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Zigzagging on the Glory Road
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14104 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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1 / 1988 |
5,527 Words |
| Author
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Carl F.H. Henry
Carl F.H. Henry, an evangelical theologian, is the author of
more than thirty books, among them The Uneasy Conscience of
Modern Fundamentalism and the six-volume work God, Revelation,
and Authority. |
STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY
Jerry Falwell
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987
456 pp., $18.95
No fundamentalist entrepreneur has turned a seemingly wild imagination into as much sober reality as has Jerry Falwell. The son of an agnostic and grandson of an atheist, the indefatigable pastor-promoter has nurtured--almost incredibly--a local church of 22,000 members, gained national prominence as a network televangelist, spearheaded the political lobbying of the Moral Majority, and founded Liberty University, which now enrolls 7,500 students.
Any energetic evangelist's autobiography, ventured at age fifty-four, is unlikely to be his last word. Even so, Jerry Falwell already has much to talk about, even if Strength for the Journey antedates his resignation from an aborted effort to rescue Jim Bakker's collapsing PTL ministry, and from his own project, the Moral Majority. The importance Falwell attaches to his autobiography is evidenced by the fact that, having left the Moral Majority for pastoral priorities, he promptly embarked upon a national book promotion campaign.
Falwell emerges in this account as an embattled figure, bold in his ventures of faith, hostile to government intrusion into religious concerns. He is perhaps more responsible than anyone for the organizational impact of the so-called Religious Right and is learning gradually to cooperate with the law in an effort to rescue the credibility of both fundamentalist and charismatic televangelism. His Moral Majority lobbied vigorously for national restoration of Judeo-Christian values, fought legalized abortion, and promoted public-school prayer. It drew the venom of liberal media commentators, who considered belief in God irrelevant to political history and regarded diversity as the essence of democracy.
Falwell sports notable similarities and dissimilarities to other major televangelists. Although, like Robert Schuller, he preaches regularly to a large local congregation, he differs greatly in substance and style. Schuller stresses "positive thinking" and dismisses the Reformation doctrine of human depravity as too pessimistic; Falwell centers on Christ's propitiatory redemption of man's shameful sin and wickedness. Falwell is an independent Baptist, critical of the theological stance of charismatics (Pat Robertson) and Pentecostals (Swaggart and Bakker) and of Oral Roberts' emphasis on divine healing as a universal option
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