In 1923, the church in the United States was in a crisis. Modernist theology born in pre-War Europe now gripped a country experiencing vibrant technological and societal change. America in the “Roaring Twenties” was booming. Fashion was changing. Music was faster, louder. BusterKeaton and Charlie Chaplin were astonishing moviegoers with impossible stunts. The cities wereelectric. Industry was booming. The country was three years into a progressive prohibition of hard liquor. For the first time, a person could fly non-stop from New York to Seattle. President Harding was the first president to be elected by women who’d won the right to vote. Even so, much of the country remained racially segregated. Mass produced cars, trucks, and tractors had replaced horses and wagons, and were transforming the landscape. Telephones and the advent of radio meant that information traveled faster than ever.

Politics. Technology. Identity. Power. Science. Everything seems to be changing. So why not faith?