tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post5511252862937523051..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Authority and American ReligionPaul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-588856817064625062014-03-06T14:23:44.351-07:002014-03-06T14:23:44.351-07:00Thanks for this, Jonathan.
Not to further compli...Thanks for this, Jonathan. <br /><br />Not to further complicate matters, but Matthew Bowman's wonderful new book on "liberal evangelicalism," The Urban Pulpit (Oxford), looks at a group of pastors and others who thought new religious authority could best be established through mediation between fundamentalism and (secular) progressivism. His book will go a long way in breaking us out of the "liberal versus evangelical" idea, which has the tendency of reducing liberal Protestant complexity.Mark T. Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13687874101232569510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-78824482229709659392014-03-06T12:12:12.754-07:002014-03-06T12:12:12.754-07:00Hi Elesha,
Thanks for those comments!
On that fir...Hi Elesha,<br />Thanks for those comments!<br /><br />On that first point, I don't disagree. In fact, I'm sure the ghost of Brad Gregory's _Unintended Reformation_ is in the background insisting these are simply more recent outcroppings of the same problems that came up in the Reformation. On the other hand, as reviewers of Gregory have pointed out, it's not as if the Late Medieval Church was monolithic. The opportunity only arose for the Reformation because of problems that were both institutional and theoretical. So, the problem of authority only gets recycled. And perhaps it's the "How It Gets Addressed" question that's interesting.<br /><br />For evangelicals (if I were to venture out on a limb), I think I would agree that there's enough of a "family resemblance" that allows for grouping them together. There's always differences of emphasis and interpretation, but there is some coherence. I understand Worthen's critique to be that what holds them together is itself incoherent, which then prompts other, ad hoc responses and sub-cultural behaviors.<br /><br />Nice contrast in point 3 by describing the Mainline as a coherence without a category. I yield to your knowledge of the Mainline in this period (Hmm...I wonder if there's a good book on a major journal for the Mainline in this era? ) Insofar as those denominations shared in the "liberal consensus", Marsden is suggesting they encountered some of the larger intellectual problems. As to whether those problems were felt at the grassroots (the culturally relevant level), you would be better poised to assess.<br /> Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14372548161435515544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-72034291683817970872014-03-06T11:16:00.932-07:002014-03-06T11:16:00.932-07:00Thanks, Jonathan! This post will be really helpful...Thanks, Jonathan! This post will be really helpful as I work to add my own reviews to the pile. It also raises a number of thoughts:<br /><br />Doesn't the problem of authority go back at least to the Reformation? I teach it that way in my church history class. So you want to ditch church hierarchy for sola scriptura. How's that going to work, exactly?<br /><br />Is the whole idea of intellectual coherence a chimera? You can either define a tradition so narrowly that it has such coherence, or you can study traditions at what I'd call a more culturally relevant level--people who identify as evangelical, for example--and necessarily find a lack of intellectual coherence. Is this incoherence a problem within the tradition or just a reflection of a widened scope of inquiry? Maybe it can be both.<br /><br />The mainline in the 1950s is an interesting parallel, in part because there was no labeled "mainline" that I can find before 1960. If "evangelical" is frequently a category without coherence, "mainline" is at least sometimes a coherence without a named category. I don't know what this means, but I find it striking. Eleshahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03764991021577652939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-58277470957033706272014-03-06T10:25:33.770-07:002014-03-06T10:25:33.770-07:00After posting this, I saw that John Fea had posted...After posting this, I saw that John Fea had posted links to several additional reviews at "The Way of Improvement" blog:<br />http://www.philipvickersfithian.com/2014/03/reviews-of-marsdens-twilight-of.html<br /><br />Thanks, John!Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14372548161435515544noreply@blogger.com