Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics [Hardcover]

Jonathan Dudley (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 5, 2011

Abortion. Homosexuality. Environmentalism. Evolution. Conservative positions on these topics have divided American politics and defined mainstream evangelical Christianity. But what if the strongest arguments against popular evangelical stances on these issues come from evangelical Christianity itself?

   

Growing up as an evangelical Christian, Jonathan Dudley was taught that abortion is murder, homosexuality sin, evolution nonsense, and environmentalism a farce. He learned to accept these conclusions--the "big four"--as part of the package deal of Christianity. Yet, when he began studying biology at the evangelical Calvin College and theology at Yale Divinity School, Dudley's views started to change. He soon realized that what he had been told about the Bible--and those four big issues involving scripture and biology--may have been misconstrued and that what so many Christians believe about key social and political issues may be wrong. 
   

Arguing against absolutism on abortion and opposition to embryonic stem cell research, Dudley shows that most Christian theologians throughout history, including Augustine, Aquinas, and even American evangelicals up until the 1980s, have believed that life does not begin at conception. He argues that evangelical opposition to gay marriage has more to do with allegiance to socially conservative cultural values than allegiance to the Bible. He demonstrates that traditional Christian valuations of science, as well as scientific evidence itself, should lead evangelicals to accept evolution and reject both creationism and intelligent design. And he surveys how evangelicals are changing their minds about environmentalism, and how this development supports a new way of thinking about the Bible. Throughout the book, Dudley, now an M.D. student at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, also illustrates the scientific problems with popular evangelical views. 

In the process, he lays the groundwork for a new generation of post-Religious Right evangelical political activists, who believe in evolution, rally behind the environmental movement, are moderate on abortion, and support gay marriage--and who are more faithful to orthodox Christianity than their counterparts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dudley clearly feels discussion, reasoning, and reconciliation rather than intransigence and rigid partisanship ought to be characteristic of popular evangelicals. Excellent argumentation, by no means only, though especially, for evangelicals."

-Booklist

"Jonathan Dudley is a young man on a mission, and in Broken Words he makes a significant contribution to fulfilling it."

-The Presbyterian Outlook

"Dudley's potentially controversial book is cleanly, persuasively written and based on in-depth theological and historical scholarship."

-Hopkins Medicine Magazine

"Jonathan Dudley brings theological sophistication, scientific savvy and historical sensitivity to this astute analysis of four central issues in today's culture wars. Broken Words is essential reading for anyone who aspires to reclaim evangelicalism from the Religious Right." –Randall Balmer, Columbia University Professor of American Religious History and Author of Thy Kingdom Come

"Hands down, Broken Words is the most insightful, clear-eyed, and popularly useful overview to date of why and how Evangelicalism has come to be such a powerful and intractable political and doctrinal bloc in American affairs over the last half century. Written in vivid, conversational style, Words also carries within itself the gentleness of affection and familial courtesy, for Dudley was himself reared evangelical. There is no meanness of spirit here, no clanging of swords. There is simply an urgent demand that we look now and accurately at how politics has led many among us to reversals of our historic faith and practice and, ultimately, to divisive and destructive civil policies and prejudices." –Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why
 
"Jonathan Dudley has rendered a great service with this brilliant book. By taking on the use by social conservatives of both science and scripture to push their agenda with regards to abortion, homosexuality, evolution, and environmentalism, Dudley exposes the inconsistencies and contradictions in their claims as well as their methods of interpretation and arguing. The remarkable aspect of Dudley's book is its astonishing juxtaposition of scientific and religious knowledge and sensibilities. Dudley is equally educated in theology, biblical studies, and biological sciences. The combination is unusual and notable. The writing accessible and elegant." –Dale B. Martin, Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University

