In a recent interview with Off The Map Rob Bell predicted that the next big shift in American Christianity could be characterized this way, “a little less Billy Graham and a little more Martin Luther King.”
In 1953 Billy Graham wrote his classic Peace with God.
Graham, whether conscious of it or not, was crafting a gospel message that was profoundly contextualized. Peace with God was a decidedly therapeutic idea that appealed to masses of Americans worshipping at the altar of individualism while mixed with the metaphors of Christianity.
“The post war (WWII) revival benefited from a strong social interest in peace of mind. A therapeutic rather than reformist element became a defining aspect of public religiosity” — A World History of Christianity
In 1963 (a mere ten years later) another very public Christian, Martin Luther King wrote his classic Letter From The Birmingham Jail where King was in incarcerated for practicing protest - a decidedly reformist Gospel.
King was also appealing to a context - the lost tradition of caring for the other. Charles Finney (1792-1875) the revered father of American revivalism (and thus evangelicalism) taught that the truly converted person would not only practice personal piety but also “forswear both alcohol and slavery”
This is what is coming. A spirituality that’s more about others and less about me, less my peace of mind and more changing the wrongs committed against others, less Billy G and more MLK.
06-01-2008 |
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