Evangelicalism In Molly Worthen's Apostles Of Reason

(1) After completing part three of Molly Worthen’s Apostles of Reason, the section on Bonhoeffer brought back great memories. My father not only loved Kierkegaard, but Bonhoeffer as well. As a young adolescent, I found my father’s copies of The Cost of Discipleship as well as his Letters and Papers from Prison. I plodded through them but was really inspired by his style and gentle spirit. Both powerful books for different reasons. The first being instructional, the latter, his will in testament of sorts. But it was his focus on “cheap grace” that stuck with me. Similarly, part of the reason I left the Lutheran church for the Methodist tradition was around that very idea. “Sole Fide”, faith alone is a great start, but I think it important to take that faith a step further and put it into action for the greater good. As Molly Worthen points out, it

I appreciate her quick wit and her attention to historical accuracy. Now being at the end of the semester, what I have gathered from this book as well as all the readings we have been assigned, (and our class discussions), is that evangelicalism is a bit like an amoeba. Constantly morphing and changing depending on generation, people and context. Or as Worthen puts it, “The term evangelical mind conjures up images of a creature of many faces sharing one brain, or at least a movement of people who think and act in concert. No metaphor could be further from the truth. This story of shifting and conflicting authorities, evolving alliances and feuds, and debate over the essence of Christian identity means that if we continue to speak of an evangelical mind—if we continue to use the term evangelical at all, and we will—we must allow for diversity and internal contradiction for those who love the label and those who hate it. We must recognize that American evangelicalism owes more to its fractures and clashes, it’s anxieties and doubts, than to any political pronouncement or point of