Emerging Scholars Blog

InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network

john stott

Book Review: The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism

The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott by Brian Stanley (InterVarsity Press, 2013).

Thank-you to Bob Trube for sharing reviews from Bob on Books with the Emerging Scholars Network Blog! His post on The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott by Brian Stanley (InterVarsity Press, 2013) comes at an apt time to provide background to “Evangelicals” as we prayerfully consider NY Times: Colleges and Evangelicals Collide on Bias Policy. ~ Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director, Emerging Scholars Network

The title of The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott proposes an ambitious project and I am impressed with how well Brian Stanley [professor of world Christianity and director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh School of Divinity] pulls this off in under 250 pages of text. While focusing on the evangelical landscape in the U.S. and U.K.(hence Graham and Stott), he gives us a helpful overview of the global spread of the evangelical movement from 1945 to the year 2000.

He opens with exploring the dynamics of this period–communications, the spread of evangelicalism in the English-speaking world, and the growing evangelical influence of the majority world. He then goes back to the beginning of this period and explores the differentiation of evangelical from fundamentalist in its US, British, Canadian and Australian forms, marked most notably in the US with the establishment of Christianity Today as the print organ of the forming evangelical consensus. [Read more…] about Book Review: The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism

Time to discuss faith, psychology and neuroscience?

Minds, Brains, Souls and Gods: A Conversation on Faith, Psychology and Neuroscience by Malcolm Jeeves. InterVarsity Press, 2013.

Preface

Robert Boyle, illustrious scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society, described how, while in Geneva on a continental holiday, he underwent a conversion from nominal, unthinking Christianity to committed Christianity. As a result of his experiences, he stressed the need for Christians to have what he called an “examined faith.” [1]

John Stott, discussing Paul’s letter to the Christians in Philippi, drew attention to the importance for all Christians to heed the apostle’s exhortation to “contend for the faith of the Gospel.” He continues, “This describes a combination of evangelism and apologetics, not only proclaiming the gospel, but also defending it and arguing for its truth.”[2]

Echoing the views of Robert Boyle and John Stott, Mark Noll says, “If what we claim about Jesus Christ is true, then evangelicals should be among the most active, most serious, and most open-minded advocates of general human learning.” [Read more…] about Time to discuss faith, psychology and neuroscience?

A New Awakening? Creation Care & the Lausanne Movement

Thank-you to Care of Creation Inc. for providing permission to draw from their photo archives for this series! This picture is from Tanzania landscapes and wildlife (May 2013). To God be the glory!

The “whole gospel” includes caring for God’s creation.

To learn more about The Lausanne Movement click here.

That is one important conclusion that comes from reading the landmark Cape Town Commitment (CTC) the latest signature document of the Lausanne Movement. The CTC is historically important for the entire evangelical family, but particularly for those of us involved in the creation care movement.

The document has credibility and authority because of what it is, the latest “confessional statement” of the global church as represented by the Lausanne Movement for World Evangelization, which significantly traces its own roots to John Stott and Billy Graham.

The first global meeting of Christian leaders under the Lausanne banner in 1974 gave us the Lausanne Covenant, a defacto statement of faith that gained immediate and widespread acceptance within the evangelical community.

Fifteen years later the Manila Manifesto was produced by the 1989 Lausanne World Congress meeting in Manila. This meeting was organized around the theme that has come to characterize Lausanne: “The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world” and the Manifesto laid the foundation for genuine partnership between the churches of the east and west, north and south, opening an era in which the “whole church” has participated in the missionary enterprise in ways unseen before. [Read more…] about A New Awakening? Creation Care & the Lausanne Movement

Best Christian Book of All Time: First Round Update

Tournament Bracket
Click for a larger view at the early Round 2 results.

The first round has closed in the Theology & Apologetics and Christian Life & Discipleship brackets of our Best Christian Book of All Time tournament. Download the updated bracket for your office pools, and head to Facebook to vote for your choices for the Sweet Sixteen.

Vote for Round 2!

First Round Results

Theology & Apologetics

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis (1) defeated On Loving God by Bernard of Clairvaux (16) by a score of 99-11. [Read more…] about Best Christian Book of All Time: First Round Update

Best Christian Book of All Time: Early Nominations

A potential dark horse for "best Christian book of all time"?
Shockingly, no one has yet nominated “How to Murder a Minister” by Pastor X.

The nominations are coming in for our Best Christian Book of All Time Tournament (BCBATT for short). So far, more than 140 different books have been nominated, ranging from the 2nd to the 21st centuries.

Here are a few of the books receiving multiple nominations:

  • Augustine, Confessions
  • Augustine, City of God
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
  • John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress
  • John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
  • G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
  • Dante, The Divine Comedy
  • Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ
  • Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
  • C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
  • C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
  • J.I. Packer, Knowing God
  • Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
  • John Stott, The Cross of Christ

We also have one nomination in the running for longest title: William Wilburforce’s A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. (No one has yet put forth William Carey’s An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, In Which the Religious State of the Different Nations of the World, the Success of Former Undertakings, and the Practicability of Further Undertakings, Are Considered. There must be something about long titles and 18th century British Christians named “William.”)

It’s not too late to nominate your favorite book. We’ll continue taking nominations until Saturday, March 9. The tournament bracket will be announced on March 17, and the voting will begin that week.

The Brackets

I’m currently thinking of dividing the books into 4 categories:

  • Classical and Medieval
  • Reformation Era (including pre-Reformation)
  • Modern
  • Poetry and Fiction

If you have other suggestions for ways to divide the books, I’d love to hear them.

Interested in Helping?

Once we’re down the final books, there will also be a special series of posts with capsule summaries of the remaining books. If you’re interested in helping write those or helping to seed the tournament brackets, let me know.