David P. Gushee - After Evangelicalism

Advance Praise for After Evangelicalism

A first-person account of the rise and fall of evangelical Christianity, After Evangelicalism takes you on a poignant journey through history, theology, and politics that opens your eyes to just how far evangelicalism has strayed from the heart of what it means to be Christian. If your experience with evangelicalism has taken you through the mire of purity culture, white supremacy, patriarchy, LGBTQ exclusion or if it has just left you feeling disillusioned and exhausted, you can trust that Gushee uses these pages to set a foundation that will lead you out of this expired belief system and toward a refreshing and much more life-giving way of following Jesus.

Amber Cantorna, national speaker, LGBTQ advocate, and author of Unashamed and Refocusing My Family

As a self-identified evangelical Christian who is not yet willing to abandon this religious identity, I cannot endorse the central premise of David Gushees thoughtful new book. But I can fully endorse his diagnosis of the many problems facing American evangelicalism today. My fellow believers ignore this book at their peril.

John Fea, Distinguished Professor of American History, Messiah College

As progressive Christians exit evangelical churches and parachurch organizations in droves, many have felt rudderless, unsure of how to reconstruct their theological framework after saying goodbye to the worldview that has shaped them. After Evangelicalism is the compass they need, pointing the way toward a biblically rooted, pro-LGBTQIA, antiracist, justice-oriented, Christian humanism. If there is one book that ex-evangelicals need to read, it is this one.

Chanequa Walker-Barnes, Associate Professor of Practical Theology, Mercer University, McAfee School of Theology

Carefully researched, historically accurate, and convincingly reasoned, this is the road map for the soul to those of us who are now without a country.

Gregory Thornbury, Vice President, New York Academy of Art

After Evangelicalism is essential reading for those who have found white evangelicalism wanting. Drawing on his own spiritual journey, David Gushee provides an incisive critique of American evangelicalism. But this is not ultimately a work of deconstruction. Gushee offers a succinct yet deeply informed guide for post-evangelicals seeking to pursue Christ-honoring lives, and he does this with such eloquence that the book transcends its immediate purpose and speaks compellingly to all who are exploring how to be Christian in these times.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Professor of History, Calvin University, and author of Jesus and John Wayne

Since the evangelical revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, evangelicalism has given the impression that it is immune to the decline plaguing mainline Protestantism. That is, until now. As David Gushees insightful analysis of the current post-evangelical moment suggests, US evangelicalism squandered its opportunity, and now peopleespecially young peopleare leaving evangelical Christianity. As Gushee demonstrates, evangelicalisms wounds are mostly self-inflicted, originating in the move by straight white men to perpetuate structures that reinforce their power and dominance over the life of the church. Gushee is driven by a profound need to address the pastoral concerns of this growing post-evangelical movement and herein offers a combination manifesto, love letter, and game plan for fellow #exvangelicals. The rest of the church would do well to heed his words too. Gushees spiritual inventory of this movement and his articulation of a post-evangelical theological framework serve as a road map for renewal for a fragmented and moribund first-world Christianity.

Rubn Rosario Rodrguez, Professor of Theological Studies, Saint Louis University

Thinking about Christianity after evangelicalism is neither trendy, alarmist, nor faithless, but rather it carves out a needed path forward for those millions of exvangelicals who have found the movement that birthed them to be irrelevant, traumatic, and even abhorrent and are seeking a place to land. Few have earned the right to speak to this topic with such prophetic clarity and practical insight, not to mention approachable writing style, as David Gushee.

Peter Enns, author of How the Bible Actually Works

If youre part of the growing number of post-evangelicals whose conscience resulted in living out your faith in exile, this is the book for youespecially if your spirit longs to move beyond the painful place weve come from and reengage your spiritual imagination to explore beyond the evangelical horizon.

Benjamin L. Corey, author of Unafraid: Moving beyond Fear-Based Faith

There is a growing number of people who identify as ex-Christians in the United States when in fact they are probably ex-evangelicals. Its not an overstatement to say that Christianity is better represented outside of that fairly recent, contextual, and reactionary movement. And for those who find themselves disillusioned with the evangelical brand of the Christian faith they once found meaningful, it may seem as though to leave evangelicalism is to throw away Christianity. In this book, Gushee gives a methodical account for why that is not the case. In After Evangelicalism, Gushee offers clear, comprehensive, theological content for Christians who follow after Jesus in a direction other than evangelicalism. And of the many books that David Gushee has written, this may be one of his most timely and most well-read books.

Reggie L. Williams, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics, McCormick Theological Seminary

Gushees book provides an insightful analysis of the evangelical movement. After Evangelicalism is a helpful guide forward for those disillusioned with the church and looking to reconstruct their faith in Jesus.

Sarah Bessey, author of Miracles and Other Reasonable Things

After Evangelicalism

After Evangelicalism

The Path to a New Christianity

David P. Gushee

2020 David P. Gushee

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

Copyright 2019 by the Christian Century. How Did American Racism Get to This Point? by David P. Gushee is reprinted by permission from the December 26, 2019, issue of the Christian Century.

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