"Salvation inflation?"
That's how Christianity Today online headlines its interview with political scientist Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and Public Life at Boston College and author of the most recent assessment of the interplay of American faith and popular culture: The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith.Provocatively, Wolfe has written, "in the United States culture has transformed Christ, as well as all other religions found within these shores. In every aspect of the religious life, American faith has met American culture--and American culture has triumphed."
He credits faith--especially evangelical Christianity--with providing empowerment, an ethic of non-judgment, and a strong and positive sense of self confidence to Americans. And, he intimates, those qualities seem to be an outcome of Christianity's interaction with the mythos of the United States.
But at the same time, Wolfe is wary about what he calls "salvation inflation," in which people (regardless of faith background) "confess fewer and fewer sins and are rewarded with more and more."
For a critical assessment of Wolfe's project, see sociologist R. Stephen Warner's review, "They're OK, We're OK: So Much for Being 'Resident Aliens'."
.: Posted by Duane Bidwell on Tuesday, March 16, 2004
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