Apostles of Reason

Short Review: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism is a history of modern Evangelicalism. And like hearing about your family as an adult, you hear things you thought you knew about, but from a different perspective than what you thought you understood as a child.

The strongest feature of this history is that Worthen places the history in context. And in context it is clear that many of the features of and changes in American Evangelicalism were not unique or ‘God movements' as much as responses to the broader culture of the United State.

As a small example, I have heard about Evangelicalism's commitment to higher education and how in the 1950s and 1960s as Evangelicalism grew it established new colleges and universities or changed old bible schools into real institutions of higher education with properly trained PhDs as the main staff. But Worthen tempers that story by placing that growth (which did happen) as part of a broader professionalization and expansion of higher eduction that was primarily driven by the GI Bill and requirements that schools that were receiving money from the GI Bill be accredited and professional. And just as important, the professionalization of broader culture started expecting fully accredited degree programs and requiring degrees for jobs that previously had not required them including full time Christian jobs like missionary or pastor.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/apostles-of-reason/