‘Reformed Resurgence,’ with Brad Vermurlen

Matt and Derek discuss the 'Reformed Resurgence' with Dr. Brad Vermurlen, scholar of that movement.

Brad Vermurlen

There’s a movement in Evangelicalism you may have heard of: the New Calvinism. Apart from its theological significance, it turns out that this sort of movement is of great interest to sociologists too. Dr. Brad Vermurlen decided to apply the tools of sociology to the Young, Restless, and Reformed, and to see what turned up. His book is Reformed Resurgence: The New Calvinist Movement and the Battle Over American Evangelicalism. He talks about his fascinating results with Matt and Derek, about the Evangelical landscape, the secular landscape, the movement of the Holy Ghost, new models of leadership behavior, and demographic factors that all point to the direction that the New Calvinism is headed.

The book referenced around 21:58 is A Theory of Fields.

Go to the 100 Days of Dante website to learn about (and sign up for) Matt’s new project!

The Book of the Month is Theology is for Preaching: Biblical Foundations, Method, and Practice, edited by Chase R. Kuhn and Paul Grimmond. Theology Is for Preaching helps preachers with theology and theologians with preaching. Though diverse in contexts and disciplines, the contributors share a commitment to equipping the saints to “rightly handle the word of truth.” Through essays on foundations, methods, employing theology for preaching, and preaching for theology, this volume will equip preachers and theologians to engage deeply with the text of the Bible and communicate its meaning with clarity. For the month of July 2021, Mere Fidelity listeners will get a 40% discount on their purchase of this volume with the code MEREFIDELITYJUL21 at checkout.

Timestamps

0:00
100 Days of Dante
1:42
That New Calvinist Movement
6:09
A Causal Explanation
11:06
Driscoll, Piper, Keller
15:29
The Other Evangelical Tribes
18:46
Resurging how?
21:58
Strategic Action Field Theory
27:00
Did it work?
34:53
Socio-Economic Class Stratification
38:43
Church attendance alone does not a Calvinist make.
40:44
Precipitating Causes
44:00
A Need for Strong Authority
47:58
Whither New Calvinism?

Follow Derek, Andrew, and Alastair for more tweet-sized brilliance. Thanks to Timothy Crouch for keeping us organized. Thanks to Tim Motte for sound editing. And thanks to The Joy Eternal for lending us their music, which everybody should download out of gratitude for their kindness.

Evangelicalism Sociology New Calvinism
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