Most forms of religion are best understood in the con- text of
their relationship with the surrounding culture. This may be
particularly true in the United States. Certainly immigrant
Catholicism became Americanized; mainstream Protestantism
accommodated itself to the modern world; and Reform Judaism is at
home in American society. In Evangelicalism, Richard Kyle explores
paradoxical adjustments and transformations in the relationship
between conservative Protestant Evangelicalism and contemporary
American culture.
Evangelicals have resisted many aspects of the modern world, but
Kyle focuses on what he considers their romance with popular
culture. Kyle sees this as an Americanized Christianity rather than
a Christian America, but the two are so intertwined that it is
difficult to discern the difference between them. Instead, in what
has become a vicious self-serving cycle, Evangelicals have baptized
and sanctified secular culture in order to be considered culturally
relevant, thus increasing their numbers and success within
abundantly populous and populist-driven American society. In doing
so, Evangelicalism has become a middle-class movement, one that
dominates America's culture, and unabashedly populist.
Many Evangelicals view America as God's chosen nation, thus
sanctifying American culture, consumerism, and middle-class values.
Kyle believes Evangelicals have served themselves well in
consciously and deliberately adjusting their faith to popular
culture. Yet he also thinks Evangelicals may have compromised
themselves and their future in the process, so heavily borrowing
from the popular culture that in many respects the Evangelical
subculture has become secularism with a light gilding of
Christianity. If so, he asks, can Evangelicalism survive its own
popularity and reaffirm its religious origins, or will it
assimilate and be absorbed into what was once known as the Great
American Melting Pot of religions and cultures? Will the Gospel of
the American dream ultimately engulf and destroy the Gospel of
Evangelical success in America?
This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume will interest
anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical
movement in America and the aspirations and fate of its
faithful.
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