Scot McKnight reviews the fifth chapter and overall argument of Bonnie Kristian's In Defense of Evangelicalism, focusing on Christian nationalism and noting turmoil at Christianity Today. He grants that some criticism of evangelicals is hyperbolic and that ordinary evangelicals are basically good, but argues that Christian nationalism is a real and widespread problem, that sociological research on it is credible, and that politics is about how much control is sought. He contends Kristian minimizes the problems produced by evangelical leadership's political theology, that critics' hyperbole is prophetic, and that evangelicalism needs a renewed kingdom-centered gospel vision, a generation of good works, and confession rather than defense.
Reviewed . Its Doxa Score waits for a researcher's decisions.
Its text teaches none of the positions Doxa lists.
Keyword counts
Woke keywords
Counted93.3 points from 19 keywords, 53 matches in 1,383 words
- christian nationalism 6
- nation… 7
- politic… 10
- trump 2
- cultur… 5
- white… 5
Doxa counts words and phrases from a fixed list, each worth some points. It doesn't read context, so a word counts however it's used, and a keyword ending in … counts every word that starts with it.
Christianity Today is in chaos, driven partly by finances and falling subscriptions, and someone on its board appears to be running things because they consider the journalists 'woke.'
Christianity Today is the biggest platform in evangelicalism, though that platform is shrinking.
A single anecdote about an evangelical who scores high on a Christian nationalism scale but is more nuanced does not refute survey findings on Christian nationalism.
All politics is about control, so the real question about evangelical political activity is not whether it seeks control but how much control it seeks.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is exercising too much control and practicing dirty politics, exemplifying what critics complain about in evangelical politicking.
- Adopts· Bonnie Kristian
Some criticism of evangelicals in politics is undemocratic because many people have become intolerant of evangelicalism.
Christian nationalism is a genuine and serious problem, seen in Project 2025, Russell Vought, Paula White, and Christian reconstructionism, and must be faced squarely.
- Rejects· Bonnie Kristian
The Whitehead and Perry survey measuring Christian nationalism is a garbage survey.
- Endorses a source· Samuel Perry, Andrew Whitehead, Philip Gorski, Matthew Taylor
The work of Perry, Whitehead, Gorski, and Matthew Taylor on Christian nationalism is credible professional scholarship that an Anabaptist approach to church and state can affirm.
- Adopts· Bonnie Kristian
Most evangelicals are not overt Christian nationalists.
There are many Christian nationalists among evangelicals and they have become a genuine problem.
- Adopts· Bonnie Kristian
Some criticisms of evangelicalism are hyperbolic and trash the whole movement.
Ordinary evangelicals may be naive, gullible, and accommodating, but they are basically good people and good neighbors.
Evangelical naivete under Trump is uniquely harmful compared with past presidencies, the current climate is poisonous, and evangelical leaders must speak out.
Critics' use of hyperbole against evangelicalism is the way of the prophets, and their proper target is the problem people, not the good people who always exist.
A fair defense of evangelicalism should engage its leading critics such as Du Mez, Barr, Tisby, and Butler rather than only voices within one's own circles.
Defenders of evangelicalism downplay the real criticisms against it while highlighting the good.
Evangelical leadership culture, with very rare criticism from within, has produced a political theology that is destroying the reputation of the evangelical movement.
Christianity Today itself appears to be diminishing evangelicalism's problems in favor of good stories.
Today's evangelical dysfunction resulted from a theological politics that abandoned the gospel's mission of both evangelism and good works.
Renewal must begin in churches that preach the gospel and the Bible while practicing justice and peace among themselves and extending that into the local community.
Evangelicalism needs not more stories of good evangelicals but a renewed kingdom-based gospel vision that challenges its theopolitical culture, and the critics are the ones identifying the real problems.
It will take a generation of good works by evangelicals, not books defending them, to change their reputation.
In public perception, 'evangelical' now means Republican, hypocrite, and Christian nationalist.
Christians should stop using 'Pharisee' as a pejorative.
A persuasive book about evangelicalism today would have to be a book of confession rather than defense.
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