What Is Ex-vangelicalism?

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"An intimate window into the world of American evangelicalism. Fellow exvangelicals will find McCammon’s story both startlingly familiar and immensely clarifying, while those looking in from the outside can find no better introduction to the subculture that has shaped the hopes and fears of millions of Americans." —Kristin Kobes Du Mez, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne

The first definitive book that names the growing social movement of people leaving the church: the exvangelicals.

Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower and—most of the time—a true believer. But through it all, she was increasingly plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she'd been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.

After spending her early adult life striving to make sense of an unraveling worldview, by her 30s, she found herself face-to-face with it once again as she covered the Trump campaign for NPR, where she witnessed first-hand the power and influence that evangelical Christian beliefs held on the political right.

Sarah also came to discover that she was not alone: she is among a rising generation of the children of evangelicalism who are growing up and fleeing the fold, who are thinking for themselves and deconstructing what feel like the “alternative facts” of their childhood.

Rigorously reported and deeply personal, The Exvangelicals is the story of the people who make up this generational tipping point, including Sarah herself. Part memoir, part investigative journalism, this is the first definitive book that names and describes the post-evangelical movement: identifying its origins, telling the stories of its members, and examining its vast cultural, social, and political impact.

Interview with PBS Newshour

The Exvangelicals, by Sarah McCammon

8 min

Losing My Religion

NPR’s Sarah McCammon on EXvangelicals in Trump's America

1:07:26

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What Is Ex-vangelicalism?

by R.E. Slater

2 Thess. 2:15 "So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter."

What does it mean to lean into your faith and not into your fear? Consider the motifs of "Betrayal v. Re-Commitment" - whether God is Love or whether God is Not Love. DaVinci, in his masterpiece, "The Last Supper," painted Jesus as the Selfless Sacrificial Servant of God (Isaiah 53) - all descriptors of Love.

Serving Christians do not let falsely led Christians fall away from love. They reprove, educate, and lead them back to the God who loves while asking that they likewise love.

Faithful Christians do not let misled Christians fall into the lies and fears of the Evil One (2 Th 2).

The decades-old failing story of Christian Evangelicalism must become the renewing story of love and not the story of fear, lies and exclusion. (2 Th 2)

Those who have moved away from their former evangelical fellowships into newer, serving churches known as Ex-vangelical = Progressive fellowships, want a ministry, message, and mission defined by love and not a story of corupting political power and control.

Not power.

Not control.

Not exclusion.

Love.

Many Christians know this, feel this deeply within themselves, and want this to be true in the church's civil service within a democratic society. 

Which is why many former evangelicals are purposely following Jesus away from poorer Christian gospels marked by conflicted Christian messages of politicized power and control.

Ex-vangelicals wish to restore their bible faith towards more positive, strengthening gospels, messages, and missions, speaking by word and deed of united Christian outreach, welcome, and embrace.

This is the gospel of Ex-vangelicals compared to their old-timey Evangelical brothers and sisters preaching and believing mixed uncivil messages of fear, power, control, division, and derision.

Peace,

R.E. Slater

August 4, 2024

*As a side note, there are some evangelical churches which continue to lean into love and not into the Christian Nationalist message of Dominionism = Covenantal Reconstructionism = Kingdom Theocracy. They are to be prayed for and stood with as they resist the evil one of lawlessness. For the mainstream of evangelical churches, whether Protestant or Catholic, we acknowledge your legacy, heritage, and standing in Christ but cannot sympathize with any current messages reducing Jesus' Gospel of love. Like Paul, we preach Jesus, and him crucified, without adding non-loving motifs such as OT Law over NT Grace which is contrary to Jesus' ministry.

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Kristin Du Mez: Project 2025 Will Redefine [the United State's]

Constitution in Name of Christianity | Amanpour and Co.

18:15

Jul 23, 2024 - The political blueprint for the next Republican president, known as Project 2025, has drawn criticism not only from Democrats but also from Donald Trump himself, who has called the 900-page document "seriously extreme." Yet the authors of the conservative playbook include some of his closest policy advisors, as well as organizations with Christian nationalist leanings. Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez speaks to Michel Martin about the rise of evangelicalism in politics and the impact it could have on American democracy.

* * * * * *

Below is advice to evangelicals who wish to recapture / save their

faith from false teachers and preachers amongst their fellowships.... - re slater

Why I’m Not an Ex-vangelical

Carey NieuwhofLeadership

Oh my, these are disorienting times. First, the rise in deconstruction, and now a jump in the Exvangelical movement.

You’d have to have your head in the sand to miss the fact that many people are leaving the church, and many of them are deconverting. About 40 million Americans have become de-churched, which is a staggering number.

Dig only a little deeper, and you soon discover among that number are more than a few pastors who have also either left the faith entirely or are completely rethinking their alliances.

