Reformed resurgence the new Calvinist movement and the battle over American evangelicalism / Brad Vermurlen.

Author/creator Vermurlen, Brad
Other author Oxford University Press.
Format Electronic
Publication InfoNew York, NY, United States of America : Oxford University Press, 2020.
Descriptionpages cm
Supplemental ContentFull text available from Oxford Scholarship Online
Subjects

Abstract "One of the biggest movements in American Christianity, especially among younger Evangelicals, is a groundswell of interest in the Reformed tradition. In Reformed Resurgence, Vermurlen provides a comprehensive sociological account of this New Calvinist phenomenon-and what it entails for the broader Evangelical landscape in the United States. Vermurlen's explanation of the Reformed resurgence develops a new theory for understanding how conservative religion can be strong and thriving in the hypermodern Western world. It is a paradigm using and expanding on strategic action field theory, a recent framework proposed for the study of movements and organizations but rarely applied to religion. This approach to religion moves beyond market dynamics and cultural happenstance and instead shows how religious strength can be "fought for and won" as the direct result of religious leaders' strategic actions and conflicts. But the battle comes at a cost. In the same storyline by which conservative Calvinistic belief experiences a resurgence in its field, present-day American Evangelicalism has turned in on itself. Because a field-theoretic model of strength is premised upon an underlying current of disunity and conflict, it has baked into it a concomitant element of significant overall religious weakness. The vision of Evangelicalism in the United States, in the end, consists of pockets of subcultural and local strength within a broader framework of secularization as "cultural entropy," as religious meanings and coherence fall apart"-- Provided by publisher.
General note"This book is a revised and expanded version of my doctoral dissertation completed in the Department of Sociology at University of Notre Dame in 2016. "
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2020007115
ISBN9780190073510 (hardback)
ISBN(epub)

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