Bill Leonard: the Fundamentalization of American Religion

My church history Prof from Wake Div, Bill Leonard, is back on the podcast. We have a wide-ranging conversation about the changing shape of religion in America. It is always a joy to reconnect with a mentor to pick some more wisdom and get feedback about some of the ideas you are working through.

Dr. Bill Leonard is Founding Dean and Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Wake Forest University’s SChool of Divinity. Leonard’s research focuses on Church History with particular attention to American religion, Baptist studies, and Appalachian religion. He is the author or editor of some 25 books including Christianity in Appalachia (1999); Baptist Ways: A History (2003); The Challenge of Being Baptist (2010); Can I Get a Witness?: Essays, Sermons and Reflections (2013); and  A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the U.S., (2014). In March 2015 he delivered the William James Lecture on Religious Experience at Harvard Divinity School and in February 2017 he gave the William Self Lectures on Preaching at McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. His newest book, The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers, was  published by Fortress Press in July 2017. Leonard is on the board of the Journal of Disability and Religion, The Baptist Quarterly (England), the Day1 Preaching Network, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and the Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. His sabbatical research focuses on a new book, tentatively entitled: “Security or Idolatry?: A History of Religion and Firearms in the U.S.”  Leonard writes a twice-monthly column for Baptist News Global, is an ordained Baptist minister, and a member of First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue (American Baptist Churches, USA) in Winston-Salem.

* the church’s loss of cultural privilege

* the changing sociology of Sunday

* the rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated

* living through a period of institutional permanent transition

* changing shape of religious pluralism

* the changing center of faith from the congregation

* the rise of Christian Nationalism

* the history of race and religion in America

* fear of critical race theory

* Christian formation in a Biblically illiterate age

* how American evangelical identity got so ugly

* the Fundamentalization of American Religion and the move from experience to transaction

* from the Scopes Monkey Trial to Critical Race Theory

* how inerrancy migrated to natural law

* “you can be right about scripture and wrong about the Gospel”

* an account of American brokenness

* how big tech is ruining religion

* the Pornification of Religion

* how individualism is destroying us individually

* the growing lack of community for many is a judgment on the church

* why the West needs the church

Check out these books by Dr. Leonard:

* A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States

* Baptist Ways: A History

* The Challenge of Being Baptist: Owning a Scandalous Past and an Uncertain Future

* Word of God Across the Ages: Using Christian History in Preaching