Academic literature on the topic 'Political Evangelicalism'

This dissertation contends that the dominant religious constituency in the United States, evangelical Christianity, needs a more adequate political theology to anchor its increasing political influence and responsibility in the public square. It notes that the theology of Karl Barth, broadly speaking, has had little direct influence among this constituency, and that Barth’s <i>political</i> theology has had even less so. It argues that a particular reading of Barth’s political theology offers important resources for evangelical participation in public life, and that it addresses key aspects of American evangelical identity in ways that are particularly distinctive, fitting, and generative. Working from David Bebbington’s broadly-accepted typology for evangelical identity the first chapter draws on history and sociology to consider how these characteristics play out politically in an American evangelical context. It suggests, first, that American evangelical <i>activism</i> expresses itself as a markedly optimistic, but at times crusading, belief that Christians should work to see society significantly transformed to reflect the Kingdom of God; second, its <i>cruci-centrism</i> entails a larger soteriology by which the doctrine of election is uniquely taken up by the nation-state of America; third, its <i>conversionist </i>emphasis leads to understandings of social and political influence that remain markedly individualistic versus social, ecclesial, or institutional in orientation, and, fourth, its <i>Biblicism</i> leads it to read scripture with a literalist hermeneutic than can often be arbitrary in application, as well as employed to underwrite a distinctly American geo-politics. Chapter two examines claims that a more Lutheran political theology might be necessary to correct the Puritan-rooted, crusading zeal that continues to characterise American evangelicals in the political realm. Chapter three considers the significant ways the Reformed doctrine of election has influenced America’s sense of exceptionalism, with a particular concern for how such a soteriological doctrine has been used historically to underwrite hubristic military interventions and the violation of human rights. This chapter presents Barth’s doctrine of election, with its universalistic implications, as a possible means to ‘myth modification’ in America. Chapter four focuses on American evangelicals’ tendency to view social change through a conversionist framework. This chapter draws on Barth’s occasional political writings, as well as his discussion of ethics in the <i>Church Dogmatics</i>, to suggest an account of political responsibility that is sympathetic to evangelical concerns while challenging its inadequacies. Chapter five concludes by addressing evangelicals’ concern to approach their theo-politics Biblically. The chapter argues that Barth offers a better way forward than the literalist and at times arbitrarily ‘Biblical’ geo-politics of evangelicals.

This dissertation is focused on one of many aspects of religion and politics in Guatemala in recent history (1976-1990). This period is characterized by unequal wealth distribution, ethnic divisions, civil war, and U.S. influence. It is a contemporary mission history examining missionary efforts directed from the United States, Guatemalan responses, and indigenous initiatives. The problem concerns a movement within Protestant evangelicalism, which in this study is called Political Evangelicalism, and its relationship to the counterinsurgency war which the Guatemalan military waged against guerrillas, political opposition, and the Mayan majority. The problem centers on the following interrelated questions: How did Political Evangelicalism appear in Guatemala and how did it develop? How did agents of Political Evangelicalism act? What kind of discourse was employed to legitimize armed and structural violence? What was the relationship between Political Evangelicalism and counterinsurgency strategy? Political Evangelicalism must be reflected through different actors and aspects of Guatemalan conflicts to be understood. Therefore, Political Evangelicalism is placed in the broader context of the Guatemalan situation and its relation to the United States. This is a chronological study describing the role and development of Political Evangelicalism on three levels: the relationship between the United States and Guatemala; Guatemala on the national level; and an in-depth study of the Ixil people. The focal point is on the Guatemalan national level. A wide array of empirical material is employed, including interviews, unpublished documents, official documents, booklets, articles, and so on.

Satisfying a campaign pledge to the National Education Association (NEA), President Jimmy Carter pushed for a federal Department of Education in 1978 and 1979. In the ensuing legislative battle, Carter confronted opposition from states’ rights, social, and religious conservatives that were beginning to form the nucleus of the New Right in the Republican Party. Using divisive racial and religious issues, these conservatives tried, and failed, to thwart the Department of Education project. Congressional testimony, the Carter administration’s internal documents, and newspaper editorials illustrate that the Department of Education battle foreshadowed the Reagan Revolution of 1980.