About the Author

JONATHAN DUDLEY has appeared on CNN's Newsroom with Kyra Phillips and his writing has been featured on CNN.com, Salon.com, The Huffington Post, Religion Dispatches and the Yale Daily News. He graduated from Calvin College a year early with honors and a perfect GPA prior to studying ethics at Yale University (M.A., summa cum laude) and medicine at Johns Hopkins.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Crown (April 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385525265
• ISBN-13: 978-0385525268
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #718,778 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jonathan Dudley is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and currently an M.D. student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has written for CNN, the Huffington Post, and the Yale Daily News and has also appeared on CNN.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Really, Really Excellent August 12, 2011

By Ventura D

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was skeptical that a person of Dudley's age and educational background would have enough knowledge to write a book like this, but I was wrong. This book has considerable depth. I have taught biological science to non-majors and evolution to undergraduates at a major university, and my conclusions are largely congruent with Dudley's on the science. I have also read Mark Noll's "Scandal of the Evangelical Mind" which Dudley cites, and Dudley's historical information agrees with Noll's where the data overlap. The approach to interpreting scripture that Dudley would seem to prefer is consistent with that presented in the Presybterian "Confession of 1967". I haven't yet attempted to check out Dudley's assertions about the political history, but this will be aided by the 40 pages of notes provided (representing 20% of the book).

The real eye-opener to me was the history of the four main topics that Dudley discusses. I had no idea that the Evangelical stance on abortion was so recent and so different from Christianity at other times in its history. Dudley suggests that these four issues (abortion, positions on homosexuality, environment, and evolution) are important to Evangelicals for reasons that go beyond their understanding of the Bible. This gets into the realm of motives, which are a bit more difficult to pin down, but I suspect that his analysis is correct.

The book is well-written, easy to understand, and not too polemical. Dudley is sympathetic with Christianity and his Evangelical roots, and seems to try to present these viewpoints fairly.

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Book July 16, 2011

By Nimrod Scott

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I too am someone who grew up through the evangelical tribe from a sound evangelical church and two years at Covenant College.

My first years in college (Belhaven) brought me face to face with a world that had merely been viewed in abstract, and confronted me with perspectives that were new and mind blowing. My freshman biology professor was the first person I'd ever heard who spoke unapologetically about evolution, my sophomore philosophy professor introduced me to analytical thinking (instead of culturing belief as something handed down from people that you never question).

This is one of the 10 best books on Christianity I've read in the last 30 years for the following reasons:

1) It carries me through familiar territory, but shows me pathways and river crossings never encountered. I know many evangelical friends who are pro-life, but neither I nor they had come across(or disclosed) the information on Jewish values (pp. 31-34).

2) It introduces me to an historical turn of events that affected my friends and family but left me in the dark. I completely missed the historical moment when the evangelical antiabortion movement joined with the Catholic NRLC.

3) It recalls truths learned in school 3 decades ago. In one particular it reminded me of a class taken my senior year in college (The Philosophy of Science, at Western Kentucky University). On p. 80 Jonathan points out:

"But if our interpretative lens is "cemented to our face", to quote Abraham Kuyper, then it cannot be taken off when we read the Bible."

My philosophy professor made a similiar point when talking about how the philosphical underpinnings of the theory of evolution could be shaken with a critique of the underlying epistemology----but as the evangelicals in the class cheered, he pointed out that the same critique could apply to Biblical Hermaneutics as many evangelicals practiced it.

I really appreciate the even-handedness that is displayed by the author when churning through recent evangelical history. His implicit charity shone through every chapter.

4) The fourth reason this is such a great book: it will allow me to interact and respond to my evangelical friends in a more compassionate and loving way, now that I have a better grasp of the framework of their beliefs.

This is a book I look forward to sharing with friends and reading again.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening overview of the history of Christian thought on hot-button issues August 30, 2011

By S. Autrand

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I read this book from the perspective of a born-again evangelical Christian who has found it impossible to reconcile the political stance of many of my fellow believers with what I read in the Bible. Jonathan Dudley's scholarship reveals the roots of contemporary evangelical Christian thought and explores how unholy alliances have indeed led to the "abuse of science and faith in American politics" in recent decades.