Truce - History of the Christian Church

Love Truce? Donate to help Chris make the show!

Send checks to:

Truce Media LLC

PO Box 3434

Jackson, WY 83001

The modernish/ fundamentalist controversy was heating up in the early 1900s. Conservatives saw this coming a long way off but could not stop modernism from taking control of seminaries and popular pulpits. It was everywhere. It all came to a head with WWI.

Theological conservatives saw WWI as evidence that the world was getting worse. To them, it was a chance to fight for patriotic reasons. Modernists were also pro-war because they thought this was the "war to end all wars". There would be no more war after this and democracy would take over the world. The liberals fired the first shots in this theological battle because they thought that premillennialism encouraged people to root for the end of the world.

William Jennings Bryan was Secretary of State in the US during this time and did his best to keep us out of the war.

This episode features the voices of George Marsden (author of "Fundamentalism and American Culture") and Michael Kazin, professor at Georgetown University and author of "What it Took to Win".

Sources:

Discussion Questions:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Want to help Truce?

Or support Truce via check by sending it to:

Truce Media LLC

PO Box 3434

Jackson, WY 83001

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Love Truce? Donate to help Chris make the show!

Walter Rauscenbush published his classic book Christianity and the Social Crisis in 1907. It went on to become a defining work of the social gospel movement. We've spent a lot of time talking about the social gospel this season. That is because it has been identified by historians as the key movement that fundamentalists rebelled against. So we really should understand it, right?

In this episode, Chris takes us through highlights of this classic book in order to understand how the social gospel differed from evangelical Christianity. While it lifted up the necessity of doing good works, the social gospel often omitted salvation altogether. Contrast that to evangelical preachers like D.L. Moody who lived their lives with the sole purpose of evangelism.

This division between evangelicalism and liberal theologies led to the Great Reversal when theologically conservative Christians went from participating in public acts of goodwill to distancing themselves from it.

Breakdown of points made from Christianity and the Social Crisis

Discussion Questions:

Select Sources:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Between 1910 and 1915 a collection of 90 essays was distributed by two wealthy oil magnates. These essays attempted to nail down the basics of the Christian faith and counteract the growing modernist movement. "The Fundamentals" is often mentioned in history books about Christian fundamentalism, but it is rare for anyone to discuss the essays themselves. So I thought we should break down at least 6 of them together!

I'm joined this episode by some good friends to introduce you to "The Fundamentals". This influential time capsule document takes us inside the proto-fundamentalist movement, just before it really took off.

Discussion Questions:

Essays we read:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What kind of Bible do you have?

Most of us would answer with the translation we carry. Maybe it's New Living, the King James, or the New International Version. I've heard plenty of conversations about translations in my life. But I've never heard a serious discussion about the notes in various Bibles.

Continuing our long exploration of the Christian fundamentalist movement, we explore the Bible version that nudged the United States toward a particular negative theology. One that encouraged people to question the trajectory of history itself. That was one of the purposes of the Scofield Reference Bible, named for its author C.I. Scofield.

The Scofield Reference Bible emphasizes the premillennial dispensationalist theology we've been talking about all season. It expects that world history is sliding into chaos. That was not the primary view in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the US. Most people thought that humanity could improve things until Jesus returned. This Bible is one of the things that changed that.

Special thanks to Nick, Melanie, Hannah, Marc, and Marian for their help with this episode!

Discussion Questions:

How do you feel about us having so many different targeted Bibles?

Select Sources for this Episode:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

William Jennings Bryan.

If we know him at all it is from the Scopes Monkey Trial at the end of his life. Or maybe we know of his 3 failed campaigns for President of the United States on the Democratic ticket. But many of us are unaware of his efforts to establish world peace. William Jennings Bryan hated war. He wasn't a pacifist - he enlisted for the Spanish-American War after all. But he saw the meaningless carnage of war and vowed to do his best to reduce the amount of bloodshed.

So "The Commoner" used his position as Secretary of State under President Wilson to establish 30 peace treaties. In this mini-episode, we revisit his career and talk about the impact this man might have had if WWI hadn't slowed his progress.

God-willing I'll be back soon with a full episode! Thanks for your patience!

Helpful Sources:

Discussion Questions:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now that we've read In His Steps together and discussed it, let's talk about another work of fiction. Looking Backward was written by Edward Bellamy. That name may sound familiar! We talked about his cousin Frances Bellamy in the episode about the Pledge of Allegiance. Frances was a Christian socialist. Edward wrote his famous book looking forward to the year 2000. He predicted that the United States would be a socialist paradise. People would work hard, retire early, and equality would reign.

None of that came true.

We're talking about it today in order to understand the zeitgeist in the late 1800s. This book sold over half a million copies in its first few years of publication. It is now over a million copies. That doesn't happen without stirring something in society. As we'll see, socialism was tied to the Social Gospel. The opposition to the Social Gospel is what would go on to create the Christian fundamentalist movement.

Helpful Links:

Discussion Questions:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support the Truce Podcast via Patreon or through the website you can do Paypal, check, or Venmo!

We've been reading the book "In His Steps" together for the last few weeks. It was written by Charles Sheldon, a man whose book is often associated with the social gospel movement. While some historians struggle over the significance of this work, it's pretty plain how it fits this movement.

I invited patrons of the show to listen early and then discuss their thoughts on this controversial book.

What did you think about the audiobook? Should I record other books this same way?

Discussion Questions:

Recommended Resources:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is part 3 of an audiobook presented on Truce. Please start at part 1!

Become a patron of the show to keep more content like this coming your way!

In His Steps by Charles Sheldon is a classic of Christian fiction. It is also one of the top-selling Christian books of all time. We've been running through the history of Christian fundamentalism this season. It's worth noting that fundamentalism was a reaction to liberal theology, especially modernism. Another form of liberal theology was the "Social Gospel". It was a movement led by people like Walter Rauschenbusch that emphasized the socially conscious aspects of Christianity, while simultaneously downplaying evangelism.

Christian fundamentalists did not like the Social Gospel. For one thing, it had a positive view of human progress. It said that the world could get better and better and then Jesus would return. Christian fundamentalists generally think that world history trends downward.

I'm presenting this original audio recording for many reasons. I think this book offers a great window into the era in which it was created (the late 1800s). It also represents the Social Gospel and a slice of the Holiness movement quite well. Finally, I think we need to hear this story in our modern context. Modern Christian churches are divided. What would happen if we dared to ask "What Would Jesus Do?"

Things to track as you listen:

In His Steps resides in the public domain, but this recording is copyrighted in 2022 by Truce Media LLC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the second part of the series. Please start with part 1.

In His Steps by Charles Sheldon is a classic of Christian fiction. It is also one of the top-selling Christian books of all time. We've been running through the history of Christian fundamentalism this season. It's worth noting that fundamentalism was a reaction to liberal theology, especially modernism. Another form of liberal theology was the "Social Gospel". It was a movement led by people like Walter Rauschenbusch that emphasized the socially conscious aspects of Christianity, while simultaneously downplaying evangelism.

Christian fundamentalists did not like the Social Gospel. For one thing, it had a positive view of human progress. It said that the world could get better and better and then Jesus would return. Christian fundamentalists generally think that world history trends downward.

I'm presenting this original audio recording for many reasons. I think this book offers a great window into the era in which it was created (the late 1800s). It also represents the Social Gospel and a slice of the Holiness movement quite well. Finally, I think we need to hear this story in our modern context. Modern Christian churches are divided. What would happen if we dared to ask "What Would Jesus Do?"

Things to track as you listen:

In His Steps resides in the public domain, but this recording is copyrighted in 2022 by Truce Media LLC.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices