Columbia-area CADRE group to offer
“Evangelical and Fundamental Christianity –
from Mainstream to Outcast to Political Powerhouse”
February 22, 2009 – 2:30 to 4:00pm
St. Simon & St. Jude Episcopal Church
1110 Kinley Road, Irmo
Dr. Susan McArver, Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary,
is guest speaker.
CADRE in participation with St. Simon & St. Jude
Episcopal Church will offer "Evangelical and Fundamental Christianity – from Mainstream to Outcast to Political Powerhouse," a presentation by Dr. Susan McArver on Sunday, February 22, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. at St. Simon & St. Jude, Irmo.
Dr. McArver is Associate Professor of Church History and Educational Ministry and Director of the Center on Religion in the South at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia. She has researched and written extensively on cultural change in the South.
The phenomenon of Christian evangelicalism and fundamentalism strikes some 21st century observers as a puzzling relic of days gone by. Rises in technology and advances in science were supposed to have consigned such beliefs to a backwater past, and many believed that they could not possibly survive in the clear light of the modern world.
Clearly such observers were wrong. Fundamentalism and evangelicalism have not only survived, they have thrived. They are neither southern in their origins nor anti-intellectual in their emphases. They do not even always agree with each other, although popular perception often conflates them. How did a movement move from mainstream in the 19th century, to underground resistance movement in the early 20th century, to political force in the1980’s? In this session, we will discuss both the origins of fundamentalism and evangelicalism and their present strengths and implications.