In the midst of this, we’re witnessing a surge in the Exvangelical movement, an umbrella that a growing number of people (and pastors) are adopting to signal that they are, well, ex-Evangelicals.

What is the meaning of Exvangelical? Per Wikipedia, “Exvangelical is a social movement of people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief, or lack thereof.”

Someone should revise that article to add that some Exvangelicals are faithfully following Jesus these days too. Not everyone has given up on Christianity.

That said, it’s wise to think through what’s happening right now, and as conflicted as I feel about so much of what I’m going to share, I wanted to share it now before the dust settles so we see where we’re heading and where we might want to head as a church.

To that end, here’s why I’m not an Exvangelical.

Let’s begin with some nuance.

The Critics are Right About so Much

This is not a slam against anyone who has identified as an Exvangelical.

They have some very valid criticisms of the Capital C church and the expressions of the church they’re leaving or critiquing.

I, too, am tired of the abuse, corruption, arrogance, shallow thinking, anti-intellectualism, partisanship, and politicization of the Christian message. I’m done with the racism, toxic culture, and the abuse of power we see again and again.

I know… that’s a long list. And it’s not even a complete listing of the wrongs committed on our watch.

Any attempt to pretend that the problems raised by so many who left the church are ‘isolated’ incidents doesn’t ring true. There are widespread issues that need addressing, and something is honestly broken about the way so many of us have done or are doing church.

In many ways, the critics are right. And we need to hear their voices.

There are widespread issues that need addressing, and something is honestly broken about the way so many of us have done or are doing church. In many ways, the critics are right. And we need to hear their voices.

Still, I am not willing to walk away from thinking of myself as a Jesus follower who is also an evangelical.

Why? Here are a few reasons for any of us who feel deeply conflicted right now, regardless of the label we might wear or not wear.

The Term Evangelical Has a Rich History and Doesn’t Belong to a Deluded or Corrupt Fringe

The word “evangelical’ springs from the New Testament itself (a transliteration of the Greek εὐαγγέλιον—pronounced euangelion); it didn’t come to describe Christians until the Reformation.

Martin Luther referred to his followers as “evangelicals,” emphasizing their focus on the gospel, particularly justification by faith alone.

In the 18th century, the term gained broader use with the Evangelical Revival (or Awakening) in Britain and the United States. Leaders like John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards emphasized personal conversion, the authority of the Bible, and active piety.

This period saw a shift in the term’s usage to indicate a movement within Protestantism that focused on evangelical theology, personal faith, and reform.

The 20th century witnessed further evolution of the term, especially in the United States. By the mid-20th century, evangelical was used to describe a broad coalition within Protestantism that upheld the authority of the Bible, personal conversion, and evangelism while often engaging with social issues.

This era saw the rise of prominent evangelical institutions and leaders who played significant roles in religious and public life.

My point: for centuries, evangelical was primarily a term that united people across the theological spectrum rather than divided us. And, despite its Protestant origins, many Roman Catholics consider themselves Evangelicals. It’s a very broad swath of Christians who have donned that moniker.

Although the term has now come to be associated with conservative partisan agendas and even been hijacked by non-religious right-wing people as a self-descriptor, does that mean we have to abandon the term entirely? Isn’t Exvangelicalism dividing us further?

And more importantly, can we reclaim a historically good term rather than abandon it to an angry fringe?

But I’m guessing you’re thinking that labels and terms are both loaded and unnecessary these days.

Sure, well, let’s talk about that.

For centuries, evangelical was primarily a term that united people across the theological spectrum rather than divided us. Exvangelicalism, on the other hand, is dividing us.

Who Needs Labels Anyway?

I grew up in a post-Christian culture (Canada), so I’m familiar with the stigma associated with certain terms, including calling myself either a Christian or a pastor.

Both are loaded terms when 90% of people don’t and won’t attend church on any given weekend.

I remember, as a young pastor in the 1990s, trying to engage a grocery store clerk in conversation. I was coming back from a funeral and in those days (for a very short period) I wore a clerical collar at occasions like funerals or weddings.

I’m usually pretty friendly, so I tried to strike up a conversation. It not only went nowhere, she refused to talk to me or even make eye-contact after she briefly scanned me.

I couldn’t figure it out, but as I walked back to the car, I put two and two together. I’m pretty sure it was my collar. Stories of clergy abuse were in the headlines, and I guess she thought I must have been one of them. I shudder to think of what her story might have been.

I stopped wearing a collar shortly thereafter.

I also soon learned that telling people I was a pastor when they asked me what I did for a living would also shut down a conversation quickly.

So, when meeting someone new, I’d often lead with my background in law, find out more about them, and, if they really wanted to know what I did, eventually share that I’m a ‘person of faith’ and that these days I worked for a church that had a lot of people who didn’t go to church attending, and kind of ease into the conversation that way.

It worked a lot better. I needed to let them get to know me even a little before they wrote me off as ‘one of those.’

