DEVELOPING A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

Group Questions 1.One author said, “instead of critically challenging the emerging culture of modernity, populist evangelicals were reshaping Christianity to fit the categories of modern experience.” Do you think this is still happening today? Examples? 2.D.L. Moody once said, “ It makes no difference how you get a man to God, provided you get him there.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

Common Themes 1.Focus on Emotional Response 2.Celebrity-Style Leader 3.Engineered Publicity 4.Individual Detached from Local Congregation

Pearcy What was emerging was a new theology of conversion: the older view that believers are nurtured within the corporate church as whole persons, including the mind (through study & catechesis), was giving way to a new view that individuals undergo a one-time emotional decision that takes place outside the church.

Lorenzo Dow

Elias Smith

Charles Malik The greatest danger besetting American Evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti- intellectualism.

Dwight L. Moody It makes no difference how you get a man to God, provided you get him there.

Pearcy The local rootedness of the traditional clergy had provided at least some measure of genuine accountability: Their character was known and tested in ongoing, long-term contact with a regular congregation. By contrast, the evangelist addressed mass audiences made up of strangers, who could not possibly judge his character by personal knowledge. He could dazzle them with sheer image-making and marketing hype.

Charles Finney

One critic… They measure the progress of religion by the numbers who flock to their standard; not by prevalence of faith, and piety, justice and charity

Pearcy The more Christians sought to prop up their faith with mere emotional intensity, the more it appeared to be an irrational belief that belonged in the upper story of private experience.