Paper Category: American Christianity

This paper will explore how leaders of the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival intentionally connected recent converts with other believers for the purpose of spiritual direction and encouragement, creating a transatlantic network of discipleship. As a primary example, this paper will analyze the co-labors of George Whitefield (1714–1770) and Anne Dutton (1692–1765), a Baptist pastor’s wife in … Read more

As the ideology of the sexual revolution has taken root and abortion has been readily available to sever sex from its natural consequences and corresponding obligations, sex outside of marriage has become normalized in society. American culture has progressively accepted sexual libertinism and promoted the idea that sex is necessary for self-actualization and is a … Read more

Critically examining 19th-century Mercersburg theology can benefit global evangelicalism today. While Mercersburg theology was based in the German Reformed Church, some see it as a combination of Reformed and Evangelical theologies. Others describe it as Reformed Catholicity. Specifically, this session will examine Mercersburg’s sacramental theology and how it interacted with the three dominant evangelical expressions … Read more

Historians have long posited that eighteenth-century American evangelicals repudiated the self and self-love in stark opposition to the emergence of enlightened and liberal advancements at midcentury. This is despite how a positive vision of self-love had long occupied an important place for many theologians – especially for Augustinian puritans. This shift towards identifying self-love as … Read more

Stewardship of the apostolic deposit of faith, encapsulated and transmitted as the regula fidei, was not an uncontested labor during the patristic era. The primary catalyst fueling this work were adversarial teachings, both from outside and within Christian churches, which sprung up and spread rapidly. By the close of the second century, a class of … Read more

This paper will argue that priesthood is the best imagery for understanding a Spirit-empowered eternity. All the church’s priestly service flows from the fountain of Spirit-empowered worship, adoration, and passion for the glory of the Triune God to be known by others in the face of Christ (Rom 12:1; Heb 13:15; Eph 5:18–20). This means … Read more

This paper investigates the evangelism strategy of Billy Graham and how he shaped the state of evangelicalism across the globe. More than 90% of all people who make a “decision” for Christ never join a local church. This is largely the result of flawed evangelistic methods. However, world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham developed a three-part approach … Read more