On this episode of the podcast, we talk with historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her NYT bestselling book Jesus and John Wayne (Liveright, 2020). The theme question of the episode: “What have we lost in our desire to win?” Some topics we discuss:
- What surprised Kristin in her research and in the book’s reception
- Who is an evangelical? Who gets to say what is mainstream to evangelicalism and what is on the fringe?
- How “Reformed” communities who have traditionally been “evangelical adjacent” fit into the picture.
- What to do when we realize how much popular culture shapes Christian identity, and what it takes to resist, repent, and repair.
- Areas for further research (the need for ethnographic studies!) and where the conversation can go from here.
If you’d like to read more you can check out the In All Things review of Kristin’s book (written by my guest co-host, Scott Culpepper): https://inallthings.org/what-has-jesus-to-do-with-john-wayne-a-review-of-jesus-and-john-wayne/
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