13AR18-20

( - previous issue - )

Apologia Report 18:20 (1,156)

May 29, 2013

Subject: Younger evangelicals, better than the older batch?

In this issue:

EVANGELICALISM - favorable secular analysis of young evangelicals

ISLAM - a young Arab Spring leader writes his memoir

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT - a new secular history from Oxford University Press

------

EVANGELICALISM

The Evangelicals You Don't Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Christians, by Tom Krattenmaker [1] -- reveiwer Steve Young reports: "Mention evangelical Christians - indeed, Christianity itself - and many Americans think of right-wing political conservatism often expressed in its most judgmental forms - opposition to abortion, gay marriage, and a disbeliever in evolution - while promoting school prayer and Christmas crèches on the courthouse lawn. Surprisingly, argues Krattenmaker (contributing columnist, religion, USA Today), young evangelicals share this criticism of their faith communities and are increasingly transforming evangelicalism from within. Outmoded conceptions of evangelism, hateful attitudes toward gays and lesbians, scorn heaped on those of other faiths or on those who have none, anti-intellectual rejection of science and evolution: such attitudes are being weighed and found wanting by the 'next Christian' leaders Krattenmaker encounters. These young evangelicals, says the author, are altering for the better not only evangelicalism's self-presentation but also its self-understanding and commitments. Krattenmaker offers little explanation of the dynamics behind these changes other than to suggest that a younger generation is weary of the 'culture wars' of the faith and wary of a dogmatism that thinks it has nothing to learn from nonbelievers. VERDICT Krattenmaker's engaging journalistic survey of kinder, gentler, younger evangelicals working toward cooperation rather than confrontation will hearten secularists and progressive religionists, as well as evangelicals who have long been uncomfortable with the political captivity of their faith." Library Journal, May 2013 #2, n.p.

Publishers Weekly (Apr 2013 #2, n.p.) adds: "A frequent USA Today contributor, Krattenmaker ... combines reporting and opinion in this analysis of new evangelical leaders and their efforts to engage the culture in a noncombative way. Krattenmaker, who is not an evangelical and describes himself as a secular progressive, says he is keenly interested in evangelicals who 'defy the stereotype.' He is convinced that people such as Kevin Palau, Gabe Lyons, Jonathan Merritt, and even Focus on the Family's new leader, Jim Daly, are moving away from confrontation on such issues as abortion and gay rights. He also suggests evangelicals may be distancing themselves from their unblinking support of capitalism and the Republican Party. And they are also doing good works, whether fighting sex-trafficking or adopting orphans. Krattenmaker calls this 'goodwill-mongering' evangelism and salutes these efforts. He convincingly argues that liberals, and especially atheists, should drop their reflexive antipathy toward evangelicals and begin to engage them. The two camps may not agree, but the nation may be better served by a more understanding and respectful posture. While many of the evangelicals he writes about have written their own books, this volume may be more persuasive to left-leaning, secular reader."

---

ISLAM

My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind and Broke My Heart - and Doubt Freed My Soul, by Amir Ahmad Nasr [2] -- Publishers Weekly (Apr 2013 #2, n.p.) explains: "Nasr, a Sudanese blogger, seamlessly blends memoir with political thought and activism in his book, a distillation of his last few years blogging about Islam and the Muslim world. Nasr, who grew up in Qatar and Malaysia, recounts his early religious education both at home and at school, including the confusion he felt about certain religiously conservative viewpoints. The book smoothly follows his journey out of a simplistic understanding of Islam, through rationalism and semi-atheism, towards a conversion to Sufism, the mystical school of Islam. Personal history—particularly his expatriate childhood—is the book's strongest aspect, delivered in Nasr's casual, conversational tone. The focus on his developing political and religious thought, however, is weaker, as his trajectory is unremarkable. But Nasr's insight into the world of young Arab bloggers, including many of the activists behind the Arab Spring, makes this a valuable and enjoyable read."

Library Journal (LJR, Jan 2013 #1, n.p.) notes: "Following a suffocating fundamentalist upbringing, Nasr found his life opening up through the Internet. In 2006, he launched the blog The Sudanese Thinker, a three-time Weblog Award finalist that appeared anonymously until the Arab Spring. A call to freedom directed at young Muslims worldwide."

Kirkus (May 2013 #1) fills in even more: "Nasr re-creates his journey from a fairly religious, comfortable upbringing in Khartoum (born in 1986), Qatar and Kuala Lumpur, where he attended private schools and began to question his Islamic teachings and especially its political uses. Memorization and rote learning of the Quran were the methods of instruction, with an emphasis on hating Jews and infidels and waging jihad. When Nasr questioned the teachings, he was told that he was courting the devil. While his homeland of Sudan was undergoing a civil war, the author became aware of the huge contrasts there between the rich and poor, as well as between the conservative dictates of his Malaysian school and his relatively permissible home. In 2006, he happened upon the Egyptian bloggers The Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey and began to join conversations by liberal young Muslims about the controversial topics of the day - e.g., the Iraq War, Wahhabi ideology, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, feminism and the oppression by Arab tyrants. Transcending national borders, blogging allowed the youth to find solidarity among Arabs, leading to many of the explosive currents that found expression in the Arab Spring of 2011. Becoming the first Sudanese blogger in English, Nasr challenged long-standing beliefs about a Jewish American conspiracy bent on destroying Islam and embarked on an 'unintended exercise in intellectual and psychological self-empowerment.' Structured wittily around a love affair with Islam, in which doubt is personified as the seductress who urges him to read atheist authors, Nasr's account is straightforward, fluent and full of lively allusions for further readings. A candid, cosmopolitan look at the experience of Islam in the digital age."

For more on Sufism: <www.ow.ly/lplfk>, <www.ow.ly/lplyP>

---

WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT

Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler [3] -- "The idea that Christian believers are promised wealth and health by faith in God has existed in various permutations throughout American history. In this riveting historical account, Bowler, a professor of religion at Duke Divinity School, deftly introduces readers to major figures and developments since the late 19th century in the prosperity gospel movement. Her rich narrative traces the entanglement of prosperity and the divine in New Thought thinkers, who believed in mind-power to transform heaven-sent blessings; the power of positive thinking in the postwar era, from Norman Vincent Peale to the televangelists of the 1980s; and the rise of the contemporary megachurch, which includes preachers like Joel Osteen, who argue that believers are created to excel. There are fascinating detours into Pentecostalism and the charismatic revival as well as examination of numerous odd and compelling religious figures, such as Father Divine. Bowler argues that the prosperity gospel has become a major theological, social, and political force in America. Refusing to condemn the prosperity gospel as merely a religious iteration of the American dream of individual upward mobility and accumulation, Bowler also explores how some groups, particularly African-American churches, transformed it for liberating ends." Choice, Apr 2013 #2, n.p.

-------

SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The Evangelicals You Don't Know: Introducing the Next Generation of Christians, by Tom Krattenmaker (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, hardcover, 232 pages) <www.ow.ly/loyFr>

2 - My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind and Broke My Heart - and Doubt Freed My Soul, by Amir Ahmad Nasr (St. Martin's, 2013, hardcover, 336 pages) <www.ow.ly/loAwe>

3 - Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, by Kate Bowler (Oxford Univ Prs, 2013, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.ow.ly/loyDt>

--------

( - next issue - )