Bawer, Bruce, frey50
Stealing Jesus : how fundamentalism betrays Christianity / Bruce Bawer. - 1st ed. - New York : Crown Publishers, c1997. - x, 340 p. ; 23 cm.
"Are you a Christian?" -- "Who is my neighbor?" -- Love and law -- Darby's kingdom -- Rauschenbusch's kingdom -- "Shalll the fundamentalism win?" -- The legalistic boom -- Takeover -- God's generalissimo -- The choirboy -- "No more gray" -- "A lie straight from the Devil" -- The doctor and the coach -- "These secular times" -- Did Lucy convert? -- Abiding message, transient settings.
The time is past, says Bawer, when denominational labels provided an accurate reflection of Christian America's religious beliefs and practices. The meaningful distinction today is not between Protestant and Catholic, or Baptist and Episcopalian, but rather between "legalistic" and "nonlegalistic" religion. On one side is the fundamentalist right, which draws a sharp distinction between "saved" and "unsaved" and worships a God of wrath and judgment; on the other are more mainstream Christians who view all humankind as children of a loving God who calls them to break down barriers of hate, prejudice, and distrust. Pointing out that the beliefs of American fundamentalism are in fact of relatively recent origin, are distinctively American in many ways, and are dramatically at odds with the values that Jesus actually spread, Bawer demonstrates the way in which these beliefs have increasingly come to supplant genuinely fundamental Christian tenets in the American church and to become synonymous with Christianity in the minds of many people.--From publisher description.
0517706822 (alk. paper) 9780517706824 (alk. paper)
97020111
Fundamentalism--United States.
Christianity--Essence, genius, nature.
Fundamentalisme.
Christendom.
Wettischheid.
United States--Church history.
277.30829 Baw 8
Stealing Jesus : how fundamentalism betrays Christianity / Bruce Bawer. - 1st ed. - New York : Crown Publishers, c1997. - x, 340 p. ; 23 cm.
"Are you a Christian?" -- "Who is my neighbor?" -- Love and law -- Darby's kingdom -- Rauschenbusch's kingdom -- "Shalll the fundamentalism win?" -- The legalistic boom -- Takeover -- God's generalissimo -- The choirboy -- "No more gray" -- "A lie straight from the Devil" -- The doctor and the coach -- "These secular times" -- Did Lucy convert? -- Abiding message, transient settings.
The time is past, says Bawer, when denominational labels provided an accurate reflection of Christian America's religious beliefs and practices. The meaningful distinction today is not between Protestant and Catholic, or Baptist and Episcopalian, but rather between "legalistic" and "nonlegalistic" religion. On one side is the fundamentalist right, which draws a sharp distinction between "saved" and "unsaved" and worships a God of wrath and judgment; on the other are more mainstream Christians who view all humankind as children of a loving God who calls them to break down barriers of hate, prejudice, and distrust. Pointing out that the beliefs of American fundamentalism are in fact of relatively recent origin, are distinctively American in many ways, and are dramatically at odds with the values that Jesus actually spread, Bawer demonstrates the way in which these beliefs have increasingly come to supplant genuinely fundamental Christian tenets in the American church and to become synonymous with Christianity in the minds of many people.--From publisher description.
0517706822 (alk. paper) 9780517706824 (alk. paper)
97020111
Fundamentalism--United States.
Christianity--Essence, genius, nature.
Fundamentalisme.
Christendom.
Wettischheid.
United States--Church history.
277.30829 Baw 8