Consulting the Faithful: What Christian Intellectuals Can Learn from Popular Religion

by Richard J. Mouw

The president of Pasadena's Fuller Theological Seminary carefully assesses the relationship--or lack thereof--between "popular" religion and intellectual orthodoxy. Mouw argues that therapeutic and managerial "revolutions" can bring beneficial new sensitivities to Christian thought and practice.

Genres: Theology

84 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

About the author

Richard John Mouw is a theologian and philosopher. He held the position of President at Fuller Theological Seminary for 20 years (1993-2013), and continues to hold the post of Professor of Faith and Public Life.

Reviews

[Timothy Hoiland]

I appreciated Mouw’s call here for a “hermeneutic of charity,” which means developing the discipline of trying to find the good in something that “we might otherwise reject without carefully considering their merit.” There will be time for critique; our first instinct should be charitable.

[Mark VanderWerf]

We could all - myself included - benefit from more faithfully practicing a “hermeneutic of charity” - taking a “positive look at things (and people?!) we might otherwise reject without carefully considering their merit” (13).

[Alex Strohschein]

Richard Mouw provides a conciliatory little book that addresses how theologians can learn from laity and their proclivity to practice "folk religion." Many evangelicals have embraced therapeutic insights and Christians such as John Maxwell have been champions of leadership and management methods. Mouw suggests theologians and pastors need to be attentive to why the laity is drawn to folk religion, therapeutic culture and management styles; they are turning to these things because the Church is not offering guidance on these things. He criticizes theologians for not addressing "middle" questions, the basic day-to-day ups and downs that affect average people. Scholars and clergy need to get better at offering "practical wisdom." Mouw states that ironically, Christian scholars have ignored reflective ethnography; while scholars are keen to conduct ethnographic study of foreign cultures, Christian scholars have ignored study and analysis on Christian culture. Also, while evangelicalism is often guilty of kitsch and cliche, Mouw believes these things can be used to point people to God (although he is emphatic that further discipleship should deepen one's understanding).


Mouw raises a provocative point. Roman Catholicism has traditionally been marked by the laity's influence on Rome's religion (the laity have also been important in Eastern Orthodoxy) such as their adoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Evangelicalism, on the other hand, has been a lot more suspicious of unbiblical expressions of religion (I think due to evangelicalism being more paranoid about biblical orthodoxy than Catholicism) but Mouw is an advocate of the laity's influence on evangelical theology, not in that we should embrace unbiblical practices popular among Protestants, but that theologians and laity need each other and can offer one another unique insights the other does not know. Arguably the best book I've read so far this year!