Republican Theology by Benjamin T Lynerd

Republican Theology by Benjamin T Lynerd

As an electoral bloc, contemporary white evangelical Christians maintain a remarkable ideological and partisan conformity, perhaps unmatched by any other community outside of African Americans. Historically, evangelicals have supported various political parties, but their approach to civil religion, or the way that they apply the spiritual to the public realm, has, as Republican Theology argues, been consistent in its substance since the founding of the nation. Put simply, this civil religion holds that limited government and a free-market are essential to the cultivation of Christian virtue, while the livelihood of the republic depends on the virtue of its citizens. While evangelicals have long promoted conservative moral causes, from temperance and anti-obscenity in the nineteenth century to abstinence education in the twentieth, they have also aligned themselves on many other seemingly unrelated agendas: in support of the Revolution in the 1770s, on antislavery in the 1820s, against labor unionism in the 1880s, against the New Deal in the 1930s, on assertive anticommunism in the 1950s (a major theme in Billy Graham's early sermons), and in favor of deregulation and lower taxes in the 1980s. As Benjamin T. Lynerd contends, the rise of the "New Right " movement at the end of the twentieth century had as much to do with small-government ideology as with a recovery of traditional morality. This libertarian ethos combined with restrictive public moralism is conflicted, and it creates friction both within the New Right alliance and within the church, particularly among evangelicals interested in social justice. Still, it has formed the entire subtext of evangelical participation in American politics from the 1770s into the twenty-first century. Lynerd looks at the evolution of evangelical civil religion, or "republican theology " to demonstrate how evangelicals navigate this logic.

This timely book makes a solid historical contribution by documenting a long, reasonably flexible, yet still very coherent tradition of American 'republican theology' Yet the book goes beyond history to also offer an unusually perceptive analysis of where 'republican theology' has functioned for the good of the nation-and for the Christian faith-and where it has not. This major book should have a major impact. * Mark A. Noll, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History, University of Notre Dame *
In Republican Theology, Benjamin Lynerd offers a trenchant analysis of the theological foundations and persistent cultural power of American evangelicalism's engagement with American politics. From John Witherspoon to Billy Graham, from Benjamin Rush to Jerry Falwell, and down to our own day, he guides the reader across the shifting terrain of American moral politics and explicates the significance of this potent political theology for the broad history of American public life. * Andrew R. Murphy, Associate Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University *

Benjamin Lynerd holds the Benjamin Franklin Project Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780199363568
ISBN 10	0199363560
Titel	Republican Theology
Autor	Benjamin T Lynerd
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Oxford University Press Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2014-09-25
Seitenanzahl	264
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar