Name: The Evangelicals
ISBN: 9781439131336

Frances FitzGerald

A history of the Evangelical movement in America traces the revivals of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that rendered evangelism a dominant religious force, describing the rise and fall of denominations and how they influenced American agendas.

The Struggle to Shape America

The Evangelicals

Colton Ray

One of the best books on American Christianity I've ever read that shows the grip the religion has had on the country from its foundation to the modern day. For better or worse, Christianity has long entwined itself into the fabric of America. The author was able to make early 1800s fundamentalism actually engaging, and it was funny to hear the 200-year-old claims of American moral decay, End Times chatter, and general complaining about the youth in much the same terms as today's pastors and pundits. There sure is nothing new under the Sun when it comes to hand-wringing anxiety about the future. I was surprised at the diversity of thought in the early eras, leading to many splits as some people want to focus more on certain issues, leading to an overall lack of a coherent message as the 20th century dawns. The book profiles both liberal and conservative Christians, though the presence and influence of liberal thought wanes as we approach the modern era. 

This book puts nearly every major Christian event of the past 200 years into historical context, showing exactly how we got to the point we are at now, and giving insight into how much Christian thought leaders and mega-pastors have influenced the national conversation and our macro politics. We get keen understanding into everyone: fiery Jonathan Edwards, moderate Billy Graham, hypocritical Jimmy Swaggart, insane RJ Rushdoony, politicizing James Dobson, and slippery Pat Robertson. 

We get to read the Evangelical reactions to FDR's New Deal, the Civil Rights Era, the sweeping changes of the 60s, the Roe v. Wade loss, the decline of the SBC, the rise and fall of mega-pastors such as Jimmy Swaggart, the Bush era and the reaction to 9/11, a brief mention of New Atheism, the 2015 Obergefell marriage loss, and the declining role of Christianity in public life as it fails to attract tech-savvy millennials as they move from teens to adults. When put into context, it makes perfect sense the position that Christianity finds itself in. The religion is drifting further right as the younger American generation drifts further left; everything has brought us to this point.

As the decades wear on, especially after the radical changes of the 1960s, Christianity became wed to Republican politics to the point where the two are nearly inseparable, and the last third of the book basically turns into a history of the GOP from the 1980s on, with special (and unflattering) focus given to the candidacies of Nixon and Bush and their respective pastors/advisers Graham and Dobson. Unfortunately, this book was written before Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election with high Evangelical turnout, an event that I would have loved to get a whole chapter on. 

In the 2010's, we see Christianity's base splintering and fragmenting into tinier sects less focused on theology and more focused on secular issues and politics. The most right-wing and power-hungry dominate the conversation, dogmatically decreeing positions on issues such as homosexuality, abortion, race issues, who to vote for, etc. Meanwhile, younger generations care less and less for their positions on these issues, causing them to flee to more liberal churches or reject organized religion entirely as it becomes irrelevant or antithetical to their goals. The rising 'Nones' referred to in the latest religious polls attests to this. 

Christianity has done much good in its time in the US, but it has also been the source of much injustice, crime, and anti-intellectualism. It is like a tool that can be used for good or evil depending on who is in charge, and it seems that unfortunately, the crazies often run the asylum. It goes to show that Christianity has always been divided on nearly every issue, and that God and the Bible have always been twisted to justify every position on the spectrum. It remains to be seen what continuing impact the Evangelical base and the Christian Church will have in American life in the next 50-100 years.

Matthew Royal

Fascinating synthesis of the history of the evangelical movement in the us. I think the author considers the movement to be dead now politically and demographically. The evidence definitely could suggest that, but history has shown that this "group" is rather amorphous and changes shape as needed to survive. The political activism of Falwell and Dobson ironically dealt a death blow to the movement's younger generation. Whereas young families appreciated Dobson's family advice via books and radio programs, similar supports either aren't offered today or aren't enough to counter the toxic political vibe, and families are going elsewhere.

The coherence of the narrative dissolves as it approaches the modern history of the tea party. The vector of evangelicalism appears to go nowhere right now, but with the remnants of their blocks responsible for the election of Donald Trump, I don't interpret that as an end to the movement, but perhaps a transformation of it into the civic religion of an authoritarian state. I don't know that we truly have enough perspective on those times to be writing about them in the same way we can about the era of the ERA and Moral Majority, so I look forward to an update to this book in 30 years.

The Evangelicals The Struggle to Shape America

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