Pietism and Her Children

As Phil has commented, the Christianity Today list of the 50 most important Christian books of the last fifty years shows a decided tilt towards Christian experience over Christian truth.  In other words, it depicts a pietistic era spanning a half-century (not to be confused with piety itself, pietism is an over-emphasis on feelings and experience).  It has often -- and rightly -- been said that pietism is always the mother of liberalism.  If we were to compile a list of the most influential books of the last ten years, they would chronicle a tilt to what has generally been known as liberal theology.  The point is that when the church ceases to proclaim, explain, and vigorously defend the Bible's great truth claims, a generation arises in Israel that knows not the Lord.