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/9780691161303.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Sociology of Religion
This chapter talks about how Protestants define the boundaries of their religious subculture. Social scientists have vigorous debates about who is, and who isn't, an evangelical. In these churches, ...
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This chapter talks about how Protestants define the boundaries of their religious subculture. Social scientists have vigorous debates about who is, and who isn't, an evangelical. In these churches, there were only two kinds of Christians: born-again Christians who had made a personal decision for Christ, and nominal Christians who lacked this personal relationship with Christ. Other denominational or sectarian differences were meaningless to rank-and-file members, even though conservative Protestants once divided themselves rigidly between charismatics, Pentecostals, fundamentalists, and culture-engaging evangelicals. All four of these churches shared a sense of subcultural identity as “born-again” or evangelical Christians, which transcended the historical divisions between Baptist and Pentecostal worship and theology.Less
This chapter talks about how Protestants define the boundaries of their religious subculture. Social scientists have vigorous debates about who is, and who isn't, an evangelical. In these churches, there were only two kinds of Christians: born-again Christians who had made a personal decision for Christ, and nominal Christians who lacked this personal relationship with Christ. Other denominational or sectarian differences were meaningless to rank-and-file members, even though conservative Protestants once divided themselves rigidly between charismatics, Pentecostals, fundamentalists, and culture-engaging evangelicals. All four of these churches shared a sense of subcultural identity as “born-again” or evangelical Christians, which transcended the historical divisions between Baptist and Pentecostal worship and theology.
Joen A. Carpenter
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195129076
- eISBN:
- 9780199853274
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195129076.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Fundamentalists taught that living a separated life implied two distinct actions: pulling away from the world and its values, and drawing closer to Jesus Christ to become his disciple. It is common ...
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Fundamentalists taught that living a separated life implied two distinct actions: pulling away from the world and its values, and drawing closer to Jesus Christ to become his disciple. It is common to think about fundamentalism in reference to the first part of this formula—as a separatistic, militantly reactionary, and radically biblicist persuasion. But fundamentalism has a softer, more experiential side as well. This chapter explores the fundamentalist piety in order to gain a better understanding of the “separated life”. Fundamentalist piety was dominated by two spiritual experiences: conversion, or the New Birth, as it was often called; and an event subsequent to conversion commonly called entering into the “higher Christian life.” These two experiences did much to shape the fundamentalist movement's structure, ethos, and sense of mission.Less
Fundamentalists taught that living a separated life implied two distinct actions: pulling away from the world and its values, and drawing closer to Jesus Christ to become his disciple. It is common to think about fundamentalism in reference to the first part of this formula—as a separatistic, militantly reactionary, and radically biblicist persuasion. But fundamentalism has a softer, more experiential side as well. This chapter explores the fundamentalist piety in order to gain a better understanding of the “separated life”. Fundamentalist piety was dominated by two spiritual experiences: conversion, or the New Birth, as it was often called; and an event subsequent to conversion commonly called entering into the “higher Christian life.” These two experiences did much to shape the fundamentalist movement's structure, ethos, and sense of mission.
Manlio Graziano
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780231174626
- eISBN:
- 9780231543910
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231174626.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter describes the comeback of religions to the political arena in the 1970s.
This chapter describes the comeback of religions to the political arena in the 1970s.
Steve Redhead
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748643448
- eISBN:
- 9780748652945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643448.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his ...
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It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his Born Again Christian period, which dated back to the late 1970s. There is, it seems, a lost moment in this history of modernity in popular music culture: the early 1990s. This was a period where Bob Dylan finally emerged from the relative slumbers of more than two decades and prepared to haul himself back to the American, and global, marketplace. Dylan is not so much a ‘postmodern’ thief in the night, as so many critics have presented his supposed widespread and longstanding ‘plagiarism’. He is more than this. He is a seeker of the art of the ‘old, weird America’.Less
It is possible to trace the emergence of Bob Dylan's late style to the New York Supper Club shows in the early 1990s. In the early 1990s, too, Bob Dylan was shaking off the debilitating curse of his Born Again Christian period, which dated back to the late 1970s. There is, it seems, a lost moment in this history of modernity in popular music culture: the early 1990s. This was a period where Bob Dylan finally emerged from the relative slumbers of more than two decades and prepared to haul himself back to the American, and global, marketplace. Dylan is not so much a ‘postmodern’ thief in the night, as so many critics have presented his supposed widespread and longstanding ‘plagiarism’. He is more than this. He is a seeker of the art of the ‘old, weird America’.
