Schedule

Study Questions

Steven P. Miller
The Age of Evangelicalism: America's Born-Again Years

  1. What is this book about? How is its approach different from many other books on recent evangelicalism? Why does it reject the idea of an evangelical subculture?
  2. Why were the Seventies so central to understanding the rise of evangelicalism? What was the influence of the Watergate scandal? Describe the effects of evangelical growth and the Jesus Movement in the early '70s. How did evangelicalism become so prominent in 1970s culture?
  3. Who were the evangelical Left of the 1970s and what were their hopes? Describe the significance of Jimmy Carter's candidacy for president. Explain Francis Schaeffer's influence on the rise of conservative religious activism. How did a conservative evangelical agenda emerge?
  4. Identify Jerry Falwell. Describe the rapid appearance of the Christian Right. Describe Ronald Reagan's relationship with evangelicals. How was rightwing evangelicalism controversial in the early 1980s? Explain the satanism panic and the televangelical scandals of the era.
  5. Describe the impact and significance of Richard John Neuhaus's The Naked Public Square and James Davison Hunter's Culture Wars. Who were the "thoughtful evangelicals" and what was their critique? How did the commodification of evangelicalism produce an evangelical pop culture? Describe the rise of the Christian Coalition, the Promise Keepers, and Habitat for Humanity and their significance.
  6. Describe George W. Bush's faith and relationship with evangelicals. How did his election politicize evangelicals like they hadn't been since the early 1980s? Identify such markers of evangelical pop culture in the early 2000s like "WWJD," "purpose-driven," Left Behind, and The Passion of Christ. How had evangelical excesses started the movement's decline as early as Bush's second term?
  7. Describe the re-emergence of the evangelical left with such figures as Rich Warren and Jim Wallis. Describe Barack Obama's religious background and beliefs. How did he benefit from the religious mood of 2008? What was the state of the religious right during Obama's terms in office?
  8. Why does the author believe we have come to the end of the Age of Evangelicalism?

Last updated: Monday, November 20, 2017 08:54 AM