All Is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism - Hardcover

Witten, Marsha G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691032807 ISBN 13: 9780691032801

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1993

Synopsis

How the image of God is being refashioned from the Protestant pulpit for an increasingly secular world

In recent years, direct-mail Christianity has extended a new kind of invitation to the Protestant faithful: slick brochures enumerating the social and psychological advantages of church attendance, with no mention whatsoever of spiritual striving, suffering, or faith in God. Does this kind of secularity prevail in mainline Protestant churches? Marsha Witten looks for an answer to this question through an in-depth analysis of preaching on an important New Testament text: the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Witten finds that the transcendent and awesome God of Luther and Calvin, whose image informed early Protestant visions of the relationship between human beings and the divine, has been greatly softened in demeanor in American Protestant churches, with only minor resistance from conservative traditions. As preached from the pulpits of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Southern Baptist Convention, God is a deity whose primary function lies in providing psychological benefits to individual church members: the Parable of the Prodigal Son portrays God as a loving and understanding daddy figure. The focus is not on the challenges that the church could pose to the secular sphere of life. Instead, individuals are encouraged to make the right choices among the secular world’s various offerings, or, as in many Southern Baptist messages, to accept God’s offer of rescue from the “lostness” of secular confusions.

Situating the sermon at the heart of Protestant worship, All Is Forgiven shows how complex rhetorical strategies continue to transform Christian faith and help it survive in a secular world.

About this title

About the Author

Marsha G. Witten is assistant professor of sociology at Franklin and Marshall College.

Reviews

In attempting to understand the effects of modern secular culture on contemporary American Protestantism, Witten (sociology, Franklin and Marshall Coll.) explores the sermon--the centerpiece of Protestant worship. She focuses on pastors' use of language in preaching the parable of the Prodigal Son, looking specifically at how they discuss the character of God, the social conduct of a believing Christian, and the nature of sin. Although her approach is relatively new, she offers clear arguments that seemingly validate her chosen course of action. She also includes a wonderful bibliography of secondary sources that will aid scholars, though she fails to provide the scholar with more than a few snippets from the original primary sources. Witten's work gives a fresh and needed view into the issue. For academic libraries.
- John B. Wright, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Utah
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691032807
• ISBN 13: 9780691032801
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 196