US and church decline

[arapahoepark]

Are there any books advancing any theses on the idea of how we got here as a nation? You know what I mean: Biblical literacy is unheard of, let alone what the Gospel is, on top of all the godless politics being peddled around that gets worse and worse.
Is it from the second great awakening? Or perhaps modernism?

 

[Warren]

I think it's something inherent in Westernism and the way we do Church. Other nations adopted modernism, but are still rich grounds for the gospel. Like India and China. I think its a little to do with the West's successes in warfare and industry that we've waxed fat, sure, but instead of thanksgiving, we thank ourselves and hunger for sin. Good question.

 

[Jeri Tanner]

David Wells' book No Place For Truth is informative, as is The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan Hatch. Those are two I've read.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

The History of Christianity in the United States and Canada is a very good book.

I think you'd need to pair that with some works that track some of the prevailing philosophies and movements going on in the world.

One of the more interesting things I've been reading about recently is work by Peter Jones that shows the rise of Pagan cosmology within the US.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

The Peter Jones' works Rich notes are really helpful. I highly recommend them.