The Last Days Are Here Again: A History of the End Times

(As we inch closer and closer to the third millennium, the...)

As we inch closer and closer to the third millennium, the intensity of end-times predictions has reached a fever pitch. The magic phrase The Year 2000 has many looking for evidence of biblical prophecy and pointing their fingers at contemporary events, claiming that Christ is prepared to return for his church. Although the calendar has driven many writers and preachers to focus on the supposed unique nature of our age, speculation on the last days is far from a novel phenomenon. As Richard Kyle points out, this speculation has run rampant for nearly 2,000 years. Rather than simply focusing on specific time periods or movements, Kyle takes a comprehensive look at the history of thought about the end times, offering a fair treatment of various millennial positions by incorporating an intellectual/cultural approach. Kyle also takes a look at secular apocalyptic thought and end-of-the-world ideas espoused by fringe groups such as the Heavens Gate cult. Anyone curious about end-times speculation or interested in prophecy and history will find The Last Days Are Here Again an intriguing resource.

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The Ministry of John Knox: Pastor, Preacher, and Prophet (Texts and Studies in Religion, V. 93)

(Dr. Kyle presents here a vigorous, well documented accoun...)

Dr. Kyle presents here a vigorous, well documented account of important aspects of John Knox's character and mission, topics often passed over, or discounted in the standard histories. The result is a fuller, more rounded appreciation of a complex, paradoxical historical figure. Finally, we are given a clearer picture of Knox's distinctive place within the larger scene of the early modern religious upheavals that carried much of Europe away from the medieval Church of Rome. In the religious revolution that swept across Scotland in the latter sixteenth century, few personal influences were more decisive than that of John Knox. Yet scholars over the centuries since have found the eminent Scots reformer a puzzling and controversial figure about whom consensus has proven elusive. The shadow side of Knox's character and career has been frequently delineated. He is sometimes described as, above all, a rigid, rabble-rousing religious fanatic bent on achieving his goal--a truly godly Scotland--by whatever means necessary. Indeed, John Knox reserved a special contempt for Roman Catholicism. In sermons, letters, and pamphlets, as well as in his History of the Reformation in Scotland, Knox denounced the Catholic Church in such terms as "whore of Babylon" and "synagogue of Satan." He despised it for what he saw as its ingrained corruption and willful distortions of the biblical Word of God. Critics have claimed that it was Knox's unquenchable hatred of the Church of Rome that blinded him to all else. Some contend that it was this loathing, above all, that goaded him to sow religious bigotry and violence across the land and destroy what was most venerable and beautiful in the old order. In its place, he imposed a joyless, puritanical form of Christianity. Here, then, is the core of the indictment.

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Evangelicalism: An Americanized Christianity by Kyle, Richard (2006) Hardcover

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Awaiting the Millennium: A History of End-time Thought

(good condition)

good condition

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The New Age Movement in American Culture

(The philosophical and practical aspects of the New Age re...)

The philosophical and practical aspects of the New Age religious movement pervade American culture. The New Age Movement in American Culture is a comprehensive cultural history that surveys the major developments of the movement and demonstrates that the New Age, like most alternative religions, reflects its culture in that it exaggerates current trends at times but will also at times reject them in lieu of another path. Kyle thoroughly evaluates the New Age and finds that several themes are prominent. The twelve concise chapters that make up this book address these themes. Contents: The New Age Has Arrived; The New Age and the Occult Tradition; Precursors of the New Age in America; American Society and the New Age; The Modern New Age; New Age Religious and Philosophical Assumptions; Science and Education in the New Age; The New Age Reaches One: Politics and Economics; The New Age Turns Inward: Salvation through Psychology; Health and Healing in the New Age; The 'Pop' New Age: Occult Practices; Evaluating the New Age.

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The Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America

(Richard Kyle traces th origins and development of alterna...)

Richard Kyle traces th origins and development of alternative religions in America, focusing on a historical description of what these groups believe and practice, what condiions have enabled them to flourish, and what their influence has been on culture.

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Evangelicalism: An Americanized Christianity

( Most forms of religion are best understood in the con- ...)

Most forms of religion are best understood in the con- text of their relationship with the surrounding culture. This may be particularly true in the United States. Certainly immigrant Catholicism became Americanized; mainstream Protestantism accommodated itself to the modern world; and Reform Judaism is at home in American society. In Evangelicalism, Richard Kyle explores paradoxical adjustments and transformations in the relationship between conservative Protestant Evangelicalism and contemporary American culture. Evangelicals have resisted many aspects of the modern world, but Kyle focuses on what he considers their romance with popular culture. Kyle sees this as an Americanized Christianity rather than a Christian America, but the two are so intertwined that it is difficult to discern the difference between them. Instead, in what has become a vicious self-serving cycle, Evangelicals have baptized and sanctified secular culture in order to be considered culturally relevant, thus increasing their numbers and success within abundantly populous and populist-driven American society. In doing so, Evangelicalism has become a middle-class movement, one that dominates America's culture, and unabashedly populist. Many Evangelicals view America as God's chosen nation, thus sanctifying American culture, consumerism, and middle-class values. Kyle believes Evangelicals have served themselves well in consciously and deliberately adjusting their faith to popular culture. Yet he also thinks Evangelicals may have compromised themselves and their future in the process, so heavily borrowing from the popular culture that in many respects the Evangelical subculture has become secularism with a light gilding of Christianity. If so, he asks, can Evangelicalism survive its own popularity and reaffirm its religious origins, or will it assimilate and be absorbed into what was once known as the Great American Melting Pot of religions and cultures? Will the Gospel of the American dream ultimately engulf and destroy the Gospel of Evangelical success in America? This thoughtful and thought-provoking volume will interest anyone concerned with the modern-day success of the Evangelical movement in America and the aspirations and fate of its faithful.

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