Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism

Still Christian: Following Jesus Out of American Evangelicalism

by David P . Gushee (Author)

Synopsis

In this provocative tell-all, David Gushee gives an insider's look at the frictions and schisms of evangelical Christianity, based on his experiences that began with becoming a born-again Southern Baptist in 1978 to being kicked out of evangelicalism in 2014 for his stance on LGBT inclusion in the church. But Gushee's religious pilgrimage proves even broader than that, as he leads his reader through his childhood experiences in Roman Catholicism, his difficult days at the liberal Union Seminary in New York, his encounters with the Christian Right, and more. In telling his story, Gushee speaks to the cultural divisions of a generation, as well as of today, and to those who have themselves been disillusioned by many battles within American Christianity. As he describes his own struggles to find the right path at different stages of his journey, he highlights the turning points and decisions that we all face. When do we compromise, and when we do we stand our ground? Is holding to moral conviction worth sacrificing friendship, jobs, and security? As he takes us through his sometimes-amusing, sometimes-heartbreaking, and always-stirring journey, Gushee shows us that we can retain our faith in Christ even when Christians disappoint us.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 18 Aug 2017

ISBN 10: 0664263372
ISBN 13: 9780664263379

Media Reviews
David Gushee is one of our finest public theologians, in a moment when global life needs public theology reimagined and resurrected. In laying bare his deepest questions and confusions alongside his deepest clarity and fidelity, David Gushee shows us how this way of being Christian might also be a redemptive force for our time.

- Krista Tippett, Executive Producer/Host, On Being + Curator, The Civil Conversations Project


The spiritual journey is far more difficult and painful than most of us like to admit. In >Still Christian, David Gushee speaks with a candor and clarity that is both rare and refreshing about the meandering nature of faith. Like a conversation with an old friend over coffee, he shares a story that so many of us who claim Christ or engaged organized religion can find ourselves in and process our own story from.

-John Pavlovitz, author of A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community


As a thinking person of faith in a world where the church and academy are viewed at odds with one another, David Gushee's memoir reveals a vulnerability bound to a firm belief that the lives of those who follow Jesus need to be spent saving souls without losing minds, especially their own. Any scholar wondering why they're still Christian will find solace in his testimony.

--Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Associate Professor of Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School


Memoirs are fragile genres for theologians, but Gushee's memoir is a must read for Christians and non-Christians so both kinds of readers will better understand the challenges of being Christian in this fearful time.

-Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Duke University Divinity School


Anyone who wants to know what a Christian ethicist is and does can begin here, with the compelling account of how one man makes life-bending decisions about things that matter, without ever losing faith in the tender Jesus who has hold of his soul.

-Barbara Brown Taylor, author of Leaving Church and Learning to Walk in the Dark
Simply Christian takes us on the journey of a Christian leader who endeavors to maintain his integrity while navigating his way from a rigid fundamentalism with its right wing political agenda into a progressive world view. The author describes the conflicts and pains that may have to be endured by any who would dare to make a similar journey. I loved this book!

-Tony Campolo, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Eastern University


This is a story of finding faith and almost losing it, of struggling with spirituality but sticking with it. It's David's story, but it is also mine. And perhaps it is yours, too. In these pages, one of our wisest voices has spoken. I strongly suggest you listen.

-Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch


Like examining the rings on a tree, David Gushee's life tells a story of the last half-century of Christianity in America. He's been a part of church battles and political battles. He's been the darling of conservatives and progressives. In the end, he is a Christian ethicist who's valiantly followed his conscience. Now that he's quitting the culture wars, we all have a lot to learn from him. These have been tumultuous years for the church in America, and Gushee's autobiography stands as a memorial to all we've gained and lost.

-Tony Jones, author of Did God Kill Jesus?


Like David, I spent most of my life hanging onto Jesus in the midst of that relentless storm of anti-intellectual sexism, homophobia, and climate change denial better known as American evangelicalism, until all I had left was my devotion to loving relationships and social justice and my overwhelming sense of wonder. Unlike me, however, David has come through with both faith and intellect intact, deeply and wisely committed to making the Church more worthy of its founder. As much as I wish he'd come help me pursue goodness in secular ways, this book joyfully testifies to the fact that he's right where he belongs. You Christians are lucky to have him!

