Author Meets Critics: The Other Evangelicals (Eerdmans, 2023)

Conventional histories of 20th century U.S. American evangelicalism have tended to focus on the emergence and proliferation of a mainstream evangelical movement characterized by its theological, social, and political conservatism, as well as its high degree of cultural homogeneity. Furthermore, by consistently portraying evangelicals as more or less monolithic, scholarly and popular narratives alike often overlook the historical contingency of some of contemporary evangelicalism’s most defining characteristics, obscuring both the movement’s internal diversity and its ongoing definitional struggles in the process. Isaac Sharp’s The Other Evangelicals reconsiders canonical histories of 20th century evangelicalism from the point of view of several of its forgotten constituencies and marginalized figures: liberal evangelicals, Black evangelicals, progressive evangelicals, feminist evangelicals, and gay evangelicals. Featuring scholars doing groundbreaking work on the racial, sexual, and gendered history of contemporary evangelicalism, this author-meets-critics panel will explore the ways in which historical and contemporary evangelical actors have shaped, defined, and constructed mainstream evangelical identity.