Download or read book The Juvenilization of American Christianity written by Thomas Bergler and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04-20 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pop worship music. Falling in love with Jesus. Mission trips. Wearing jeans and T-shirts to church. Spiritual searching and church hopping. Faith-based political activism. Seeker-sensitive outreach. These now-commonplace elements of American church life all began as innovative ways to reach young people, yet they have gradually become accepted as important parts of a spiritual ideal for all ages. What on earth has happened? In The Juvenilization of American Christianity Thomas Bergler traces the way in which, over seventy-five years, youth ministries have breathed new vitality into four major American church traditions -- African American, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Bergler shows too how this "juvenilization" of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. Bergler s critique further offers constructive suggestions for taming juvenilization. Watch the trailer:
Download or read book The Transformation of American Religion The Story of a Late Twentieth Century Awakening written by Amanda Porterfield Professor of Religious Studies University of Wyoming and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2001-04-05 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As recently as a few decades ago, most people would have described America as a predominantly Protestant nation. Today, we are home to a colorful mix of religious faiths and practices, from a resurgent Catholic Church and a rapidly growing Islam to all forms of Buddhism and many other non-Christian religions. How did this startling transformation take place? A great many factors contributed to this transformation, writes Amanda Porterfield in this engaging look at religion in contemporary America. Religious activism, disillusionment with American culture stemming from the Vietnam war, the influx of Buddhist ideas, a heightened consciousness of gender, and the vastly broadened awareness of non-Christian religions arising from the growth of religious studies programs--all have served to undermine Protestant hegemony in the United States. But the single most important factor, says Porterfield, was the very success of Protestant ways of thinking: emphasis on the individual's relationship with God, tension between spiritual life and religious institutions, egalitarian ideas about spiritual life, and belief in the practical benefits of spirituality. Distrust of religious institutions, for instance, helped fuel a religious counterculture--the tendency to define spiritual truth against the dangers or inadequacies of the surrounding culture--and Protestantism's pragmatic view of spirituality played into the tendency to see the main function of religion as therapeutic. For anyone interested in how and why the American religious landscape has been so dramatically altered in the last forty years, The Transformation of Religion in America offers a coherent and persuasive analysis.
Download or read book The Transformation of American Religion written by Alan Wolfe and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-04 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this astounding account, a leading sociologist demonstrates that religion in America has become so tamed and softened that it hardly serves any of its original functions.
Download or read book Bad Religion written by Ross Douthat and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the decline of Christianity in America since the 1950s, posing controversial arguments about the role of heresy in the nation's downfall while calling for a revival of traditional Christian practices.
Download or read book White Too Long written by Robert P. Jones and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "WHITE TOO LONG draws on history, statistics, and memoir to urge that white Christians reckon with the racism of the past and the amnesia of the present to restore a Christian identity free of the taint of white supremacy"--
Download or read book The End of White Christian America written by Robert P. Jones and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-07-12 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and columnist for the Atlantic describes how white Protestant Christians have declined in influence and power since the 1990s and explores the effect this has had on America, "--NoveList.
Download or read book Christians Against Christianity written by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely and galvanizing work that examines how right-wing evangelical Christians have veered from an admirable faith to a pernicious, destructive ideology. Today’s right-wing Evangelical Christianity stands as the very antithesis of the message of Jesus Christ. In his new book, Christians Against Christianity, best-selling author and religious scholar Obery M. Hendricks Jr. challenges right-wing evangelicals on the terrain of their own religious claims, exposing the falsehoods, contradictions, and misuses of the Bible that are embedded in their rabid homophobia, their poorly veiled racism and demonizing of immigrants and Muslims, and their ungodly alliance with big business against the interests of American workers. He scathingly indicts the religious leaders who helped facilitate the rise of the notoriously unchristian Donald Trump, likening them to the “court jesters” and hypocritical priestly sycophants of bygone eras who unquestioningly supported their sovereigns’ every act, no matter how hateful or destructive to those they were supposed to serve. In the wake of the deadly insurrectionist attack on the US Capitol, Christians Against Christianity is a clarion call to stand up to the hypocrisy of the evangelical Right, as well as a guide for Christians to return their faith to the life-affirming message that Jesus brought and died for. What Hendricks offers is a provocative diagnosis, an urgent warning that right-wing evangelicals’ aspirations for Christian nationalist supremacy are a looming threat, not only to Christian decency but to democracy itself. What they offer to America is anything but good news.
