What is the Gospel, and how is it to be commended? This question encapsulates the running theme of this collection of papers. In five essays, Professor Sell discusses some Puritans, Cambridge Platonists, Quakers and critics of deism and pantheism who sought to articulate the Gospel in the intellectual environment in which they had been set. Their underlying concerns are of continuing relevance in current ecumenical discussion, as are questions of doctrinal change and development, the subjects of two further papers. A paper on spirituality echoes some of the concerns of the Separatists, Platonists, and Quakers, but views them in relation to the widespread interest in the topic at the present time. Two papers concern the ways in which the Gospel is shared in ecumenical circles, with special reference to the Holy Spirit, ecclesiology, and the Reformed contribution to interconfessional discussion. A bibliographical survey of Reformed theology in twentieth-century Britain shows the range of interest within one ecclesiastical tradition, while such wider issues as contextual theology, inclusivism, and the peril of sectarianism are discussed in a further paper The book concludes with an attempt to answer the question, What is involved in proclaiming the Gospel of reconciliation today?

Evangelicalism has left its indelible mark on American history, politics, and culture. It is also true that currents of American populism and politics have shaped the nature and character of evangelicalism.

This story of evangelicalism in America is thus riddled with paradox. Despite the fact that evangelicals, perhaps more than any other religious group, have benefited from the First Amendment and the separation of church and state, several prominent evangelical leaders over the past half century have tried to abrogate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. And despite evangelicalism's legacy of concern for the poor, for women, and for minorities, some contemporary evangelicals have repudiated their own heritage of compassion and sacrifice stemming from Jesus' command to love the least of these.

In Evangelicalism in America Randall Balmer chronicles the history of evangelicalism--its origins and development as well as its diversity and contradictions. Within this lineage Balmer explores the social varieties and political implications of evangelicalism's inception as well as its present and paradoxical relationship with American culture and politics. Balmer debunks some of the cherished myths surrounding this distinctly American movement while also prophetically speaking about its future contributions to American life.

The past, present, and future of a movement in crisis

What exactly do we mean when we say "evangelical"? How should we understand this many-sided world religious phenomenon? How do recent American politics change that understanding?

Three scholars have been vital to our understanding of evangelicalism for the last forty years: Mark Noll, whose Scandal of the Evangelical Mind identified an earlier crisis point for American evangelicals; David Bebbington, whose "Bebbington Quadrilateral" remains the standard characterization of evangelicals used worldwide; and George Marsden, author of the groundbreaking Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism. Now, in Evangelicals, they combine key earlier material concerning the history of evangelicalism with their own new contributions about present controversies and also with fresh insights from other scholars. The result begins as a survey of how evangelicalism has been evaluated, but then leads into a discussion of the movement's perils and promise today.

Evangelicals provides an illuminating look at who evangelicals are, how evangelicalism has changed over time, and how evangelicalism continues to develop in sometimes surprising ways.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: One Word but Three Crises Mark A. Noll

Part I: The History of "Evangelical History"

1. The Evangelical Denomination George Marsden

2. The Nature of Evangelical Religion David Bebbington

3. The Essential Evangelicalism Dialectic: The Historiography of the Early Neo-Evangelical Movement and the Observer-ParticipantDilemma Douglas A. Sweeney

4. Evangelical Constituencies in North America and the World Mark Noll

5. The Evangelical Discovery of History David W. Bebbington

6. Roundtable: Re-examining David Bebbington's "Quadrilateral Thesis" Charlie Phillips, Kelly Cross Elliott, Thomas S. Kidd, AmandaPorterfield, Darren Dochuk, Mark A. Noll, Molly Worthen, and David W. Bebbington

7. Evangelicals and Unevangelicals: The Contested History of a Word Linford D. Fisher

Part II: The Current Crisis: Looking Back

8. A Strange Love? Or: How White Evangelicals Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Donald Michael S. Hamilton

9. Live by the Polls, Die by the Polls D. G. Hart

10. Donald Trump and Militant Evangelical Masculinity Kristin Kobes Du Mez

11. The "Weird" Fringe Is the Biggest Part of White Evangelicalism Fred Clark

Part III: The Current Crisis: Assessment

12. Is the Term "Evangelical" Redeemable? Thomas S. Kidd

13. Can Evangelicalism Survive Donald Trump? Timothy Keller

14. How to Escape from Roy Moore's Evangelicalism Molly Worthen

15. Are Black Christians Evangelicals? Jemar Tisby

16. To Be or Not to Be an Evangelical Brian C. Stiller

Part IV: Historians Seeking Perspective

17. On Not Mistaking One Part for the Whole: The Future of American Evangelicalism in a Global PerspectiveGeorge Marsden

18. Evangelicals and Recent Politics in Britain David Bebbington

19. World Cup or World Series? Mark Noll

Many American's today are taking note of the surprisingly strong political force that is the religious right. Controversial decisions by the government are met with hundreds of lobbyists, millions of dollars of advertising spending, and a powerful grassroots response. How has the
fundamentalist movement managed to resist the pressures of the scientific community and the draw of modern popular culture to hold on to their ultra-conservative Christian views? Understanding the movement's history is key to answering this question. Fundamentalism and American Culture has long
been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.

For Marsden, fundamentalists are not just religious conservatives; they are conservatives who are willing to take a stand and to fight. In Marsden's words (borrowed by Jerry Falwell), a fundamentalist is an evangelical who is angry about something. In the late nineteenth century American
Protestantism was gradually dividing between liberals who were accepting new scientific and higher critical views that contradicted the Bible and defenders of the more traditional evangelicalism. By the 1920s a full-fledged fundamentalist movement had developed in protest against theological
changes in the churches and changing mores in the culture. Building on networks of evangelists, Bible conferences, Bible institutes, and missions agencies, fundamentalists coalesced into a major protest movement that proved to have remarkable staying power.

For this new edition, a major new chapter compares fundamentalism since the 1970s to the fundamentalism of the 1920s, looking particularly at the extraordinary growth in political emphasis and power of the more recent movement. Never has it been more important to understand the history of
fundamentalism in our rapidly polarizing nation. Marsen's carefully researched and engrossing work remains the best way to do just that.