REL S 390A Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Individualism, New Israel, Puritans
First Amendment
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the government for a redress of grievances."
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American Puritan Tradition
Puritans and Politics (and Trump):
New Israel
"the Promised Land"
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"errand in the wilderness"
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"a city upon a hill"
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Covenant Theology
"not divine right of kings"
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Election/predestination
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2/3 of colonial population was Calvinist
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Human Sin
"fear of concentrated government power"
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Moral Zeal
No shades of gray
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No compromise
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Evils of society
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One's political struggles are God's struggles
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Evangelical Dimension
Evangelicals theologically stress
Bible as only authoritative source of God's revelation
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Adult conversion
i.e. "born-again"
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Evangelicals strategically stress evangelism
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Spiritual/Individual Dimension
Spiritual and Religious Individualism
15%-20% of U.S. population today = "None"
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4% = 4% atheist/agnostic of U.S. population
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"Cafeteria religion"
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The shift away from formal religious commitments weakens well-
established religious institutions
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Major Christian Traditions and Politics
Evangelicalism1.
Mainline Denominations2.
African American Protestantism3.
Roman Catholicism4.
Four Branches of Evangelicals
Mainstream•
Fundamentalist•
Pentecostal•
Left •
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Tuesday, January 30, 2018
9:33 AM