David Der-wei Wang
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231170468
- eISBN:
- 9780231538572
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231170468.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on the metamorphosis of Feng Zhi and He Qifeng, two of the most important Chinese modernist poets, during the 1940s and 1950s in terms of “born-again” lyricism. Its religious ...
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This chapter focuses on the metamorphosis of Feng Zhi and He Qifeng, two of the most important Chinese modernist poets, during the 1940s and 1950s in terms of “born-again” lyricism. Its religious implications notwithstanding, “born-again” in this context projects the poets' immanent search for self-renewal in the vein of both modernism and revolutionism. Both tended to reflect on a set of interrelated motifs: death and rebirth, selfhood and community, stagnation, and dynamism. Above all, they both wrote to probe the heuristic experience of metamorphosis that promises a higher state of existence. The chapter describes He Qifang and Feng Zhi's pilgrimage to the Maoist Promised Land in terms of the poetics and politics of “born-again” lyricism. It suggests that for all their newfound belief, Feng Zhi and He Qifeng could not resist a lyrical flight out of the set ideological trajectory. Their poetry impresses us with occasional ruptures, a reminder that the “lyrical,” above all, arises as a rhapsodic “aside,” a momentary break in the flow of routine expression.Less
This chapter focuses on the metamorphosis of Feng Zhi and He Qifeng, two of the most important Chinese modernist poets, during the 1940s and 1950s in terms of “born-again” lyricism. Its religious implications notwithstanding, “born-again” in this context projects the poets' immanent search for self-renewal in the vein of both modernism and revolutionism. Both tended to reflect on a set of interrelated motifs: death and rebirth, selfhood and community, stagnation, and dynamism. Above all, they both wrote to probe the heuristic experience of metamorphosis that promises a higher state of existence. The chapter describes He Qifang and Feng Zhi's pilgrimage to the Maoist Promised Land in terms of the poetics and politics of “born-again” lyricism. It suggests that for all their newfound belief, Feng Zhi and He Qifeng could not resist a lyrical flight out of the set ideological trajectory. Their poetry impresses us with occasional ruptures, a reminder that the “lyrical,” above all, arises as a rhapsodic “aside,” a momentary break in the flow of routine expression.
Steven P. Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199777952
- eISBN:
- 9780199362615
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777952.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Recent America was awash in a sea of evangelical talk. From the Jesus chic of the Seventies to the satanism scare of the Eighties, the culture wars of the Nineties, and the faith-based vogue of the ...
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Recent America was awash in a sea of evangelical talk. From the Jesus chic of the Seventies to the satanism scare of the Eighties, the culture wars of the Nineties, and the faith-based vogue of the early 2000s, born-again Christianity was seen and heard on many levels. This was a time of evangelical scares, born-again spectacles, and reconsiderations of the status of faith in politics and culture. The Age of Evangelicalism chronicles the place and meaning of born-again Christianity in the United States from the 1970s through the early twenty-first century. It pays special attention to the uses that a diverse array of Americans found for born-again faith—self-proclaimed evangelicals, to be sure, but also secular activists, scholars, journalists, artists, and politicians. The story features familiar actors, along with others not always associated with evangelical faith—Barack Obama, as well as Jimmy Carter; People for the American Way, as well as Moral Majority; and Bob Dylan, as well as Rick Warren. The history of recent evangelicalism is about more than evangelicals themselves. Born-again Christianity provided alternately a language, a medium, and a foil by which Americans came to terms with their times.Less
Recent America was awash in a sea of evangelical talk. From the Jesus chic of the Seventies to the satanism scare of the Eighties, the culture wars of the Nineties, and the faith-based vogue of the early 2000s, born-again Christianity was seen and heard on many levels. This was a time of evangelical scares, born-again spectacles, and reconsiderations of the status of faith in politics and culture. The Age of Evangelicalism chronicles the place and meaning of born-again Christianity in the United States from the 1970s through the early twenty-first century. It pays special attention to the uses that a diverse array of Americans found for born-again faith—self-proclaimed evangelicals, to be sure, but also secular activists, scholars, journalists, artists, and politicians. The story features familiar actors, along with others not always associated with evangelical faith—Barack Obama, as well as Jimmy Carter; People for the American Way, as well as Moral Majority; and Bob Dylan, as well as Rick Warren. The history of recent evangelicalism is about more than evangelicals themselves. Born-again Christianity provided alternately a language, a medium, and a foil by which Americans came to terms with their times.
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/9780199777952.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
A two-part “evangelical problem” has persisted in American society. Many Americans have not acknowledged the full impact of born-again Protestantism on their society, or they have held a ...
