Mark Chaves
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691146850
- eISBN:
- 9781400839957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691146850.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the decline in Liberal Protestant denominations in recent decades. This is one of the best known religious trends of the last several decades, but it often is misunderstood. ...
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This chapter examines the decline in Liberal Protestant denominations in recent decades. This is one of the best known religious trends of the last several decades, but it often is misunderstood. Contrary to what many believe, this decline has not occurred because droves of people have been leaving more liberal denominations to join more conservative religious groups. Nor does the decline of liberal denominations mean that liberal religious ideas are waning. Indeed, as a set of ideas, religious liberalism steadily has gained ground in the United States, whatever the fate of the denominations most closely associated with it. Indeed, Americans' increasing endorsement of theological liberalism's core tenets—appreciating other religions, adjusting traditional belief and practice to modern circumstances, rejecting biblical literalism—shows that religious liberalism is a more potent cultural presence than many realize.Less
This chapter examines the decline in Liberal Protestant denominations in recent decades. This is one of the best known religious trends of the last several decades, but it often is misunderstood. Contrary to what many believe, this decline has not occurred because droves of people have been leaving more liberal denominations to join more conservative religious groups. Nor does the decline of liberal denominations mean that liberal religious ideas are waning. Indeed, as a set of ideas, religious liberalism steadily has gained ground in the United States, whatever the fate of the denominations most closely associated with it. Indeed, Americans' increasing endorsement of theological liberalism's core tenets—appreciating other religions, adjusting traditional belief and practice to modern circumstances, rejecting biblical literalism—shows that religious liberalism is a more potent cultural presence than many realize.
Gary Scott Smith
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199738953
- eISBN:
- 9780199897346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738953.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
During the Gilded Age, a plethora of books and sermons provided portraits of heaven. Through their preaching and publications, urban revivalists, led by Dwight L. Moody, and prominent pastors, most ...
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During the Gilded Age, a plethora of books and sermons provided portraits of heaven. Through their preaching and publications, urban revivalists, led by Dwight L. Moody, and prominent pastors, most notably Henry Ward Beecher, T. Dewitt Talmage, and Phillips Brooks, extolled the glories of the celestial realm and urged people to prepare properly for heaven. Theological liberalism, especially “Progressive Orthodoxy,” attracted many proponents who either repudiated or downplayed the conventional notion of hell and salvation. Religious leaders debated whether those who did not hear the gospel message on earth would have a chance to respond to it after death. Whether they were evangelicals or liberals, Gilded Age Christians emphasized the happiness, holiness, and love of heaven. They also accentuated, more than earlier generations, the concepts of vigorous and varied activities, progress, and personal growth, themes that became dominant in Progressive portraits of paradise.Less
During the Gilded Age, a plethora of books and sermons provided portraits of heaven. Through their preaching and publications, urban revivalists, led by Dwight L. Moody, and prominent pastors, most notably Henry Ward Beecher, T. Dewitt Talmage, and Phillips Brooks, extolled the glories of the celestial realm and urged people to prepare properly for heaven. Theological liberalism, especially “Progressive Orthodoxy,” attracted many proponents who either repudiated or downplayed the conventional notion of hell and salvation. Religious leaders debated whether those who did not hear the gospel message on earth would have a chance to respond to it after death. Whether they were evangelicals or liberals, Gilded Age Christians emphasized the happiness, holiness, and love of heaven. They also accentuated, more than earlier generations, the concepts of vigorous and varied activities, progress, and personal growth, themes that became dominant in Progressive portraits of paradise.
Graham Neville
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198269779
- eISBN:
- 9780191683794
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269779.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter discusses the important events which contributed to the formation of Edward Hick's character and opinions. It notes that Hicks's day-to-day experiences within the confined community life ...
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This chapter discusses the important events which contributed to the formation of Edward Hick's character and opinions. It notes that Hicks's day-to-day experiences within the confined community life of small colleges which were only just beginning to feel the wind of change affected his religious commitment. It further notes that during Hicks's childhood and adolescence, the excitements of the Oxford Movement has been succeeded by a period of reaction when, it has been said, dons turned from speculation in theology to speculation in railway shares. The chapter however stresses that the influence of the High Church party, led by Pusey and Liddon, remained strong and there was a continuing conflict between it and the theological liberalism represented by Benjamin Jowett at Balliol and by Arthur Stanley, the disciple of Arnold, who was important figure in the University of Oxford until he left to become Dean of Westminster.Less
This chapter discusses the important events which contributed to the formation of Edward Hick's character and opinions. It notes that Hicks's day-to-day experiences within the confined community life of small colleges which were only just beginning to feel the wind of change affected his religious commitment. It further notes that during Hicks's childhood and adolescence, the excitements of the Oxford Movement has been succeeded by a period of reaction when, it has been said, dons turned from speculation in theology to speculation in railway shares. The chapter however stresses that the influence of the High Church party, led by Pusey and Liddon, remained strong and there was a continuing conflict between it and the theological liberalism represented by Benjamin Jowett at Balliol and by Arthur Stanley, the disciple of Arnold, who was important figure in the University of Oxford until he left to become Dean of Westminster.
