“The Great Awokening” and Christianity

“Just as wokeness has eroded traditional liberal values like free speech, freedom of thought, merit, and individualism at an institutional level, it has also eroded traditional Christian doctrine within churches, seminaries, and Christian publications.”

The late 2010s and early 2020s witnessed what many cultural commentators have dubbed “the Great Awokening.” Entertainment, sports, politics, and the corporate sphere were suddenly suffused with the language of social justice and critical theory. Talk show hosts scrambled to interview newly-minted luminaries such as Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. Every facet of public life was shaped by new, overarching narratives of privilege and oppression.

However, secular people may not realize that the Great Awokening shook the religious as well as the non-religious world. As evangelical Christians, we have seen the language, ideas, and overall outlook of social justice seep into the church. Just as wokeness has eroded traditional liberal values like free speech, freedom of thought, merit, and individualism at an institutional level, it has also eroded traditional Christian doctrine within churches, seminaries, and Christian publications.

In our recent book Critical Dilemma, we spoke primarily to Christians, showing how the ideas at the heart of wokeness (or what we call “contemporary critical theory”) are fundamentally incompatible with Christianity. That said, we did not write our book for Christians alone. In this essay, we would like to make the case that it is crucial for non-Christians to engage with explicitly Christian analyses of contemporary critical theory, for multiple reasons.

First, roughly two-thirds of the population of the United States identifies as Christian, and approximately one quarter identifies as “born-again” or “evangelical” Christian. Although self-identification is a poor gauge for people’s actual beliefs or behavior, it does show just how influential Christianity has been in shaping our culture historically.