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A two-part “evangelical problem” has persisted in American society. Many Americans have not acknowledged the full impact of born-again Protestantism on their society, or they have held a one-dimensional interpretation of it. Many self-described evangelicals, in turn, have not conceded their status as something other than an oppressed or marginalized minority. These viewpoints assume that evangelicalism is a narrow lane, either to be avoided or hogged. The way through this impasse is to widen the road, treating them as part of a larger story about how and why evangelicalism mattered in recent American history. Such was the nature of evangelicalism's impact on recent American culture and politics: It was pervasive enough that no one expression of evangelicalism could lay sole claim to it and it involved more than just avowed born-again Christians.Less
A two-part “evangelical problem” has persisted in American society. Many Americans have not acknowledged the full impact of born-again Protestantism on their society, or they have held a one-dimensional interpretation of it. Many self-described evangelicals, in turn, have not conceded their status as something other than an oppressed or marginalized minority. These viewpoints assume that evangelicalism is a narrow lane, either to be avoided or hogged. The way through this impasse is to widen the road, treating them as part of a larger story about how and why evangelicalism mattered in recent American history. Such was the nature of evangelicalism's impact on recent American culture and politics: It was pervasive enough that no one expression of evangelicalism could lay sole claim to it and it involved more than just avowed born-again Christians.
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/9780199777952.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
By 2012, the Age of Evangelicalism was winding down. It remained unclear, however, whether evangelicalism was waving or drowning in the sea of public influence. Evangelicals and evangelical observers ...
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By 2012, the Age of Evangelicalism was winding down. It remained unclear, however, whether evangelicalism was waving or drowning in the sea of public influence. Evangelicals and evangelical observers sometimes still acted like it was the Year of the Evangelical. Yet born-again Christianity now lacked the explanatory punch it had possessed in the 1970s, when old-time faith had managed to look like a new force in American politics and culture.Less
By 2012, the Age of Evangelicalism was winding down. It remained unclear, however, whether evangelicalism was waving or drowning in the sea of public influence. Evangelicals and evangelical observers sometimes still acted like it was the Year of the Evangelical. Yet born-again Christianity now lacked the explanatory punch it had possessed in the 1970s, when old-time faith had managed to look like a new force in American politics and culture.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258900
- eISBN:
- 9780190258931
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258900.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
A billion dollar a year polling industry purports to tell us not only which political candidates will win, but also how we are practicing our faith. How many Americans went to church last week? Have ...
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A billion dollar a year polling industry purports to tell us not only which political candidates will win, but also how we are practicing our faith. How many Americans went to church last week? Have they been born again? Is there a war on Christmas? Are atheists winning? Do miracles happen? No matter the topic, pollsters have the answer. It has become easy to take all of this for granted. And yet, we must ask if all is quite what it seems. Response rates have plummeted. A large majority of the public doubts that polls can be trusted. The time has come for serious questions to be asked about the polling industry’s role in American religion. Understanding the place of polls and surveys in American religion requires stepping back in time, looking at how this method of seeking information began, and what happened to bring us to where we are today. This book traces that history, examining the powerful rise of polling, and tackling the difficult questions of how we should think about polls and surveys in American religion today.Less
A billion dollar a year polling industry purports to tell us not only which political candidates will win, but also how we are practicing our faith. How many Americans went to church last week? Have they been born again? Is there a war on Christmas? Are atheists winning? Do miracles happen? No matter the topic, pollsters have the answer. It has become easy to take all of this for granted. And yet, we must ask if all is quite what it seems. Response rates have plummeted. A large majority of the public doubts that polls can be trusted. The time has come for serious questions to be asked about the polling industry’s role in American religion. Understanding the place of polls and surveys in American religion requires stepping back in time, looking at how this method of seeking information began, and what happened to bring us to where we are today. This book traces that history, examining the powerful rise of polling, and tackling the difficult questions of how we should think about polls and surveys in American religion today.
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/9780199942251.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the main themes in evangelical sex manuals published over the past sixty years as compared to secular sex manuals. The manuals present a uniquely Protestant approach to sex. The ...
