Reformed Resurgence: The New Calvinist Movement and the Battle Over American Evangelicalism (Oxford University Press, 2020)
One of the most significant movements in contemporary American Christianity, especially among younger evangelicals, is a groundswell of interest in the Reformed tradition. In Reformed Resurgence, Brad Vermurlen provides a comprehensive sociological account of this phenomenon — known as the New Calvinism — and what it entails for the broader evangelical landscape in the United States.
Vermurlen develops a new theory for understanding how conservative religion can be strong and thriving in our current hyper-modern Western world. His novel approach uses and expands on “strategic action field theory,” a recent framework proposed for the study of movements and organizations but rarely applied to religion. This new approach to American religion moves beyond market dynamics and cultural happenstance and instead shows how religious strength can be fought for and won as the direct result of religious leaders’ strategic actions and conflicts.
But the battle comes at a cost. For the same reasons conservative Calvinistic belief is experiencing a resurgence in its field, present-day American evangelicalism has turned in on itself. Vermurlen argues that, in the end, evangelicalism in the United States today consists of pockets of subcultural and local strength within the bigger process of secularization as “cultural entropy,” in which longstanding religious meanings fall apart. (304 pages)
Praise for Reformed Resurgence
“Beyond the strategies employed by New Calvinists to gain power within evangelicalism, Brad Vermurlen shows the theological underpinnings of much of evangelical political thinking today. Reformed Resurgence is a must read for those seeking to understand this important segment of American religion and how it may play out in the future.”
–Richard Flory, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California
“This prescient analysis of the Calvinist-inspired neo-Reformed movement has valuable lessons to teach us about the uneasy relationship between Protestant orthodoxy, evangelicalism, and American culture. This book is one that observers, apologists, and critics of American evangelicalism would do well to read with care.”
–John P. Bartkowski, Department of Sociology, The University of Texas at San Antonio
“Overall, the theoretical depth of Reformed Resurgence is one of its standout strengths. […The book will] be of interest to sociologists of religion for its rigorous account of competing theories of religious vitality and a novel field-theoretic approach to explaining religious strength. It will also appeal widely to scholars and observers of American religion because of its nuanced description and contextualization of an emerging religious, political, and cultural force in the United States. Further, beyond these more immediate audiences, the book’s argument has something important to offer social scientists more broadly—a ‘sociology of theologies’ that pays attention to the far-reaching social significance of religious particularities.”
–Roger Baumann, Hope College, writing in American Journal of Sociology
“For four years, from 2012 to 2016, Vermurlen embedded himself in what he calls the New Calvinist movement and interviewed 75 key leaders from across the evangelical spectrum about the growth of Calvinism. The result is a powerhouse of a book that is narratively rich, tonally empathetic, and sophisticated in scholarship.”
–Nathan A. Finn, North Greenville University, writing at The Gospel Coalition
“Brad Vermurlen is actually perfectly fair in saying [the New Calvinism] was really more about symbolic capital. It was more about trying to create a situation in which more young people saw that this was a real viable place to stand. […] There is a downside to it, but I don’t know how else you do it other than what we did. […] I thought the book was great and fair.”
–Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church
“Reformed Resurgence is a must read to understand the dynamics of contemporary evangelicalism.”
–Aaron Renn, commentator on Christianity and the modern world
“Is there actually a resurgence, a numerical growth, of the Reformed among America’s evangelicals? To answer that question, Brad Vermurlen, in Reformed Resurgence, applies his skills in sociological analysis to explore the nuances needed to answer that question with confidence and clarity. […] This is not a book that tells us if the [New Calvinism] is good or bad but one that describes how it can be called a movement and what happened that led to becoming a movement. I look forward to conversations about this book.”
–Scot McKnight, professor at Northern Seminary
“This is a scholarly work that is approachable in its tone and relevant for those trying to make sense of rising religious conservative movements that appear to be thriving even as their beliefs and practices become more countercultural in our pluralistic society. […] Vermurlen’s approach to New Calvinism, and to the larger evangelical field, has influenced how I teach students, how I write about relevant religion and public life issues, and how I make sense of the confusing landscape of Evangelicalism. Highly recommended.”
–Chelsea Langston Bombino, Program Officer at Fetzer Institute
“Vermurlen’s book is not a valorization of the New Calvinism nor a take-down of it. He is offering a study of the New Calvinism in light of the sociology of religion in the American context. And, let me say, it is a truly fascinating read.”
–Michael F. Bird, Lecturer in Theology at Ridley College
“This is a fascinating in-depth sociological study of New Calvinism. …indispensable not only for understanding New Calvinism but also for anyone desiring insight into sociological methodologies for understanding the newer strands of Evangelicalism.”
–Steve Bishop, writing in Journal for Christian Scholarship
“I cannot praise Vermurlen’s work too highly and urge it upon the readers of this journal. We will not soon see evaluative writing about the New Calvinist movement carried out with this same blend of understanding and critical evaluation.”
–Kenneth J. Stewart, writing in Themelios
Vermurlen “recognizes the issues motivating and plaguing the evangelical movement, and his study of this one aspect is a helpful tool towards comprehending the whole. As evangelicalism has no central body, whether official authorities or precise doctrine, the theologically and culturally conservative wing, with its ample Calvinist intelligentsia, has in many ways stepped into the vacuum and provided a clear voice for Christians looking for guidance amidst the clouds of cultural confusion.”
