Ep. 650: Bonnie Kristian in Defense of Evangelicalism

Bonnie Kristian is a journalist, author and deputy editor at Christianity Today whose work has appeared in publications including The Week, The New York Times and Politico. She came to journalism while studying theology at an evangelical seminary, and that combination of theological training and journalistic experience has shaped much of her work.

Her new book, In Defense of Evangelicalism: A Response to Its Cultured Despisers, makes a provocative argument: Evangelicalism has serious problems, but the increasingly common wholesale condemnation of the movement is unfair, and evangelicalism is worth reforming rather than abandoning. Kristian takes on critics including Kristin Du Mez, Beth Allison Barr and Tim Alberta, arguing that critics sometimes mistake the movement’s fringes for its center while acknowledging that evangelicals have genuine failures to address.

The book has received strong praise from figures including theologian Carl Trueman, who called it a “kind, generous work,” and National Association of Evangelicals president Walter Kim, who called it “a vital service to the public.” But the book has also drawn substantial criticism. Christian Century reviewer Sam Gee argues that Kristian’s defense relies too heavily on separating mainstream evangelicals from their problematic fringes and questions whether she sufficiently reckons with evangelicalism’s political and theological entanglements. Today, we’ll talk with Bonnie Kristian about what evangelicalism is—and whether it is worth defending.

The producer for today’s program is Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you.

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