The Many Faces of Pluralism in Modern America

1
The Many Faces of Pluralism in Modern America

• Chapter 16

2
Postmodernism

• Though nebulous in definition, postmodernism can
  be described as an abandonment of absolute
  authority, particularly any authority outside
  personal experience (234)
• Postmodernist critique involves questioning all
  authority that is not local and autonomous

3
The Decline of the Mainline

• Postmodernism is one reason behind a perceived
  decline in Church membership in mainline
  Protestant denominations
• When the focus turns from the denominational to
  the home as the place of spiritual resource,
  denominations have felt the effect in the pews
  and the pocketbook
• The drop in the birth-rate also affected the
  numbers (given the advent of birth control)
• New immigration, low birth-rates and a growing
  postmodern hermeneutic led to a reconfiguration
  of Protestant churches in America

4
Evangelical Renaissance

• Being born again (referring to the singular
  experience of saving conversion), a term now
  commonly known, became the de facto motto of
  evangelicals in America
• The election of President Carter in 1976 put
  evangelicalism on both the religious and
  political map
• Evangelicalism was postmodern in its
  individualism, but traditional in its willingness
  to hold onto certain absolutes, namely those
  known through personal conversion

5
Evangelical Permutations

• Increasingly put off by the elevation of reason
  and science, evangelicals found the need to
  engage in political action to redirect Americas
  course away from spiritual bankruptcy
• Often this manifested itself in line with
  Fundamentalism
• Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority and
  Southern Baptist preacher, and Pat Robertson of
  the Christian Coalition saw the necessity of
  conflating a conservative evangelicalism with
  non-denominational political action (237) in
  order to battle abortion and gay rights
• Others responded to postmodernism with an
  espousal of the seeker movement
• Bill Hybels, founder of the Willow Creek
  Community Church, founded his ministry on
  discerning what it was adults needed out of their
  church experience

6
Pentecostalism in the 20th Century

• Henry Pitney Van Dusen believed Pentecostalism
  had the capacity to overtake other religious
  forces, given its focus on charismatic experience
  and individualized gifts of the spirit
• Within this impulse, Kathryn Kuhlman and Oral
  Roberts began faith healing ministries
• However, charismatic trends were by no means
  confined to traditional Protestant Pentecostal
  traditions, but began to cut across
  denominational lines
• Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches began
  seeing charismatic expressions appear
• New denominations or fellowships (which
  classically link like-minded congregations
  (239)) also formed such as the Calvary Chapel and
  Vineyard Christian Fellowship

7
Evangelicalism in Pop Culture

• The Left Behind series has popularized the
  premillennial dispensationalist position of the
  19th and early 20th century Authors Tim LaHaye
  and Jerry Jenkins have focused on the Rapture as
  the crucial Christian moment and also as a great
  literary plot device

8
Religion in the Public Eye

• As the evangelical movement came increasingly
  into prominence and recognition, so did the idea
  that morality and religious issues were a matter
  of public and political policy
• Opinions on hot-bed issues were by no means
  uniform
• Abortion and homosexuality are the two issues
  that receive the most attention by religious
  pundits
• For abortion, sides have formed, perceived to
  occur along religious lines given that much of
  the pro-life rhetoric is religious in nature
• Gay rights (including the right to marry, avoid
  discrimination in the workplace) has also proved
  contentious, though both sides use religious and
  secular reasoning and language (see p. 243 for
  more) gay clergy is also an issue of specific
  religious import being debated in churches