In 1953 a small, seemingly insignificant, church was founded in Winter Park, Florida. By the early 1970s, Calvary Assembly of God, a church that had started with a dirt floor, was declared one of the fastest growing churches in America with membership easily reaching over several thousands. In the late 1970s and 1980s, it became a major religious and political force in central Florida so much so that it had received visits from then presidential hopefuls Pat Robertson and Vice President George Bush. The changes that took place at Calvary Assembly, both politically and religiously, provided a microcosm of the rest of the nation, while at the same time, these changes made Calvary a leader within the charismatic neo-evangelical subculture. The incredible growth of Calvary Assembly is part of a larger narrative on the expansion of neo-evangelicalism, and more specifically, the charismatic movement in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as, the growth of central Florida. As a result of their growth Calvary was able to launch, and participate in, many programs on both the local and national level. Religious orthodoxies seeped into the political and social thought of those at Calvary, which influenced, and helped to explain, how the church became politically active. Part I examines the growth of Calvary within the context of the growth of Central Florida and the growth of the charismatic movement, This section will include the founding of Charisma magazine, major national events such as the Jesus Festivals, and the impact of charismatic revivalists. The impact of Calvary on the local community is another part of the story. Part II addresses the political bloc Calvary produced in central Florida. The church participated in and influenced national rallies such as “Washington for Jesus.” It shared its political views with central Florida through bulletins like Insight, which addressed moral issues like pornography, homosexuality, education and abortion. Calvary also used events like Freedom Celebration, and articles in Charisma to promote its views on American freedom. As a result local and national politicians and political groups recognized Calvary Assembly as a political powerhouse. Another part of the story is that Calvary and central Florida represented the local side of a national story on evangelicalism and national politics.<br>M.A.<br>Masters<br>History<br>Arts and Humanities<br>History; Public History

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008.<br>Title from electronic title page (viewed Sep. 16, 2008). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religious Studies." Discipline: Religious Studies; Department/School: Religious Studies.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-03-10T15:37:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ivandiasdasilva.pdf: 1898521 bytes, checksum: 269f2690aeb63d31a76115c342561dc0 (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-03-13T19:18:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ivandiasdasilva.pdf: 1898521 bytes, checksum: 269f2690aeb63d31a76115c342561dc0 (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-13T19:18:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ivandiasdasilva.pdf: 1898521 bytes, checksum: 269f2690aeb63d31a76115c342561dc0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-09-02<br>CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior<br>O objetivo geral desta tese é avaliar a organização de lobby político denominada Maioria Moral, fundada e liderada pelo pastor evangélico fundamentalista Jerry Falwell. Esta organização, que foi a mais destacada da Nova Direita Religiosa americana, atuou no cenário político daquele país entre os anos de 1979 e 1989 na tentativa de implementar uma agenda teológico-política, articulada em torno de seus valores religiosos e morais, no contexto da esfera pública dos EUA. A ação da Maioria Moral teve desdobramentos que modificaram substantivamente a dinâmica político-partidária dos Estados Unidos. Na busca por viabilizar e implementar sua agenda de perspectivas religiosas, os ativistas políticos da Maioria Moral, conservadores ou fundamentalistas, eram do parecer que a sociedade americana se encontrava sob a ameaça de “grandes males”, e atuaram para mobilizar os religiosos que compartilhavam de seus pontos de vista a um envolvimento ativo e intenso na esfera pública e político-partidária, descontruindo a orientação religiosa anterior de separação entre religião e política. Esta atuação implicou no surgimento de um novo tipo de clivagem sociopolítica, em que a religião reemerge nos EUA como uma linha divisória com uma dimensão político-partidária, consubstanciando e consolidando clivagens culturais muito expressivas e duradouras, que resultam numa guerra de culturas entre diferentes sistemas de entendimento moral e religioso. Apesar de dissolvida no final da década de 80, a Maioria Moral contribuiu significativamente para a polarização ainda em curso das diferenças culturais no interior da vida e da cultura pública americanas, que veio a assumir uma dimensão político-partidária nacionalmente organizada.<br>This PhD dissertation’s general goal is to evaluate the politics lobby organization called Moral Majority, established and leaded by the fundamentalist evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell. This organization, that it was the more prominent of the New Religious Right, acted in the U.S.A. political landscape between 1979 and 1989, in an attempt to implement a theological-political agenda, based on its religious and moral values, in the context of the American public arena. The Moral Majority’s action had outcomes that modified significantly the party-political dynamics of the United States. In seeking to make possible and implement their religious perspective agenda, the politics activists of the Moral Majority, conservative or fundamentalists, considered that the American society was under the threat of “great evils”, and acted to mobilize the religious people that shared their perspectives to an active and intense involvement in the public and party-political sphere, deconstructing the previous religious orientation of separation between religion and politics. This action implied in the emergence of a new kind of sociopolitical cleavage, in which the religion reemerges in U.S., embodying and consolidating very significant and long-lasting cultural cleavages, that result in culture wars between different moral and religious understanding systems. Although being dissolved in the end of de 1980s, the Moral Majority contributed significantly to the still in progress polarization of the cultural differences in the inner American public life and culture, that assumed a nationally organized party-political dimension.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kentucky, 2009.<br>Title from document title page (viewed on September 16, 2009). Document formatted into pages; contains: viii, 234 p. : ill., maps. Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-233).