Christianity for the Rest of Us

Index	Chapter Summary	Chapter Questions
Summary Notes -
Diana Butler Bass is a professor of church history, but this book is not in third person. Having taught in colleges of both liberal and conservative Christian seminaries she was particularly observant of our contemporary history. While teaching in an evangelical college she attended a progressive episcopalian church. It was a contrast that led to this book. She undertook a research in the first person, crossing the United States to find out about resurgent mainline churches. Ch. 1. The Vanished Village. Bass grew up in Baltimore in the 50's and 60's, and like many of us, the community of her growing is no more except in our memory. It was a time and a place of boundaries, rules and roles. But since then the world has changed in "massive cultural fragmentation and emerging global chaos." It was not so much that the church of her growing up changed, but rather that the whole community had changed, and the church with it. The village had "vanished". Her family moved to Arizona in '72 and felt like "spiritual nomads". A whole generation began to feel rootless and to experience "relentless anxiety". Many people became churchless - were "barely baptized, never taught about Christian faith". Through her travels, everyone had had this experience. The church has always been "family". Throughout it's history it has been a community of people coming together, based on the "change of heart that happens when we meet God". And this she found also, that "seekers" were coming to these new churches. Later she will introduce us to her excellent idea that this rebirth is a rebirth of the "village church". Ch. 2. Remembering Christianity. In the United States, the evangelical and conservative voice of Christianity is the predominate one. And this community is rewriting their own history says Bass. Worse they are rewriting American history, and embracing the founding of America as being essentially Christian. A myth is being created to match the desire for a theocracy. This of course is alarming. A kind of "morality play" is being created, she proposes. She is concerned for her students, all the more because it is her own special subject. So she begins a short review of the real Christian history of the United States. Their history includes Jew and Catholic and a panoply of Protestant denominations. Each contributing their own story to the nation. She quotes James Monroe "The United States is so susceptible to moral combustions - to witch-hunts, moral panics, crime wars, and prohibitions - precisely because it is such an open and fluid society." For those that think America a secular state, Bass reviews the essentially Protestant signature on American culture. She seeks to give voice to the middle ground between the secular sceptic and fundamentalism. American history had the church being essentially a "hospital for sinners" and a means of avoiding hellfire. Then in the 50's the mainline churches left this imagery and the church could not easily be distinguished between other organizations. They became just another place for making connections. Her excellent image is that the church removed the spiritual element from its practice and became merely "religious", without "wonder, transcendence, and passion."
Questions - 1-1. Where did you gow up" What was the world like then? How have things changed since your childhood? 1-2. How do you think your childhood experience has shaped your spiritual longings? 1-3. Do you relate to the idea of being a "spiritual nomad?" 2.1. When you think of the religion past what images come to mind? 2-2. Do you, or people you know suffer from "historical amnesia"? 2-3. Which image for church presented in this chapter best describes your current faith community?

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