By watching/listening to a lot of Paul Vander Klay I have become better acquainted with the recent history of American Evangelicalism. What I have below is limited, but should be enough to whet one's appetite if inclined.

George Marsden wrote the book on Fundamentalism and American Culture, which traces the phenomonon from its late 19th century origins to roughly 1940, which happens to be where Molly Worthen's book begins.

In the era in which Marsden's book takes place, the Mainline Protestant denominations are marching toward their heights after defeating the fundamentalist challenge in 1925 according to the court of public opinion. We can get into the issues of this debate if you'd like.

Worthen then tracks the large group of Protestants who were neither rigid fundamentalist exclusivists nor were they liberal/progressive mainliners. They were simply neo evangelicals in the tradition of Dwight L. Moody (if you go back far enough), Billy Graham, Christianity Today, and Fuller Theological Seminary.

These neo evangelicals were not of the ilk of William Jennings Bryan, who made a public embarrassment of fundamentalists in the Scopes "monkey" Trial of 1925. No, they actually wanted to demonstrate that they had a place in the Western intellectual sphere, perhaps even among the ranks of Swiss Reformed Theologian, Karl Barth (widely regarded as Protestantism's theologian of the 20th century).

This group, as Americans know, might not have succeeded to the degree that they had wished, but they ended up weilding a great deal of power in American culture and politics as the progressive mainline denominations began to lose their appeal in the late 60s and 70s.

Wellman's book highlights the fall of mainline Protestantism and the rise of the megachurch movement. In doing so, he makes heavy use of Chicago's 4th Presbyterian and Willow Creek Church as a case study. Fourth Pres being a mainline church who saw its influence wane as Willow Creek exploded in the 1980s under Bill Hybels.

So the big question is, where are we today?
I will now paste what I had posted yesterday on the OT Lounge (haha), and hopefully the admin will acknowledge the proper context surrounding this post. It is more intellectual than it is religious, and this is very much a book discussion.

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An Overview of Protestant Trends (mid 20th century to the present):
Protestant Mainline Denominations - Hemorrhaging members since their peak in the 60s when nearly everyone was either Episcopalian, Presbyterian (USA), Lutheran, Methodists, or Northern Baptist. The reason: More of a social and political organization than a church of Jesus Christ. And there are better ways participate in social and political trends than joining a liberal protestant church. Those who stay are typically quite old and must like the hymns and the stained glass.

1980s to early 2000s - Megachurch and Emergent church movement. Seeker Sensative. Consumer driven. Rick Warren and Saddleback. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek. Who's got the best music? Which church has the bowling alley? Who's got the best programs and offers Starbucks and Krispy Kreme on Sunday morning. Also, largely responible for the advent Moralistic Therapuetic Deism. Many large evangelical, fairly conservative churches, got caught up in this. And I may add that many of these pastors have "fallen". I don't even include Osteen in this group because I believe his style of prosperity gospel is not worth our time in a serious discussion. It's essentially anti Christian.

My take on the megachurch/emergent movement: Christianity is 2000 years old. It'll do just fine without laser shows.
But What Has Happened? A split. The emergent church or Seeker Sensative movement is no longer in vogue. It fell out of favor at least 15 years ago.

Beginning around the late 90s into the 21st century we started seeing two trends emerge out of the Emergent church movement just described.

1) Neo Reformed - John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Tim Keller, etc. Obviously very diverse pastors with a common bond. Calvinistic soteriology. Attracted the "Young, Restless, and Reformed" group who rejected the 80s-90s movements that they grew up in. Wanted a deeper, more theologically sound, faith. This was me.

2) Increasingly liberal/progressive Christians apart from the mainline. Think Nadia Bolz Weber, pastor of a church called House for all Sinners and Saints in Denver. Also rejected the awkwardness of the church trying to come to the culture, but do not draw anything close to rigid theological lines like John Piper would/does. LGBTQ affirming.

So here we are. And it seems that many in the neo reformed camp are headed into fully confessional reformed theology (ACNA/OPC/PCA, Roman Catholicism (great read), or Eastern Orthodoxy. No more churches with pastors in t-shirts and open duct sanctuaries. Give me liturgy, organ, frequent communion. The real thing.

And of course, LINK ]many continue to leave denominations like the SBC, PCA, other evangelical, and are deconstructing their faith due to modern political/cultural issues. So the second option (House of all saints and sinners) continues to attract more people as well.

Is this in line with what you've seen?
Do you know any who have given Orthodoxy a try?
Any thoughts in general?

I predict that real "evangelicals" among the SBC and others, will find a home in liturgical churches in hopes of escaping the evangelical stigma that Jerry Fallwell created, which culminated in Trump.

American Protestantism might continue to shrink, but should be more substantial and impactful. These are my hopes anyway.

Any Catholics wish to chime in? I don't know as much about what is going on with y'all.

References:
Marsden
Worthen
Wellman
Vander Klay video
Another from Vander Klay
Mark Galli's Substack (former editor of Christianity Today, now Roman Catholic)

This post was edited on 12/29/21 at 11:35 am