Blog - Page 84 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Rise of Resistance

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:22-05:00June 13th, 2012|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, Religion, Roman Catholicism, The Church|

Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium (ECT) was released in the spring of 1994. The document was signed by twenty leading Catholic intellectuals, theologians, and bishops along with a significant lineup of evangelical theologians, leaders and ministers. At first the document created very little interest but over time it caused a new dialogue about the relationship between America’s Catholics and Protestant evangelicals. A new appeal for unity, one never heard in America’s long history, soon emerged. The importance of this development cannot, at least in my view, be easily overstated.

I remember the months following the release of ECT in 1994 quite well. My initial response was one of frustration and opposition. I could not understand why such a statement was needed nor why evangelicals would form such an alliance with their Catholic peers. Within a year I was also caught up in the discussion, much of it negative. But as time passed, and as I listened more carefully to the evangelical signers explain their words and actions, I began to grasp the importance of this significant turn in American church history. Something […]

Accommodation: How the Church Responded to Cultural Change

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:22-05:00June 12th, 2012|Categories: Church History, Culture, Religion, The Church|

Rather than resist the sweeping changes which began to aggressively challenge Christianity in the 1960s much of the historic Protestant church sought to “forge a new Christianity more consonant with the spirit of the age, one better adapted to the trends that were undercutting orthodoxy.” This approach would attempt to preserve the mid-century gains of the church by “adapting itself to the changing cultural circumstances.” Evangelicals, in the 1970s, insisted that more progressive Christians and denominations were adapting to the times in order to reach the culture. Progressive Christians saw these evangelicals as back-woods fundamentalists who resisted what famous theologian Harvey Cox had appropriately dubbed “the secular city.” In an April 1966 issue Time magazine’s cover story asked, “Is God Dead?” Time reported that Christianity was as strong as ever in America but the faith “was now confidently renewing itself in spirit as well as form.” The article suggested something far removed from the earlier neo-orthoodoxy of the 1940s and 50s by saying the church was becoming more sophisticated in its understanding of religion because it had “formulate[d] a new image and concept of God using contemporary […]

The Locust Years in American Christianity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:22-05:00June 11th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, The Church, Uncategorized|

Author Ross Douthat, in his much discussed new book, Bad Religion, suggests that the end of the mid-century revival (culminating around 1957) brought about “The Locust Years.” To cite just one example, in 1960 the number of American converts to Roman Catholicism hit an all-time peak. But then, following the heady years of Vatican II, decline followed. Douthat believes numerous social events impacted both the culture and the church in the mid-1960s, events that hastened a profound change that has continued to adversely impact the church right down to the present time.

The social events of the 1960s and 70s included a number of revolutionary changes; e.g., the death of President Kennedy, Pope John XXIII, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. While segregation was being challenged, and legally brought to an end, Richard Russell, the arch-segregationist senator from Georgia, said the Civil Rights Act passed because “those damn preachers got the idea that it was a moral issue.” Writes Douthat, “With those words, and their foretaste of culture wars to come, we can leave the lost world of American Christianity behind.” The post-World War II revival […]

ACT 3: A Printed Treasury of Practical Theology

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:23-05:00June 8th, 2012|Categories: ACT 3, Personal, The Church, Theology|

The ministry of ACT 3 began in 1991. Four brothers met in my living room in Carol Stream to agree on forming a new non-profit ministry that would aim to positively impact the lives of church leaders. (One of those brothers is still on our board, one is still very close to me personally but lives out-of-state in retirement. One is quite elderly and no longer serving and one is with the Lord.) The original vision grew out of a ministry that had begun in 1981 called the Whitefield Ministerial Fellowship. That ministry had been directed exclusively at pastors. I first envisioned it in 1980, as a thirty-one year old pastor who wanted to serve the many friends in the pastoral ministry that I had made over the previous several years while I was pastoring in Wheaton. I made friends easily and saw a way to encourage and serve my growing list of friends in the ministry. It really was that simple. I led a monthly Whitefield Fellowship (except in the summer months) concurrently with my pastoral labors in a Baptist church that I had served […]

Jazz and Missional Living

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:23-05:00June 7th, 2012|Categories: Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Theology, Uncategorized|

I met a friend for breakfast this morning to talk about missional church. We both have a burning desire to see a local congregation that we mutually love grasp the profound importance of envisioning a new dream for this ecclesial community. After mowing the grass in the late morning, answering some email and spending a little time with this and that (and the grandchildren) I am now sitting at a local McCafe listening to my favorite trumpet player, Wynton Marsalis (on my iPad of course). I’m doing some reading and thinking while I listen to this amazing artist. The truth is I’m just “chillin’ out” on a warm day. I need to do this more often but I never took time for it in my earlier years.

