Post‐Evangelicalism, Ex‐Evangelicalism, Progressive Evangelicalism

ABSTRACT Evangelical disenchantment—a concept coined by historian David Hempton—is not new, but has manifested in new ways in the twenty‐first century. The departure from conservative evangelicalism by those termed ex‐ and post‐evangelicals has altered the landscape of American Christianity. I argue for the utility of the term “post‐evangelical,” which reflects the tension of continuity and discontinuity, history and present context. Many post‐evangelicals continue to embody evangelical tenets including the centrality of scripture, belief in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the drive to spread Christian messages, while separating themselves semantically and institutionally from evangelicalism. This essay discusses the extant literature relating to post‐evangelicalism and related movements including the progressive evangelicals of the 1970s, the emerging church movement of the 1990s and the 2010s, and recent treatments of twenty‐first century post‐ and ex‐evangelicals. By highlighting a group of post‐evangelical feminists on digital media, I demonstrate the relevance of post‐evangelicalism to recent developments in American Christianity and argue that there is more work to be done on the phenomenon of religious disaffiliation.