Latin American evangelical theology in the 1970's

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Kurt Bowen

In this sociological assessment of the Evangelical movement in Mexico, Kurt Bowen highlights the demographic, social, and political character of the movement in the 1980s and 1990s. He pays particular attention to conversion processes, commitment mechanisms, schisms, and distinctive beliefs. Bowen also considers the controversial issues of religious persecution and American missionary influence. Bowen reveals that Evangelicalism's appeal is so pervasive in Mexico that if Evangelical converts all remained faithful it could become Mexico's dominant religion by 2006. This projection, however, is improbable due to high drop-out rates and Bowen argues that Evangelical apostasy is rooted in the most basic beliefs and practices of its followers.

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Gregory J. Riley

An expert on the historical context in which Christianity arose, Riley illuminates the Greco-Roman world of the early Christians, a world steeped in heroic ideals. Jesus was embraced as a new and compelling hero that one could follow into a whole new life of caring community and transcendent hope. Riley boldly asserts that it was only as Christianity became the religion of the empire that the myth of the Apostles' Creed was created, thereby promulgating the illusion that the Apostles had gathered together and agreed upon a core set of doctrines essential to Christian faith. But the reality is that doctrinal orthodoxy was not an issue for the early Christians. Rather, they focused, in quite varied ways, on following Jesus as a model for living. This book not only provides a whole new understanding of the nature of earliest Christianity, but it also conveys a vital message for today about what Christian faith is really about. Riley reveals the authentic character of Christianity as inherently pluralistic and tolerant of diverse ideas while passionately centered in Jesus.

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Robert Wuthnow

In this book, well-known author Robert Wuthnow considers three aspects of the relationship between Christianity and civil society: whether civil society is in jeopardy and what effects Christianity's declining influence has on civil society; whether Christians can be civil in the face of conflicts that have arisen among religious groups in the public arena and the so-called culture wars that many in the media have been discussing; and growing multiculturalism in the. United States, how Christians are responding to this new diversity, and how Christianity can regain a critical voice for itself in these debates.

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Michael Horton

Horton argues that while we invoke the name of Christ, too often Christ and the Christ-centered gospel are pushed aside. The result is a message and a faith that are, in Horton's words, "trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant." This alternative "gospel" is a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion. It trivializes God, making him a means to our selfish ends. Horton skillfully diagnoses the problem and points to the solution: a return to the unadulterated gospel of salvation. --from publisher description.