Joshua Mauldin
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780198867517
- eISBN:
- 9780191904288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198867517.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Religion and Society
This chapter explores how Karl Barth responded to the social crisis in Europe in the wake of the First World War. Barth’s experience as a pastor and professor early in the twentieth century led him ...
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This chapter explores how Karl Barth responded to the social crisis in Europe in the wake of the First World War. Barth’s experience as a pastor and professor early in the twentieth century led him to seek an alternative to nineteenth-century theological liberalism, which he had imbibed during his own education. Many of Barth’s critics, as well as his supporters, have mistakenly assumed that Barth’s rejection of theological liberalism entailed and included a matching rejection of political liberalism. This chapter argues that Barth supported democratic liberalism even while rejecting theological liberalism. Focusing primarily on his early lectures, the chapter examines how Barth’s vision of the legitimacy of modern politics was not in tension with his theological project; on the contrary his politics afforded him the theological freedom to work toward a renewal of dogmatic orthodoxy.Less
This chapter explores how Karl Barth responded to the social crisis in Europe in the wake of the First World War. Barth’s experience as a pastor and professor early in the twentieth century led him to seek an alternative to nineteenth-century theological liberalism, which he had imbibed during his own education. Many of Barth’s critics, as well as his supporters, have mistakenly assumed that Barth’s rejection of theological liberalism entailed and included a matching rejection of political liberalism. This chapter argues that Barth supported democratic liberalism even while rejecting theological liberalism. Focusing primarily on his early lectures, the chapter examines how Barth’s vision of the legitimacy of modern politics was not in tension with his theological project; on the contrary his politics afforded him the theological freedom to work toward a renewal of dogmatic orthodoxy.
David W. Bebbington and David Ceri Jones (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199664832
- eISBN:
- 9780191765391
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664832.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religious Studies
Historians have sometimes argued, and popular discourse certainly assumes, that evangelicalism and fundamentalism are identical. In the twenty-first century, when Islamic fundamentalism is at the ...
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Historians have sometimes argued, and popular discourse certainly assumes, that evangelicalism and fundamentalism are identical. In the twenty-first century, when Islamic fundamentalism is at the centre of the world's attention, whether or not evangelicalism should be seen as the Christian version of fundamentalism is an important matter for public understanding. The essays that make up this book analyse this central question. Drawing on empirical evidence from many parts of the United Kingdom and from across the course of the twentieth century, the essays show that fundamentalism certainly existed in Britain, that evangelicals did sometimes show tendencies in a fundamentalist direction, but that evangelicalism in Britain cannot simply be equated with fundamentalism. The evangelical movement within Protestantism that arose in the wake of the eighteenth-century revival exerted an immense influence on British society over the two subsequent centuries. Christian fundamentalism, by contrast, had its origins in the United States following the publication of The Fundamentals, a series of pamphlets issued to ministers between 1910 and 1915 that was funded by California oilmen. While there was considerable British participation in writing the series, the term ‘fundamentalist’ was invented in an exclusively American context when, in 1920, it was coined to describe the conservative critics of theological liberalism. The fundamentalists in Britain formed only a small section of evangelical opinion that declined over time.Less
Historians have sometimes argued, and popular discourse certainly assumes, that evangelicalism and fundamentalism are identical. In the twenty-first century, when Islamic fundamentalism is at the centre of the world's attention, whether or not evangelicalism should be seen as the Christian version of fundamentalism is an important matter for public understanding. The essays that make up this book analyse this central question. Drawing on empirical evidence from many parts of the United Kingdom and from across the course of the twentieth century, the essays show that fundamentalism certainly existed in Britain, that evangelicals did sometimes show tendencies in a fundamentalist direction, but that evangelicalism in Britain cannot simply be equated with fundamentalism. The evangelical movement within Protestantism that arose in the wake of the eighteenth-century revival exerted an immense influence on British society over the two subsequent centuries. Christian fundamentalism, by contrast, had its origins in the United States following the publication of The Fundamentals, a series of pamphlets issued to ministers between 1910 and 1915 that was funded by California oilmen. While there was considerable British participation in writing the series, the term ‘fundamentalist’ was invented in an exclusively American context when, in 1920, it was coined to describe the conservative critics of theological liberalism. The fundamentalists in Britain formed only a small section of evangelical opinion that declined over time.
