The Triumph of Sentimentality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism (Lucado, Warren, Osteen)

In order to understand what is going on in the church today and in effort to critique what is often lacking (Scripturally speaking), it is quite helpful to understand the major 'players'.  Few Christian authors and pastors have yielded more influence on the church than Max Lucado, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen.  All three of these celebrity pastors are quoted extensively in a helpful new book titled, Homespun Gospel: The Triumph of Sentimentality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism.  

In this book Todd Brenneman "shows how evangelicals use tropes of God as father, human beings as children, and nostalgia for an imagined idyllic home life to provide alternate sources of social authority, intended to help evangelicals survive a culture that is philosophically at odds with conservative Christianity."

Brenneman divides Homespun Gospel into four penetrating chapters.  The chapter titles alone give the reader some idea of what he or she is going to hear as they make their way through this helpful book.  1) God's in the Business of Giving Mulligans: Sentimentality and Therapeutic Culture.  2) You Are Special:  The Anti-Intellectualism of Sentimental Evangelicalism.  3) New York Times Best-Selling Author" Christian Media and the Marketing of Sentiment.  4) America Looks Up:  Sentimentality, Politics, and American Evangelicalism.