Download or read book The Distinctiveness of Religion in American Law written by Kathleen A. Brady and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-23 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, religion's traditional distinctiveness under the First Amendment has been challenged by courts and scholars. As America grows more secular and as religious and nonreligious convictions are increasingly seen as interchangeable, many have questioned whether special treatment is still fair. In its recent decisions, the Supreme Court has made clear that religion will continue to be treated differently, but we lack a persuasive account of religion's uniqueness that can justify this difference. This book aims to develop such an account. Drawing on founding era thought illumined by theology, philosophy of religion, and comparative religion, it describes what is at stake in our tradition of religious freedom in a way that can be appreciated by the religious and nonreligious alike. From this account, it develops a new framework for religion clause decision making and explains the implications of this framework for current controversies regarding protections for religious conscience.
Download or read book The Restructuring of American Religion written by Robert Wuthnow and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The description for this book, The Restructuring of American Religion: Society and Faith since World War II, will be forthcoming.
Download or read book America s Four Gods written by Paul Froese and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite all the hype surrounding the "New Atheism," the United States remains one of the most religious nations on Earth. In fact, 95% of Americans believe in God--a level of agreement rarely seen in American life. The greatest divisions in America are not between atheists and believers, or even between people of different faiths. What divides us, this groundbreaking book shows, is how we conceive of God and the role He plays in our daily lives. America's Four Gods draws on the most wide-ranging, comprehensive, and illuminating survey of American's religious beliefs ever conducted to offer a systematic exploration of how Americans view God. Paul Froese and Christopher Bader argue that many of America's most intractable social and political divisions emerge from religious convictions that are deeply held but rarely openly discussed. Drawing upon original survey data from thousands of Americans and a wealth of in-depth interviews from all parts of the country, Froese and Bader trace America's cultural and political diversity to its ultimate source--differing opinions about God. They show that regardless of our religious tradition (or lack thereof), Americans worship four distinct types of God: The Authoritative God--who is both engaged in the world and judgmental; The Benevolent God--who loves and helps us in spite of our failings; The Critical God--who catalogs our sins but does not punish them (at least not in this life); and The Distant God--who stands apart from the world He created. The authors show that these four conceptions of God form the basis of our worldviews and are among the most powerful predictors of how we feel about the most contentious issues in American life. Accessible, insightful, and filled with the voices of ordinary Americans discussing their most personal religious beliefs, America's Four Gods provides an invaluable portrait of how we view God and therefore how we view virtually everything else.
Download or read book Modern American Religion Volume 3 written by Martin E. Marty and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vol. 1: The Irony of it all, 1893-1919; Vol. 2: The Noise of conflict, 1919-1941.
Download or read book Religion in Latin America written by Lee M. Penyak and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2015-02-19 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Understanding Religion written by Moojan Momen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-20 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the aid of hundreds of photographs, an in-depth exploration of the role of religion An innovative, thematic presentation of the role of religion in human society, from traditional cultures to the modern world, this comprehensive account will prove invaluable for students, experts or the interested general readers seeking an understanding of the nature and significance of diverse religious experience. Drawing from all major religious traditions in the world, as well as a variety of non-religious disciplines such as psychology, philosophy and sociology, Momen's informative study covers everything from art and history to theology and the World Wide Web.
Download or read book Christian Work in South America written by Committee on cooperation in Latin America and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Christian Work in South America Church and the community Religious education Literature Relations between foreign and national workers Special religious problems Cooperation and unity written by Committee on Cooperation in Latin America and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The American Exception Volume 1 written by Frank J. Lechner and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines what makes the United States an exceptional society, what impact it has had abroad, and why these issues have mattered to Americans. With historical and comparative evidence, Frank J. Lechner describes the distinctive path of American institutions and tracks changes in the country’s national identity in order to assess claims about America’s ‘exceptional’ qualities. The book analyzes several focal points of exceptionalist thinking about America, including the importance of US Constitution and the American sense of mission, and explores several aspects of America’s distinctive global impact; for example, in economics and film. In addition to discussing the distinctive global impact of the US, this first volume delves into religion, law, and sports.
Download or read book The Social Church written by Justin Wise and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2014-01-29 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know you can read online reviews of your church? How often have you talked about “reaching people where they are”—and realized that much of the time, they are on the Internet? We’ve been living in a digital world for quite a while now. Justin Wise speaks about social media as this generation's printing press—a revolutionary technology that can spread the gospel farther and faster than we can imagine. It’s time to take what we know (and admit what we don’t know) and learn together how to move forward as the church. Are you ready to think theologically about this digital age and reach people in a new way?
