Cover Image: After Evangelicalism

After Evangelicalism

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Member Reviews

I enjoyed the perspective of Christianity that is shared in this book. I was raised fundamentalist pentecostal and as I have become more educated and lived through more of life's experiences I find it refreshing to read another person's view of Christianity and what it stands for in our world today. The author's voice is clear and vibrant in the words of the book.

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This is a very informative read that will challenge some people’s beliefs. It was eye opening for me for sure. I am a strong believer in separation of church & state & love when Gushee says, “The church’s role under God is to pre Co & live the gospel, & to love God & neighbor. Church & state have overlapping arenas of concern but different responsibilities. When they meet, both need to remember who they are, & what their respective responsibilities are, & to respect the boundaries.” Also when he mentions that we have missed our opportunity to repent, it makes me sad. I’m hopeful that we are working toward repentance with a black female vice presidential candidate. We will see where that leads us.
Recommend reading this book if you think you might need your eyes opened to where Evangelical Christianity is headed.

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After Evangelicalism by David P. Gushee, has a very interesting topic and premise, especially for Christians who are turned off by the current public profile of what Christianity is.

In the introduction it touts itself as essentially a handbook for those of us who are seeking a return to a more Jesus-centric faith in which the followers are looking to do as Jesus would do (loving neighbors, caring for orphans & widows, loving the people on the fringes of society, etc), but seems really to be written as a textbook for faith leaders to help staunch the hemorrhaging of young people from Christianity altogether by pointing them to a less fundamentalist mentality.

There is a lot of information in this book on the roots of evangelicalism and the sometimes almost imperceptible differences between fundamentalism, evangelicalism and mainline Christianity, almost too much so. The details make it difficult to get to the "action".

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Liberal (Maybe Even Post-Christian?) Baptist Faith And Message. The Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Faith and Message is the doctrinal screed for the group, listing various points of beliefs with proof-texted "reference verses" claiming to provide "evidence" that this belief is grounded in their view of the Bible. As someone who was a Southern Baptist for the first couple decades of my life, it is a document I'm pretty familiar with. Here, Gushee effectively recreates it for the more anti-white-male crowd, arguing (correctly) against prosperity theology while openly embracing humanist and liberation theology. Ultimately, he makes enough solid points to be worthy of discussion, but due to the constant proof-texting (a flaw in many similar works, and one that in my own personal war against is an automatic one star deduction in my reviews) and near-constant near straw man level attacks against more conservative theologies is to be read with a healthy amount of skepticism. That noted, as I generally try to do with such texts, I'm trying to be a bit balanced here. A much more conservative reader will probably find much more to attack in this text, and a much more liberal reader will probably find much more to love. Overall a solid work of its type, and recommended for any interested in such discussions.

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David Gushee’s “After Evangelicalism” is a book I wish I had when I was encountering the disorienting faith shift of leaving conservative Evangelicalism and traveling to what I consider to be a more spiritual and relationally-saturated form of Christianity. Many Christians like myself have been sickened by the fact that our tribe subtly or overtly excludes people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and differing theological viewpoints. We can’t understand how pastors, or religious family members, can actively support leaders who act in ways, and share viewpoints, that are in complete contradiction to Jesus’ way of life. We have simply had enough. We have had enough of toxic religion, particularly of noxious, exclusionary religion. With academic excellence filled with incredible insights and a firm grasp of the struggles of those who are leaving Evangelicalism, David paves a brilliant way forward toward a more honest, inclusive, and radically Christlike way of being Christian in the world. I highly recommend this book!

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