The Age of Evangelicalism: America's Born-Again Years

by Steven P. Miller

At the start of the twenty-first century, America was awash in a sea of evangelical talk. The Purpose Driven Life . Joel Osteen. The Left Behind novels. George W. Bush. Evangelicalism had become so powerful and pervasive that political scientist Alan Wolfe wrote of "a sense in which we are all evangelicals now."

Steven P. Miller offers a dramatically different the Bush years, he argues, did not mark the pinnacle of evangelical influence, but rather the beginning of its decline. The Age of Evangelicalism chronicles the place and meaning of evangelical Christianity in America since 1970, a period Miller defines as America's "born-again years." This was a time of evangelical scares, born-again spectacles, and battles over faith in the public square. From the Jesus chic of the 1970s to the satanism panic of the 1980s, the culture wars of the 1990s, and the faith-based vogue of the early 2000s, evangelicalism expanded beyond churches and entered the mainstream in ways both subtly and obviously influential.

Born-again Christianity permeated nearly every area of American life. It was broad enough to encompass Hal Lindsey's doomsday prophecies and Marabel Morgan's sex advice, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Carter. It made an unlikely convert of Bob Dylan and an unlikely president of a divorced Hollywood actor. As Miller shows, evangelicalism influenced not only its devotees but its many religious conservatives, secular liberals, and just about everyone in between. The Age of Evangelicalism contained it was the age of Christian hippies and the "silent majority," of Footloose and The Passion of the Christ , of Tammy Faye Bakker the disgraced televangelist and Tammy Faye Messner the gay icon. Barack Obama was as much a part of it as Billy Graham.

The Age of Evangelicalism tells the captivating story of how born-again Christianity shaped the cultural and political climate in which millions Americans came to terms with their times.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Religion, Christianity, Church History, Audiobook

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2014

About the author

Steven P. Miller (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is a historian of U.S. political culture, American religion, and the American South. Miller’s most recent book is The Age of Evangelicalism: America's Born-Again Years (Oxford University Press, 2014). His first book, Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (2009), drew praise in the pages of The New York Times Book Review, Reviews in American History, and many other publications. It was nominated for the 2010 Merle Curti Award. Miller is the author of numerous scholarly and popular articles about the history of American religion and politics. He has written for such venues as Christian Century, History News Network, and Religion in American History. A resident of St. Louis, Missouri, Miller teaches U.S. and World History at Webster University and Washington University (University College).

Reviews

[John Boyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first got this book I had high hopes. I hadn't read a history of the evangelical movement over the last few decades before and I was looking forward to Miller walking us through this exciting time period in Christian and American history. However, as I read through it, I continued to find myself disappointed by the focus and tone of the book. I can not speak to Miller's faith, but I found the tone of the book to be near antagonistic to Christian belief if not at least neutral towards it. The narrative continued to make me think that evangelicals acting in the public sphere did it largely for a quest for power and influence and not due to a genuine faith that promoted fundamentally Christian principles of loving God and loving neighbor. I constantly found myself thinking that the book was saying that the evangelical involvement in politics was a problem that less religious persons were combating against. That may have been caused by my own disappointment in the book, but that is was I continually felt.

Miller walks us through the rise of the evangelical movement in politics during the 1970s with Jimmy Carter and how Christian faith in politics became more mainstream. From there we are given a summary of events and persons influential in American politics through the 70s all the way to 2012. Miller focuses on all the key political figures from Carter to Obama providing many details into the roll different churches and public religious figures played in the shaping of policy. The book did provide a good survey level reading of this time period with a focus on evangelical politics. The book seems to cut off quick during the Obama years, probably largely due to the publication date, but I wonder what Miller would have wrote if he had more time to discuss the evangelical backlash against Obama when you compare his actual presidency with the campaign he ran back in 2008.

I felt that Miller spent way too much time on politics and gave very little time to other aspects of society during this time period. As a discuss on the "Born-Again Years" there is much more to discuss than just politics. He gives some mention to popular culture and to the philanthropic outreach of the evangelical church, but I wished a lot more attention was given to it. The dramatic decreases in poverty and world hunger and the domination of America as a force of aid in the world would have been very interesting to discuss in light of any evangelical involvement in that, which I believe there was quite a bit of.

Overall, I thought the book was interesting but left me wanting more as I hope to find a more Christ centered history of the church during this time period.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written but short account that gallops across five decades—we've lived through all this—to construct a historical scaffolding of late 20th (and early 21st) century Evangelicalism in terms of national politics, culture, and social issues, identifying the key figures and events. The story closes before the Tea Party runs its course, so there is little about the it. It is helpful that Miller also includes the Evangelical Left in this survey. This reading is very salient for the background to the 2016 election cycle. With the reemergence of some form of Evangelicalism or the Religious Right in the 2016 election cycle—these easily are conflated by the media—this story is not yet complete. This would be very helpful reading for media and populace who need to grasp the nuances of the movement and characters rather than relying on recycled tropes or misperceptions.

[Piker7977 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In The Age of Evangelicalism: America's Born-Again Years, Steven P. Miller examines the emergence of the evangelical group as a political and cultural force in America during the 1970s through its decline in the early 2010s. Miller's survey narrative is brief but touches on many different aspects of history, political science, cultural analysis, and historiography. His approach is not one that ties into the core beliefs of evangelicals or incorporates a theological perspective but rather a more outsider approach that feels objective and perhaps a tad secular. It would require a lot more than 163 pages of text to present an overview of evangelical beliefs as they are more diverse than contemporary discourse suggests. This is where the historiographical sections of the book excel as Miller proficiently illustrates how the "Age" was one of right, moderate, and left leaning viewpoints. This explains the acceptance of Carter's born-again rhetoric, the Christian realignment under Reagan, the moderate perspectives of Clinton, Bush's compassionate conservatism, and Obama's adoption of moderate evangelical perspectives.

