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REFORMED RESURGENCE HB

Availability: OUT OF STOCK, AVAILABLE TO ORDER
  • ISBN 9780190073510
  • Author VERMURLEN BRAD
  • Pub Date 01/01/2020
Brad Vermurlen has his finger on the pulse of a remarkable second-order religious subculture in this probing analysis of New Calvinism. Using novel theoretical insights and diverse methods, Reformed Resurgence reveals ......
£61.75
£65.00
Brad Vermurlen has his finger on the pulse of a remarkable second-order religious subculture in this probing analysis of New Calvinism. Using novel theoretical insights and diverse methods, Reformed Resurgence reveals New Calvinism and its Neo-Reformed churches to have an early-modern sensibility intent on challenging current ideas about limitless selfhood, moral relativism, and egalitarianism.

'This prescient analysis of the Calvinist-inspired Neo-Reformed movement has valuable lessons to teach us about the uneasy relationship between Protestant orthodoxy, evangelicalism, and American culture. This book is one that observers, apologists, and critics of American evangelicalism would do well to read with care.'
John P. Bartkowski, University of Texas at San Antonio.

'Reformed Resurgence details the rise to influence within American evangelicalism of a revivified Calvinist movement that appeals primarily to younger, college educated evangelicals through its emphasis on a strong, conservative, theological and cultural program. Beyond the strategies employed by New Calvinists to gain power within evangelicalism, Brad Vermurlan shows the theological underpinnings of much of evangelical political thinking today. Reformed Resurgence is a must-read for those seeking to understanding this important segment of American religion and how it may play out in the future.'
Richard Flory, Senior Director of Research and Evaluation, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California.

About the Author
Brad Vermurlen is a research associate in the department of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin and a generations in dialogue fellow at the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Notre Dame in 2016. His website is www.bradvermurlen.com

As reviewed by Dr. Stephen McQuoid in May 2021- 'Anyone observant about the nature of evangelicalism today will be aware of how buoyant Reformed theology has become. This book began its life as a PhD thesis for University of Noter Dame and the skeleton of its original existence can still be seen, though it is in fact very readable. Vermurlen writes as an outsider on what he labels the New Calvinist Movement. He takes a sympathetic stance on the whole, while recognising that, as with every movement, there is variety, and some aspects will be more appealing than others.

He notes that these ‘new’ Calvinists still fit comfortably into Bebbington’s description of Evangelicalism as a whole, namely that they are Christ centred, Biblicist, Activist and believe in Conversionism (p.154). He also suggests that while these New Calvinists have a high profile, they are probably not growing in the USA any faster than other branches of the evangelical family. However, he helpfully points out that their prominence is due to several things. Firstly, the big personalities (my words not his) such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, DA Carson, CJ Mahaney, Tim Keller, Francis Chan, Tim Challies, Mark Deever, Sam Storms and the rap artist Lacrae. Then the mega churches such as Bethlehem Baptist, Mars Hill Church, Capitol Hill Baptist and Redeemer Presbyterian. As well as its institutions like Gospel Coalition, Crossways Books, Acts 29 Network, Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, Passion and Desiring God Conferences.

Of course, we are not dealing with a denomination so Vermurlen also makes passing references to people and movements that he would consider to be at the fringes. For example, he argues that John McAurther sits more comfortably in the space between Fundamentalism and the New Calvinists. Likewise, he suggests that the more radical end of the New Calvinists movement (eg. Mark Driscoll) was at one point within touching distance of parts of the Emergent Church.

The downside of this book is that it is really a sociological study of a particular strand of American Christianity. However, given that many of the people and institutions of the New Calvinist movement do have a global influence, it is nevertheless an important study and made better by the fact that it is written by an outsider. If Christian history and culture interests you this is certainly a good book to get.'


Publisher : OUP USA (5 Jan. 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 302 pages
ISBN-13 : 9780190073510