Womanist biblical interpreters are Black female biblical scholars who use their prophetic voices on behalf of the marginalized. They are especially concerned about people with multiple intersecting oppressions like Black women. This paper develops a womanist dialog between the prophetic message i...

This talk explores two ways that church history can inform the process of reconstructing evangelicalism. First, church history can illumine the nature of reconstruction itself. The church has always experienced a mixture of good and bad, health and dysfunction. A healthy reconstruction process wi...

Before we run to pick up the pieces and “reconstruct evangelicalism,” have we fully confronted what went wrong? Were the foundations ever solid, the building materials of sufficient quality, and the architectural plans properly drafted? Or was the problem simply that of few bad builders? What is ...

Is it possible to reconstruct what perhaps was never built? What is the rock upon which evangelicalism is built? Is it enough to have theological/theoretical stances? What type of knowledges are engaged by evangelicalism in the definition of its identity? What is needed to be faithful disciples o...

In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry described his “uneasy conscience”: he was disturbed by fundamentalists’ “divorce” between biblical convictions and social reform. Where Henry was worried that his peers were abandoning the social and political world, today we might be more uneasy about evangelical enthus...

Almost every aspect of institutional life seems unstable and on the brink of breakdown. Not only is the church not immune from this instability, evangelical witness is undergoing a crisis of credibility. Some factors are unique to the moment, driven by factors ranging from political authoritarian...

Evangelicalism as a spiritual renewal movement is in deep need of renewing. By every metric it is, along with society at large, in a profound moment of transition, even turmoil. Many debates inside evangelicalism revolve around how believers ought to interact with forces outside of evangelicalism...

Evangelical culture is formed, in great part, by its social imaginaries, which consist, as Charles Taylor renders it, of precognitive stories, images, metaphors, concepts, and values. These works of our individual and collective imaginations, developed and expressed within a movement that is near...

The two-year span between 2020 and 2022 highlighted discord in the United States
of America. 2020 witnessed the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, showcasing mass death from a viral infection, and an open season of assault on black lives. 2021 began with political acrimony that almost ended t...

Great Christian figures and Christian Traditions will disappoint us at sometime and maybe devastate us at others. What should we do when we find guidance and help from figures and traditions and then encounter cracks in the armor and feet of clay all around? The evangelical movement has many str...

Amid polarization, deconstruction, and a growing anxiety about the state of the Evangelical church, we need voices and guides to help us navigate the turbulent waters of ecclesial life. In this session we explore how the theology of Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), a Dutch theologian from the turn of ...

Do we need to reconstruct or recover Evangelicalism? In 1988, Wesleyan scholar Donald Dayton published Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, where he explored how some of the earliest evangelicals in the U.S. were rooted in the Wesleyan tradition and advocated for social justice. While many of the...

Popular evangelical antiracism tends toward sentimentality primarily because many remain convinced that the evil at the root of race of racism is ignorance and hate. With this assessment of the problem, the solution is deemed to be “love” and reconciliation. Doing so, however, ignores the fact th...

Christian families find their meaning and purpose in the church and the coming kingdom of God. They are households within the Household of God, bearing witness to God’s reign in this present evil age. Yet, U.S. evangelicals have often used “the family” to uphold an unjust social and political sta...

Mission in contemporary American Evangelicalism is hindered by its fixation on growth and influence. Its mission practitioners are indebted to a model of mission that posits numerical growth as its ultimate goal. However, since the fastest way to start and grow churches in America is through the ...

The African church has witnessed phenomenal growth towards the end of the 20th Century to the present and Nigeria exemplifies this growth. Whereas the Evangelicals cannot be confined to any denominations, their influence is ubiquitous. There are some commentators who have praised the good work th...

No little energy has been devoted to the “what” of evangelicalism. Distinctives like conversionism, biblicism, activism, and crucicentrism stand alongside a high Christology and a focus on the work of the Holy Spirit as marks of the movement. Less energy, however, has been devoted to the “why” of...

In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry described his “uneasy conscience”: he was disturbed by fundamentalists’ “divorce” between biblical convictions and social reform. While Henry was worried that his peers were abandoning the social and political world, today we might be more uneasy about evangelical enthus...

We need to do for Evangelicalism what John Webster did for theology, namely, liberate it from the qualifiers that have taken it captive and retrieve its true sense, not least by defining it by means of its own resources. Where Webster retrieved theological theology, I'd like to retrieve evangelic...

Despite recent controversies, the cult of Christian masculinity continues unabated in many segments of the evangelical church. In a post #metoo and #churchtoo world, we should ask ourselves what vision of masculinity and male sexuality give rise to abuse––and the common mishandling of abuse alleg...