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This chapter examines the main themes in evangelical sex manuals published over the past sixty years as compared to secular sex manuals. The manuals present a uniquely Protestant approach to sex. The most authoritative text on sexuality, the authors of these manuals claim, is the Bible. Scripture contains everything a believer needs to know about sex. Evangelical sex manual authors defend their advice as the authentic Christian approach unsullied by distorted visions of sexuality that arose from misinterpretation of Scripture or false Christian traditions (meaning Catholicism) that have erroneously emphasized celibacy or denigrated the body. The manuals are devoted to providing in detailed instructions about sexual bodies, but the authors are simultaneously committed to larger theological and social issues defining themselves against other Christian and secular approaches to sex, and witnessing that long-term sexual satisfaction is only possible when the Bible is also in the marriage.Less
This chapter examines the main themes in evangelical sex manuals published over the past sixty years as compared to secular sex manuals. The manuals present a uniquely Protestant approach to sex. The most authoritative text on sexuality, the authors of these manuals claim, is the Bible. Scripture contains everything a believer needs to know about sex. Evangelical sex manual authors defend their advice as the authentic Christian approach unsullied by distorted visions of sexuality that arose from misinterpretation of Scripture or false Christian traditions (meaning Catholicism) that have erroneously emphasized celibacy or denigrated the body. The manuals are devoted to providing in detailed instructions about sexual bodies, but the authors are simultaneously committed to larger theological and social issues defining themselves against other Christian and secular approaches to sex, and witnessing that long-term sexual satisfaction is only possible when the Bible is also in the marriage.
Lee Matthew T., Poloma Margaret M., and Stephen G. Post
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199931880
- eISBN:
- 9780199980611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931880.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter focuses on spiritual transformation and personal experiences of a loving God. Spiritual transformation usually begins in a quest for the sacred, often leading to the experience that ...
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This chapter focuses on spiritual transformation and personal experiences of a loving God. Spiritual transformation usually begins in a quest for the sacred, often leading to the experience that Protestant evangelicals have called “being born again.” Being born again is one example of the broader social psychological concept known as “primary spiritual transformation.” Spiritual transformations, often accompanied by a persistent lifelong calling, are fortified with secondary changes in pathways that people take to the sacred. The chapter explores the statistical relationship between some select variables that reflect spiritual transformations, including being born again, a sense of divine call and destiny, and an accompanying sense of existential well-being.Less
This chapter focuses on spiritual transformation and personal experiences of a loving God. Spiritual transformation usually begins in a quest for the sacred, often leading to the experience that Protestant evangelicals have called “being born again.” Being born again is one example of the broader social psychological concept known as “primary spiritual transformation.” Spiritual transformations, often accompanied by a persistent lifelong calling, are fortified with secondary changes in pathways that people take to the sacred. The chapter explores the statistical relationship between some select variables that reflect spiritual transformations, including being born again, a sense of divine call and destiny, and an accompanying sense of existential well-being.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258900
- eISBN:
- 9780190258931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258900.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The polling industry cranks out information about American religion and purports to chart accurate trends, but pollsters rarely discuss how the quality of polls has plummeted. The larger question to ...
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The polling industry cranks out information about American religion and purports to chart accurate trends, but pollsters rarely discuss how the quality of polls has plummeted. The larger question to be addressed is how this fascination with polling began, why it gained such attention, and what kind of “American religion” did it invent? This chapter previews the book, indicating why the story of religious polling needs to begin more than a century ago.Less
The polling industry cranks out information about American religion and purports to chart accurate trends, but pollsters rarely discuss how the quality of polls has plummeted. The larger question to be addressed is how this fascination with polling began, why it gained such attention, and what kind of “American religion” did it invent? This chapter previews the book, indicating why the story of religious polling needs to begin more than a century ago.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190258900
- eISBN:
- 9780190258931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190258900.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter covers what many observers now describe as the heyday of polling about religion. It starts in the middle 1970s and goes through the late 1990s. It tells the story of polling about Jimmy ...
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This chapter covers what many observers now describe as the heyday of polling about religion. It starts in the middle 1970s and goes through the late 1990s. It tells the story of polling about Jimmy Carter playing an important role in defining American evangelical Protestantism and making it into a much larger and potentially more powerful movement than it had been before. George Gallup Jr. was the key figure in this development. Gallup Jr. embraced evangelicalism, evangelicals trusted him, and by 1978 the Gallup Organization conducted one of the most important national polls about evangelicalism. Over the next several years, Gallup conducted major studies for the Robert Schuller Ministries, spoke at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, appeared on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club,” published a newsletter on religion, and provided additional information about religious television, spiritualty, the churched, and the unchurched.Less
This chapter covers what many observers now describe as the heyday of polling about religion. It starts in the middle 1970s and goes through the late 1990s. It tells the story of polling about Jimmy Carter playing an important role in defining American evangelical Protestantism and making it into a much larger and potentially more powerful movement than it had been before. George Gallup Jr. was the key figure in this development. Gallup Jr. embraced evangelicalism, evangelicals trusted him, and by 1978 the Gallup Organization conducted one of the most important national polls about evangelicalism. Over the next several years, Gallup conducted major studies for the Robert Schuller Ministries, spoke at Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral, appeared on Pat Robertson’s “700 Club,” published a newsletter on religion, and provided additional information about religious television, spiritualty, the churched, and the unchurched.
