Articles by Richard Nathan
Richard Nathan—writer, editor, and student of church history—spent his life thinking and writing about faith, culture, and the imagination. These essays, first published across several journals and websites over the years, are gathered here in one place so that his work can continue to be read.
The Inklings, Romanticism & the Imagination
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"Christian" Romanticism, the Inklings, and the Elevation of Mythology
How the popularity of Tolkien and Lewis signaled a resurgence of occult-tinged Romanticism within evangelicalism.
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Getting an Inkling about Romantic Christianity
An introduction to “Romantic Christianity” and the spiritual lineage of the Inklings.
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The Hidden Triumph of Romantic or Imaginative Religion
The quiet triumph of imaginative, feeling-based religion over biblical truth.
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The Hidden War of "Romanticism"
Romanticism as a philosophy working, largely unseen, to reshape Christian thought.
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Children of the Inklings: Emergent "Christian" Fiction
A critique of the new wave of “edgy” Christian fiction importing dark-fantasy and occult themes.
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When Fantasy Becomes the Voice of Faith: How Edgy "Christian" Fiction Is Transforming Today's Church
How edgy “Christian” fiction is reshaping the church’s imagination.
The Emerging Church & the “Evangelical Meltdown”
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Emerging from the Emerging Church
Re-examining C.S. Lewis and the worldview of the emerging church.
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The Second Great Evangelical Meltdown — Part 1
Part 1 — the sea-changes quietly weakening evangelicalism, read through Scripture and church history.
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The Second Great Evangelical Meltdown — Part 2: Unmasking "Postmodernism"
Part 2 — why “postmodernism” is a misdiagnosis used to justify conforming to the world.
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The Second Great Evangelical Meltdown — Part 3: The "Romantic" Assault
Part 3 — Romanticism as the hidden force behind the church’s transformation.
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Green Like Envy: An Ex-pagan Looks at Blue Like Jazz
An ex-pagan’s response to Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz and the emergent movement.
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Post-Modern Man Enters the Body of Christ
How postmodern assumptions entered — and changed — the church.
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Drucker-Driven, Murdoch-Driven Church
The influence of corporate and media models on the modern church.
Jung, Gnosticism, Hermeticism & Syncretism
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Carl G. Jung: Man of Science or Modern Shaman?
Was Jung a man of science, or a modern shaman whose Gnostic ideas infiltrated the church?
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The Hermeticist Next Door: Part II
How Hermetic and esoteric ideas take root in everyday evangelicalism.
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"Christian" Magic
On the rebranding of magic and esoteric practice as “Christian” spirituality.
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Tares in Protestantism: Rosicrucianism and Evangelicalism
Rosicrucian and esoteric streams sown quietly among Protestant evangelicalism.
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Mere Syncretism
The blending of incompatible religious ideas under the banner of Christian “unity.”
Scripture, the Cross & the Church
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Recovering the Scandal of Liberalism: Disdaining the Cross
A critique of theology that disdains the cross and penal substitutionary atonement.
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Mythology and the Erosion of Inerrancy
How a taste for myth has eroded confidence in the inerrancy of Scripture.
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"Mere Anglicanism"
When a Lewis-style “Christian unity” quietly legitimizes syncretism.
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Nancy Pearcey and Chuck Colson
A close reading of Pearcey and Colson on worldview and Romantic religion.
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Wonderments — Strange Situations in the Modern Church
Strange situations in the modern church — questions worth asking.
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What Would It Take to Get You to Go to Church?
“What would it take to get you to go to church?” A pointed reflection.