-Bart Campolo, humanist chaplain at the University of Southern California and coauthor (with Tony Campolo) of Why I Left, Why I Stayed: Conversations on Christianity between an Evangelical Father and His Humanist Son


Testimonies remain an important component of the Christian worship experience, for they reveal how less than perfect humans wrestle with God. Still Christian is the testimony of an influential Christian ethicist which enfleshes what it means to remain faithful. One can learn more about Christian ethics reading Gushee's testimony then academic theses on the subject.

-Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies, Iliff School of Theology


David Gushee has been in almost `every room where it happens' in American Christianity. From Post Vatican II Catholic, to right-wing Evangelical, to radical Liberationist, Gushee's surprising spiritual sojourn offers a singular insight into Christianity in America that is both disturbing and beautiful. Still Christian is one part anthropology, one part political history, and one part vocational struggle; yet taken as a whole it is about one man's search for the best way to love Jesus in a complex and conflicted world.

- Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Senior Vice President at Auburn Seminary, and Editor of Voices.


Bearing witness from intersection of religion, culture, and politics, Gushee tells an insider's tale of the lost battle for the soul of Evangelicalism. HIs writing is by turns searingly honest, elegiac, fascinating, and inspiring. But what does it matter? It matters because many of us, insiders and outsiders to this larger story, know so little about the essentially religious family feud that threatens now to undo our indivisible union. It's time to tune in.

-Ken Wilson, Copastor of Blue Ocean Faith, Ann Arbor, and author of A Letter to My Congregation and, with Emily Swan, Solus Jesus


Open, honest, and informed, Christian ethicist David Gushee's Still Christian> invites readers behind the scenes of the evangelical movement as Gushee interrogates his own evangelical faith roots, journey, and eventual ouster from the movement. Still Christian is mandatory reading for such a time as this.

-Lisa Sharon Harper, speaker, activist and author of The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right


David Gushee is one of the most thoughtful Christian thinkers writing today. Still Christian gives an astute and troubling account of the turbulent changes in American evangelical Christianity in recent decades and how these changes continue to shape the broader religious landscape. It is also a brave, honest, and deeply personal account of what it means to remain Christian in the early twenty-first century.- Victoria J. Barnett, General Editor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition
David Gushee contains multitudes. He's a progressive Evangelical Christian who left Catholicism because of weak post-Vatican II catechisis. He seeks justice both for LGBT persons and prenatal children. He's been president of the most important scholarly societies in our field, but is also a die-hard political activist and dedicated pastor. Now identifying as Batholic , he has returned to his Catholic faith, but without leaving Evangelical Christianity. If you suspect the story of how someone became such an interestingly-complex Christ-follower might be worth reading about, you are correct. Christians of all kinds should pick up this readable book-but only if they are ready to be challenged, moved, and inspired. - Charles C. Camosy is Associate Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University
After reading the book, I think you'll feel as I do: that his wise, kind, and honest voice is needed now more than ever. If you're conflicted about the term `Evangelical' in the Trump years, you especially need this book. It might help you stay Christian.

-- Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration


Still Christian is an excellent book, both a lover's quarrel and a cautionary tale.

-Randall Balmer John Phillips Professor in Religion, Dartmouth College Author of Evangelicalism in America


David Gushee articulates beautifully and personally the journey many Christians today are facing: finding a way to remain `still Christian' in a complex and challenging world where the black-and-white biblicistic Evangelical/Fundamentalist faith of one's youth has lost much of its explanatory value. David has lived it, and his courage, conviction, and honesty will certainly resonate with many, as they do with me. - Peter Enns, Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University and author of The Sin of Certainty
David Gushee has written a heartfelt, accessible, deeply personal memoir. Still Christian is a moving account of his journey through four decades of asking difficult questions about how Christian faith ought to inform one's positions on the thorniest ethical and political issues of our time.

-Jim Wallis, New York Times bestselling author of America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, president of Sojourners, and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine

Author Bio
David P. Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University. One of the leading voices in American Christianity today, he is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including A Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends: From Fear to Faith in Unsettled Times. An award-winning blogger for Religion News Service, he is the President-Elect of the American Academy of Religion and President of the Society of Christian Ethics. Visit his website at www.davidpgushee.com.