Now and then I now take some time to do this, just for my own good. This afternoon is such a time. In a few hours I will meet a long-time pastor-friend, who has been through a terribly hard year, so we can share an evening at a minor league baseball game. But for right now I listen to the […]

American Christianity at Mid-Century

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:23-05:00June 6th, 2012|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Culture, History, Religion, Renewal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future|

In writing about the religious conditions in the nation at the middle of the last century Ross Douthat says, “the most striking features of [this revival] are the ways in which mass-market faith and highbrow religiosity seemed to complement each other.” Religious stirrings on college campuses, which I personally experienced more than a decade after the time that Douthat writes about in Bad Religion, united with a surge in church attendance, were evident for all to see. The “social climate for religious living” and “the intellectual climate for religious thinking” became much more congenial following World War II. To quote Douthat, “A kind of Christian convergence was the defining feature of this era. In the postwar revival, the divided houses of American Christendom didn’t just grow, they grew closer together, reengaged with one another after decades of fragmentation and self-segregation.”

There were four figures who embodied his time of convergence. The intellectual giant was Reinhold Niebuhr, a public theologian who was taken seriously by people of all stripes and backgrounds. The revivalist was Billy Graham. Graham’s style is accurately described as “ecumenical, openhanded, confident, American.” He was […]

Could Orthodoxy Revitalize American Religion?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:23-05:00June 4th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Culture, The Church, The Future|

Ross Douthat, in the much-discussed and critically reviewed book Bad Religion, says in early America orthodoxy could never be taken for granted. Because Christian faith had to struggle with various heresies, heresies that naturally arose in a land where church and state were legally and politically separate, orthodoxy became, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, “a whirling adventure.”

But Douthat believes that in the middle of the twentieth century the American religious landscape began to change. “If the American religious landscape has long resembled the world of early Christianity, then the twenty-first century America looks increasingly as if it’s replaying that story with a very different ending–one in which orthodoxy slowly withers and only heresies endure.”

How this change came about is the primary concern of Douthat’s controversial analysis. He begins with a portrait of Christianity in the years following World War II. He refers to this as “an era of intellectual confidence, artistic vitality, pews full to bursting, and a widespread sense that traditional Christian faith and contemporary liberal democracy were natural partners.” This was a time in which a “rebuilt Christian center” was deeply rooted […]

Is There a Comprehensive Theory of America's Decline ?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:23-05:00May 28th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Church History, Current Affairs, The Church, The Future|

Ross Douthat, in his engaging book, Bad Religion, addresses the perennial “ongoing search for more comprehensive theories” about the decline of America. Both the left and right offer a prevailing, and widely accepted, narrative. But most of these theories involve religion, at least in some way.

Professor Alan Jacobs of Wheaton College calls Bad Religion “an indispensable book.” I completely concur with this praise. Rarely have I read a more engaging treatment of our current religious and political scene which explains not only how we got here but why the future, without a recovery of deeply Christian orthodoxy, will be more bleak than we can know at the present time.

On the right we are continually told that America has lost its way because we’ve fallen away from the faith of our founding fathers. Or, in another version of this message, we hear that we’ve been attacked by secular elites who wish to do our faith end. Douthat believes that the most “simplistic version” of this view, which is only sometimes clearly named, argues that America was founded […]

Why is Christianity in America in Decline?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:24-05:00May 25th, 2012|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, The Church, The Future|

Ross Douthat’s new book, Bad Religion, suggests that there are five reasons for the decline of religion’s influence in America. I believe he is correct. There could well be more reasons but these five are right on target so far as I am concerned.

1. Political polarization (both on the left and the right) has brought churches into the storms of deeply partisan division. This will be seen with as much evidence as ever in the remainder of 2012.

2. The sexual revolution has powerfully undermined the classical claims of Christianity about morality. Furthermore, the practice of Christians has directly impacted an entire generation. (There is little evidence that anything we are doing inside the church is altering this even though there are some glimmers of hope that Christians are more aware of the problem!)

3. Globalization has made the truth claims of Christianity seem oppressive to many who see the doctrinal claims of the faith as repulsive.

4. Materialism and consumerism have undermined vibrant, sacrificial and community-oriented faith leaving many Christian churches with nothing more than a message about […]

New Blog Site Soon

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:16:24-05:00May 20th, 2012|Categories: America and Americanism, American Evangelicalism, Religion, Renewal, The Church, The Future|

Over the course of the next 24-72 hours a mentor/coach is finishing the design for my new blog site. It will be on a WordPress platform hosted by a different server than the one I have used for over seven years. Please check back in a few days and let me know what you think when this site is launched. I will be doing a series of blog posts on the extremely important new book, Bad Relgion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, Ross Douthat (Free Press: New York, 2012) over the next several weeks. I really hope that you will read these posts and interact with me as you do. I believe this is one of the most important books for missional-ecumenists I have read.