Do you believe that this started in the 60s?
I believe it accelerated in the 60s. The late 60s with free love, drugs, counter-culture, radical liberalism, and the rejection of established values was actually born prior to its outbreak.
In the same way as "beatniks" preceded "hippies", in theology, the explosion of theological liberalism was certainly helped by the media's attack on our values-based American culture, but it was preceded by the slow erosion of our theology in our education centers. Depending on which voice you listen to, the major impact seems to have come from the European (German?) historical-critical directions taken by such stars as Rudolf Bultmann and Heidegger.
Their focus was "demythologizing" scripture. By that, they meant basically that you had to purge anything "miraculous-sounding" from scripture before you studied it. And this was after you'd already purged any scripture they felt really was illegitimate.
As mentioned earlier, for our modern churchites in the hierarchy, that pretty well frees us of all God's written word except the part about tithing.
I believe it accelerated in the 60s. The late 60s with free love, drugs, counter-culture, radical liberalism, and the rejection of established values was actually born prior to its outbreak.
In the same way as "beatniks" preceded "hippies", in theology, the explosion of theological liberalism was certainly helped by the media's attack on our values-based American culture, but it was preceded by the slow erosion of our theology in our education centers. Depending on which voice you listen to, the major impact seems to have come from the European (German?) historical-critical directions taken by such stars as Rudolf Bultmann and Heidegger.
Their focus was "demythologizing" scripture. By that, they meant basically that you had to purge anything "miraculous-sounding" from scripture before you studied it. And this was after you'd already purged any scripture they felt really was illegitimate.
As mentioned earlier, for our modern churchites in the hierarchy, that pretty well frees us of all God's written word except the part about tithing.