Day 31. November 15, 2006
Movement 3. Jesus Christs
Lecture 15. Jesus in Depression and War, 1914-1945 (Part 2)
The Fundamentalist Controversy during the 1920s pitted a liberal against a conservative Jesus. The liberal Jesus was the first Christian, a model of faith, Christian life, and selflessness. The conservative Jesus was not merely the first Christian, but God incarnate, the object of faith, the redemptor of sinful humanity. Some theologians such as the Niebuhr brothers, Reinhold and H. Richard, sought to bridge the gap, recognizing in Jesus perfect submission to God's will and redemption of both individual and social sin. In the popular mind, however, the Fundamentalist Controversy was and is linked with the facile theatrics of the Scopes Monkey Trial. As God the Book emerged in the Fundamentalist Movement to compete with Jesus, the Holiness or Charismatic Movement introduced other competitors: the Holy Spirit as a focus of Christian practice and - most vital to the success of this new movement - the worshipper as performer. The Charismatic Movement appealed particularly to lower classes, as exemplified at the Azusa Street Mission and Aimee Semple McPherson's Angelus Temple in the melting pot of early 20th century Los Angeles.