At its heart, this is a political history told from a top down viewpoint through the lenses of presidents, church leaders, Christian intellectuals, and authors. The cultural aspects of Miller's analysis are sprinkled in for good measure. More of these details would have added a lot to the work and also about religion in the late 20th Century. However, the moderate tone and sharp prose of the author make this an accessible read for those who are outside the community and wish to grasp Christianity's role in contemporary politics. While the history of evangelicalism can be viewed as its own entity with different categories of historiography, The Age of Evangelicalism also fits into late 20th Century studies like Bruce Schulman's The Seventies and Daniel T Rogers' The Age of Fracture. All of these studies illustrate the ebb and flow of Christianity throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s while describing an overall turn to the Right in America.

For a comprehensive context of political Christianity during the 20th Century, I would recommend reading this after One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse.

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steven Miller's book claims to be a history of the evangelical movement from the 1970s and the rise of Jimmy Carter through the beginning of the Obama administration. The time frame helps focus the book on the politics of the evangelical movement through that time. And this is one of the most critical flaws in the book. Evangelicalism is portrayed as a political movement when it is first a spiritual movement.

It is true that much of the Evangelical church, along with nearly all others, has been fixated on political power and maneuvering. But the book leaves out the social aspects of changed lives and the theological shifts and conflicts of the late twentieth century. The book never escapes its two-dimensional caricature of a wildly diverse Christian movement.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging broad-brush overview of evangelicalism. It focuses primarily on the role of evangelicals in politics.

[JM · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the rise and fall of the Religious Right. Miller attempts to track the origins of the movement, its victories, and defeats. In a grand-sweeping narrative, he covers a lot of territory.
As other reviewers have complained, the characters of the book (especially the sections covering the 70s and 80s) are extremely difficult to keep track of. It seemed as though Miller was trying to cover everyone, but, in the process, lost his listeners. Yet this is the plague of books about modern history- time has not yet determined which events and people are really significant and which are irrelevant.
In spite of the large array of characters, there is much that makes this book valuable. It is overall irenic. As a conservative myself, I felt accurately portrayed throughout the work. It also has great explanatory value. Miller's section on the rise of evangelical intellectualism and his analysis of evangelicalism in the Bush years were very helpful. Additionally, the book is comprehensive. Its sheer scope is helpful in understanding second and third generation evangelicalism.
All this being said, while the book provides insight for the researcher and covers an era of evangelical history that has yet to have a definitive work written on it, it is doubtful that much of any final word can be made on events such as the Obama administration when Obama is still president. Additionally, Miller's assessment that the religious right is finished can only be verified through the test of time. Interestingly enough, Miller himself noted that Democrats prematurely declared the Religious Right dead during the Clinton years, yet their obituaries were premature. While I would feel that there are definite reasons for believing the Religious Right to be on the decline, a strong case can be made that Miller's death knell for the Religious Right is a bit hasty.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author tells the story through the lens of American politics from Jimmy Carter up to the first term of Barack Obama. It's a history that I'm glad I read. Most of life is spent reacting to the events of the day but never having the time to put the events in the context that they belong. The book gives the reader the context (through the filter of politics and historical perspective) on the influence of Evangelicals (mostly from the Right) . The author reminds me of the beginning of the period with statements by people like Jerry Falwell saying things like "God does not hear the prayers of the Jew". That's what passed for critical thinking in those days. I had forgotten about the "Satanic Panic" and false accusations based on 'recovered memories' popularized by TV personalities such as Geraldo Rivera and Oprah Winfrey. I forgotten how influential the Evangelical Right was in those days.

I don't know why the author stops the story so abruptly at 2012 even though the book seemed to have been published in 2014. A more interesting story could have been told by looking at the waning of the influence of the Evangelical Right over the last 2 years.

The author, in a scholarly way, puts all of the events of the time period into their overall context and tells a fairly interesting story that should not be forgotten.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up in the new Palo Alto library and skimmed through it. It's an informative book that intentionally lacks in analysis: a recounting rather than a defense or criticism of modern evangelicalism.

The book covers from the 70's onward, largely assuming the already well-described history of the Scopes Trial, Billy Graham's revivals, and the 60's culture movements. Instead, it picks up at the backlash to the culture movements of the 60's, Jerry Falwell, and the oft-cited "Why Conservative Churches Are Growing" paper. It's organized largely according to American political history, chapters falling along presidential campaigns. How did Carter's brand of evangelicalism compare to Reagan's, how did Dubya's interactions with religion shape his campaign and presidency (also see Frontline's "The Jesus Factor" documentary), and how did the media cover them? It ends up with a mildly philological approach, like von Bothmer's "Framing the Sixties" but less academic and more accessible.

[Kerrymac · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't shy away from books that seem difficult, but this one has been a real challenge. It is so packed with information and references to so many people who played a part in the history of evangelicalism I feel I need a cast list and score sheet. I'm reading for Trinity Church Women's Book Club. I know our gifted pastor who is leading our discussion will help make sense of it all so I am pushing through! Past the half way point!

[Brent Pinkall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively thorough, relatively concise summary of evangelicalism in America. I do think, however, that Miller spends too much time focusing on politics and less on the manifestation of evangelicalism in other areas of culture. Still, there is a decent smattering of the latter.

[Alex Delyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

concise and engaging history of evangelicalism in the US from the 1970s to present day. not a terribly profound or brilliantly-written book, but i got what i needed out of it.