Jesus V. Evangelicals: A Biblical Critique of a Wayward Movement

Constantine R. Campbell

Paperback

Description:American evangelicalism is at a crisis point.

The naked grasping at political power at the expense of moral credibility has revealed a movement in disarray. Evangelicals are now faced with a quandary: will they double-down and continue along this perilous path, or will they stop, reflect, and change course? And while support of Donald Trump has produced the tipping point of the evangelical crisis, it is not by any means its only problem.

Evangelicals claim the Bible as the supreme authority in matters of faith. But in reality, it is particular readings of the Bible that govern evangelical faith. Some evangelical readings of the Bible can be highly selective. They distort the Bible's teaching in crucial ways and often lead evangelicals to misguided attempts to relate to the world around them. Many Christians who once self-professed as "evangelicals" can no longer use the term of themselves because of what it has come to represent--power-mongering, divisiveness, judgementalism, hypocrisy, pride, greed. Some leave not just evangelicalism but Christianity for good.

Jesus v. Evangelicals is an insider's critique of the evangelical movement according to its own rules. Since evangelicals regard themselves governed by the Bible, biblical scholar Constantine Campbell engages the Bible to critique evangelicals and to call out the problems within the contemporary evangelical movement. By revealing evangelical distortions of the Bible, this book seeks to restore the dignity of the Christian faith and to renew public interest in Jesus, while calling evangelicals back to his teaching. Constantine Campbell appeals to evangelicals to break free from the grid that has distorted their understanding of the Bible and to restore public respect for Christianity in spite of its misrepresentations by the evangelical church.

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About The Author:  Constantine R. Campbell (Ph.D., Macquarie University) is Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. Previously, Dr Campbell was senior lecturer in Greek and New Testament at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia.

Dr Campbell is the author of numerous scholarly works on New Testament Greek: Basics of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek (Zondervan, 2008); Verbal Aspect and Non-Indicative Verbs: Further Soundings in the Greek of the New Testament (Peter Lang, 2008); Verbal Aspect, the Indicative Mood, and Narrative: Soundings in the Greek of the New Testament (Peter Lang, 2007) and Keep Your Greek: Strategies for Busy People (Zondervan, 2010); Colossians and Philemon: A Handbook on the Greek Text (Baylor University Press, 2013); Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament (Zondervan, 2015); and, with Richard J Gibson, Reading Biblical Greek Workbook: A Translation Guide to Mark 1-4 (Zondervan, 2017), and Reading Biblical Greek: A Grammar for Students (Zondervan, 2017).

Dr Campbell has also authored other works ranging from commentary and theology to gospel outreach, including: Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (Zondervan, 2012), winner of the 2014 Christianity Today Book Awards; Outreach and the Artist: Sharing the Gospel with the Arts (Zondervan, 2013), 1, 2 & 3 John: The Story of God Bible Commentary (Zondervan, 2017), and Not Ashamed: 2 Timothy (Aquila, 2008).

In addition to his achievements in scholarship and teaching, Dr Campbell is a gifted jazz saxophonist, who continues to play at professional level, and has recorded with such talents as James Morrison and The Idea of North. Dr Campbell is also the presenter of a seven-part documentary series In Pursuit of Paul the Apostle.

Dr Campbell lives in Illinois with his wife and three children.

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Pages: 240

Publication Date: January 2023