Sarah Azaransky
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190262204
- eISBN:
- 9780190262235
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190262204.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Benjamin Mays was a groundbreaking religious intellectual whose theological perspective was shaped by world travel. His work and travel in the 1930s show how the international roots of the civil ...
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Benjamin Mays was a groundbreaking religious intellectual whose theological perspective was shaped by world travel. His work and travel in the 1930s show how the international roots of the civil rights movement were fed by various intellectual streams including theological liberalism, a radical tradition of black God-talk, and the “Howard School,” the extraordinary collection of intellectuals at Howard University during this period. His exposure to India and his later work with the international ecumenical movement revealed to Mays connections between American racism and the experiences of imperialism and colonialism. A Christian theologian, he outlined a justice-oriented black social Christianity, interested in and responsive to social realities. He also demonstrated that comparative religious studies would be an essential tool for American Christians who wanted to use liberative lessons from other cultures and religious traditions in the U.S. context.Less
Benjamin Mays was a groundbreaking religious intellectual whose theological perspective was shaped by world travel. His work and travel in the 1930s show how the international roots of the civil rights movement were fed by various intellectual streams including theological liberalism, a radical tradition of black God-talk, and the “Howard School,” the extraordinary collection of intellectuals at Howard University during this period. His exposure to India and his later work with the international ecumenical movement revealed to Mays connections between American racism and the experiences of imperialism and colonialism. A Christian theologian, he outlined a justice-oriented black social Christianity, interested in and responsive to social realities. He also demonstrated that comparative religious studies would be an essential tool for American Christians who wanted to use liberative lessons from other cultures and religious traditions in the U.S. context.
Warren Goldstein
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300102215
- eISBN:
- 9780300135053
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300102215.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter describes the Stanton Street Baptist Church in downtown Manhattan, which had undergone physical moves as well as congregational transformations. From the early teens, it had stood for ...
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This chapter describes the Stanton Street Baptist Church in downtown Manhattan, which had undergone physical moves as well as congregational transformations. From the early teens, it had stood for theological liberalism against the fundamentalist tide that swept over much American Protestantism in the 1920s. Its best-known minister had been Harry Emerson Fosdick, a remarkable preacher who became deeply embroiled in the modernist-fundamentalist controversies of that decade. Forced to resign from the First Presbyterian Church in New York, Fosdick was hired as the preaching minister by the Park Avenue Baptist Church, Riverside's immediate predecessor. He set conditions: first, no doctrinal or denominational barriers could be placed in the way of potential members; second, the congregation had to commit to a new building.Less
This chapter describes the Stanton Street Baptist Church in downtown Manhattan, which had undergone physical moves as well as congregational transformations. From the early teens, it had stood for theological liberalism against the fundamentalist tide that swept over much American Protestantism in the 1920s. Its best-known minister had been Harry Emerson Fosdick, a remarkable preacher who became deeply embroiled in the modernist-fundamentalist controversies of that decade. Forced to resign from the First Presbyterian Church in New York, Fosdick was hired as the preaching minister by the Park Avenue Baptist Church, Riverside's immediate predecessor. He set conditions: first, no doctrinal or denominational barriers could be placed in the way of potential members; second, the congregation had to commit to a new building.
Ian Ker
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780198717522
- eISBN:
- 9780191786952
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717522.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Theology
John Henry Newman is often described as ‘the Father of the Second Vatican Council’. It is true that there is only one place in the Council’s documents where his direct influence can be detected, but ...
