HOW DOES AMERICA HEAR THE GOSPEL?
William A. Dyrness
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
grand rapids, michigan
Copyright © 1989 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Mich. 49503
All rights reserved
Reprinted, September 1991
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dyrness, William A.
How does America hear the gospel? / William A. Dyrness.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8028-0437-3
1. United States—Church history—20th century. 2. United States—Religion—1960–. 3. Christianity and culture. I. Title.
BR526.D97 1989
261′.0973—dc20
89-39253
CIP
To my children Michelle, Andrea, and Jonathan, who have taught me to see the joy and pain of being American.
Chapter 1: Introduction: In Search of Theological Roots
Reflections on Theological Education in Asia and America
Chapter 2: How Does America Hear the Gospel?
What Has Christianity to Do with American Culture?
How Do Gospel and Culture Interact?
Christ in Culture or Christ against Culture?
From Wilderness to City: The Pilgrim’s Progress
The Puritans: A Home in the Wilderness
Early to Bed and Early to Rise
A University of the Marketplace: Pragmatism
In Search of a “Practical” Gospel
The Communication of the Gospel
Christian Discipleship in the Virgin Land
The Revolution: Secular Events with a Sacred Telos
Conclusion: Communicating the Gospel to Optimists
The Puritan Conversion Narrative
Nineteenth-Century “Perfectionism”
Chapter 6: Forays into an American Gospel: Walter Rauschenbusch and Robert Schuller
Walter Rauschenbusch: Prophet of the Social Gospel
Rauschenbusch’s Prophetic Discipleship
Robert Schuller’s Healing Gospel
Schuller’s Contextualized Message
The Dream Does Not Belong to Us
A Return to God and to Ourselves
A Theological and Evangelistic Method for Americans
To make meaningful generalizations about American culture is virtually impossible. This obvious fact does not keep people from trying; indeed, every American must at various times generalize to make sense of her experience. This book is a species of that generic foolishness. However difficult self-definition may be, it seems even more foolish to deny that living in America at the end of the 20th century has enormous implications for what we hear God saying to us in Scripture. Our context necessarily provides the forms that clarify and distort our reception of the gospel.
I write as a theologian who has learned a great deal from historians and sociologists, and yet cannot claim special competence in these fields. But this discussion among the disciplines is ...
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About How Does America Hear the Gospel?In this book William A. Dyrness explores the relationship between the biblical gospel and American culture. He shows how three dominant American cultural values—pragmatism, optimism, and individualism—have both a positive and negative impact on our Christian discipleship, looks at Walter Rauschenbusch and Robert Schuller as case studies, and sets out a distinctively American way of appropriating the gospel. |
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