of theocratic “dominionism,” the new atheists dismissed religion in the aftermath of 9/11, and The Daily Show offered wit as a way around “Evangophobia.” Opportunities beckoned for evangelical critics of Bush
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/9780199363551.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics, Political Theory
The premises of republican theology come in for heavy criticism within Christian political philosophy in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, among both critics of the natural rights ...
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The premises of republican theology come in for heavy criticism within Christian political philosophy in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, among both critics of the natural rights tradition, such as Stanley Hauerwas and Oliver O’Donovan, and supporters of natural rights, like Nicholas Wolterstorff. A growing number of evangelical elites in the early twentieth century, including some veteran right-wing operatives like Michael Gerson, voice misgivings about the New Right alliance and the limited government ideology. The temptation to interpret these expressions as a shift in political theology among American evangelicals should be tempered by the knowledge that republican theology is a resilient and dominant tradition. None of its viable alternatives has ever attracted widespread commitment within the evangelical community for very long. What this book has attempted is an account of republican theology’s durability as a tradition, in spite of – or perhaps because of – its contrary impulses.Less
The premises of republican theology come in for heavy criticism within Christian political philosophy in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, among both critics of the natural rights tradition, such as Stanley Hauerwas and Oliver O’Donovan, and supporters of natural rights, like Nicholas Wolterstorff. A growing number of evangelical elites in the early twentieth century, including some veteran right-wing operatives like Michael Gerson, voice misgivings about the New Right alliance and the limited government ideology. The temptation to interpret these expressions as a shift in political theology among American evangelicals should be tempered by the knowledge that republican theology is a resilient and dominant tradition. None of its viable alternatives has ever attracted widespread commitment within the evangelical community for very long. What this book has attempted is an account of republican theology’s durability as a tradition, in spite of – or perhaps because of – its contrary impulses.
