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‘Reformed Resurgence,’ with Brad Vermurlen

July 29th, 2021 | 2 min read

By Matthew Lee Anderson

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. The guest on this episode, Brad Vermurlen, decided to apply the tools of sociology to the young, restless, and reformed, and see what turns 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.

Mere Fidelity is sponsored by Lexham Press, featuring the Mere Fidelity Book of the Month.

Mere Fidelity listers enjoy exclusive monthly discounts on books from Lexham Press. To see this month’s featured book (as well as those from previous months) visit www.lexhampress.com/merefidelity.

Timestamps:

100 Days of Dante [0:00]

That New Calvinist Movement [1:42]

A Causal Explanation [6:09]

Driscoll, Piper, Keller [11:06]

The Other Evangelical Tribes [15:29]

Resurging how? [18:46]

Strategic Action Field Theory | A Theory of Fields [21:58]

Did it work? [27:00]

Socio-economic Class Stratification [34:53]

Church attendance alone does not a Calvinist make. [38:43]

Precipitating Causes [40:44]

A Need for Strong Authority [44:00]

Whither New Calvinism? [47:58]

 

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Follow DerekAndrew, 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.

Matthew Lee Anderson

Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.