Market forces flattened evangelical theological distinctives into a generic consumer identity

Evidence

The CBA solved the distribution problem, but it also changed the market—and the publishing industry feeding that market. With a broader Christian market replacing denominational distribution channels, authors and publishers needed to tone down theological distinctives and instead offer books pitched to a broadly evangelical readership. Books on “Christian living” achieved this goal without offending denominational sensibilities. Together with Christian music, radio, and television, the Christian publishing industry helped create an identity based around a more generic evangelical ethos. It was in this milieu that evangelical celebrities—singers, actors, and authors, popular pastors and revivalists—would play an outsized role in both reflecting and shaping the cultural values evangelicals would come to hold dear. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 73

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The causal mechanism at the heart of the book: commercial distribution logic forced evangelicals to tone down theology, which produced an identity organized around lifestyle rather than doctrine. Dense and paradigm-shifting for understanding religious identity formation.
• XREF: Parallel to Milgrom’s finding that institutions emerge where information is costly and markets shape norms — here the CBA market structure reshapes religious content toward generic ‘Christian living.’ Also resonates with the ‘Immodesty’ article’s point that moral panics often mask commercial/identity dynamics. — connects to: Early advertising borrowed the Bible’s structure for promising cures to the despairing — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 92