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John Henry Newman is often described as ‘the Father of the Second Vatican Council’. It is true that there is only one place in the Council’s documents where his direct influence can be detected, but nevertheless he anticipated in his writings most of the Council’s major documents, as well as being an inspiration to the theologians who were behind them. His writings, therefore, offer an illuminating commentary both on the teachings of the Council and the way these have been implemented and interpreted in the post-conciliar period. This book, then, is the first sustained attempt to consider what Newman’s reaction to Vatican II would have been. This book argues that Newman would have greatly welcomed the reforms of the Council, but would have seen them in the light of his theory of doctrinal development, insisting that they must certainly be understood as changes but changes in continuity rather than discontinuity with the Church’s tradition and past teachings. He would therefore have endorsed the so-called ‘hermeneutic of reform in continuity’ in regard to Vatican II, a hermeneutic first formulated by Pope Benedict XVI and subsequently confirmed by his successor, Pope Francis, and rejected both ‘progressive’ and ultra-conservative interpretations of the Council as a revolutionary event. Newman believed that what Councils fail to speak about is of great importance, and so a final chapter considers the kind of evangelization—;a topic notably absent from the documents of Vatican II—;Newman thought appropriate in the face of secularization.Less
John Henry Newman is often described as ‘the Father of the Second Vatican Council’. It is true that there is only one place in the Council’s documents where his direct influence can be detected, but nevertheless he anticipated in his writings most of the Council’s major documents, as well as being an inspiration to the theologians who were behind them. His writings, therefore, offer an illuminating commentary both on the teachings of the Council and the way these have been implemented and interpreted in the post-conciliar period. This book, then, is the first sustained attempt to consider what Newman’s reaction to Vatican II would have been. This book argues that Newman would have greatly welcomed the reforms of the Council, but would have seen them in the light of his theory of doctrinal development, insisting that they must certainly be understood as changes but changes in continuity rather than discontinuity with the Church’s tradition and past teachings. He would therefore have endorsed the so-called ‘hermeneutic of reform in continuity’ in regard to Vatican II, a hermeneutic first formulated by Pope Benedict XVI and subsequently confirmed by his successor, Pope Francis, and rejected both ‘progressive’ and ultra-conservative interpretations of the Council as a revolutionary event. Newman believed that what Councils fail to speak about is of great importance, and so a final chapter considers the kind of evangelization—;a topic notably absent from the documents of Vatican II—;Newman thought appropriate in the face of secularization.
Michael R. Watts
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198229698
- eISBN:
- 9780191744754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229698.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter focuses on Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most popular Nonconformist preacher of the reign of Queen Victoria and the strongest opponent of attempts to modify, explain away, or repudiate ...
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This chapter focuses on Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most popular Nonconformist preacher of the reign of Queen Victoria and the strongest opponent of attempts to modify, explain away, or repudiate traditional Evangelical teaching on eternal punishment. For over thirty years, Spurgeon kept an eagle eye out for any of his fellow Dissenters who showed signs of straying from his own narrow brand of conservative Evangelicalism. By the end of 1870, he became increasingly worried by the growth of theological liberalism in the churches, and increasingly bellicose in his call to arms to stop the spread of its insidious influence.Less
This chapter focuses on Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most popular Nonconformist preacher of the reign of Queen Victoria and the strongest opponent of attempts to modify, explain away, or repudiate traditional Evangelical teaching on eternal punishment. For over thirty years, Spurgeon kept an eagle eye out for any of his fellow Dissenters who showed signs of straying from his own narrow brand of conservative Evangelicalism. By the end of 1870, he became increasingly worried by the growth of theological liberalism in the churches, and increasingly bellicose in his call to arms to stop the spread of its insidious influence.
Markku Ruotsila
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199372997
- eISBN:
- 9780199373024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199372997.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This final chapter summarizes the book’s argument, namely that there is a long continuity in fundamentalist Christian engagement with US and world politics that goes back to the 1930s, that this ...
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This final chapter summarizes the book’s argument, namely that there is a long continuity in fundamentalist Christian engagement with US and world politics that goes back to the 1930s, that this political engagement emerged originally over faith-based opposition to the New Deal and was perpetuated in the Cold War era’s faith-based anticommunism. More significantly, it was Carl McIntire and his grassroots separatist fundamentalist followers rather than his more moderate and elite-oriented new evangelical rivals who forged a close alliance with Republican conservatives in the latter 1950s, an enduring alliance that fed directly into the 1970s emergence of the New Right and the New Christian Right.Less
This final chapter summarizes the book’s argument, namely that there is a long continuity in fundamentalist Christian engagement with US and world politics that goes back to the 1930s, that this political engagement emerged originally over faith-based opposition to the New Deal and was perpetuated in the Cold War era’s faith-based anticommunism. More significantly, it was Carl McIntire and his grassroots separatist fundamentalist followers rather than his more moderate and elite-oriented new evangelical rivals who forged a close alliance with Republican conservatives in the latter 1950s, an enduring alliance that fed directly into the 1970s emergence of the New Right and the New Christian Right.