So, back to not wanting to call myself an Exvangelical, still thinking of myself as an Evangelical but not loving what’s happening to that term over the last few years.

The real question becomes, “So what’s the alternative?”

And that’s where the bigger problems emerge.

Evangelicalism is Historically About What We’re FOR, Not What We’re Against

If you look at a lot of the Exvangelical dialogue, it’s a broad canvas of people who have various issues. Many are still solid in their faith. Some want to distance themselves from the radical and partisan way the term Evangelical is used these days.

Others are reeling from abuse and toxic culture. Still, others have deconverted and are actively campaigning against churches and Christians.

Here’s the challenge with the Exvangelical label: it’s a critique that’s more about what’s wrong than what is right. It’s more about hurt in the past (which has to be addressed), but offers little for hope for the future.

It’s one thing to leave, but the question you have to ask yourself is where you’re going and what you might accomplish.

Often, movements directed toward what they’re against have no unifying cause or cry that directs people to an end greater than their pain. There’s no better alternative, other than ‘not that’.

Here’s the challenge with the Exvangelical label: it’s a critique that’s more about what’s wrong than what is right. It is more about hurt in the past (which has to be addressed) but offers little hope for the future.

And that kind of negative movement doesn’t invite people new to faith into the fold. If anything, it helps the potentially curious outsider to become more cynical.

I realize there are exceptions to this, but when the overall movement is focused on what’s wrong, it’s hard to move into a future into what can be right.

So… What Do You Do?

This problem feels a little like an election with only undesirable candidates on the ballot. Which of the least bad options do you choose?

Well, here are a few things to consider.

The Evangelical Movement May be Flawed, but so is Your New Venture

I understand that the abuses and challenges associated with Evangelicalism over the last few decades are themselves toxic. And to escape the situation you’re in and continue in a healthier communal faith journey is critical.

But wherever you go, there you are. As much as you’re exiting a flawed community, you’re also entering a new flawed community.

Perhaps the new reality is healthier (which is fantastic), but the same human flaws that created the situation you left are present in the situation you’re in now.

And with the predominantly negative, deeply hurt, reactionary tone associated with the Exvangelical dialogue, I’m personally not ready for that alternative yet.

Communities without a positive vision for the future, at best, face a consensus-less future and, at worst, are fated to further splinter and divide.

So, remember that as much as you’re exiting a flawed community, you’re also entering a new flawed community.

There’s Also This: Isolated Individualism is Poisoning Us

Adept commentators, including atheists and agnostics, are concerned about the social breakdown in the West right now.

The decline of social clubs, communal life, and the church in America and the declining commitment to marriage and family are reasons many think our society is splintering at the seams.

Combine the growing number of Nones (professing no religious affiliation) and Dones (still believe, just done with church), and the growing Exvangelical movement, and you have more isolated, upset, cynical, and disconnected people than ever.

When historians look back on the last 50-100 years, one of the narratives will surely be that we went from being a communal culture to a deeply isolated culture, insulated from each other and often pitted against each other. We’re turning in on ourselves.

Perhaps Exvangelicalism is one more step in that isolated direction.

When your main devotion is to yourself, to your particular perspectives, and to your list of grievances, things can get dark very quickly. A life devoted to self (and what you’re against) ultimately leaves you alone.

A life devoted to self (and what you’re against) ultimately leaves you alone.

Changing a system from within is harder, but it’s also deeply rewarding and possibly the best strategy if you want to effect change.

Back to the Original Question

So yes, I’m dismayed by what’s happening in the Evangelical world right now.

(Related: Tim Keller and I had an in-depth conversation about the rise and fall of the American Evangelical church on my podcast).

2024 is an election year, and I’m entering the months ahead with serious trepidation and prayer, hoping that somehow, the church recovers our historic commitment to sharing the love and hope of Christ with the world. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m not done hoping or working toward that end, either.

In the absence of knowing how else to identify, other than with an idiosyncratic list of personal beliefs, grievances, frustrations, hopes, and dreams, I’m left hoping and clinging to the broad orthodoxy of the Christian faith expressed over many centuries.

And yes, a faith with an outward focus, believing that others, too, need forgiveness, grace, healing, mercy, and transformation that faith in Christ brings. Which means yes, an Evangelical orientation.

I’m not ready to give up on the church. Nor am I ready to give up on an honest, truthful, loving, compassionate advance into the world of our friends and neighbors.

I don’t think God’s quite done with the evangelical posture of a church united around Jesus.

Perhaps people who think of themselves as Evangelicals, and even some who formerly thought of themselves that way, could band together to forge a better tomorrow.

If ever our culture needed a positive alternative to the madness we see around us, now is the time.

Our culture needs an alternative to itself, not an echo of itself. And perhaps now is the time for all of us to come to the aid of that cause, more unified and less divided.

* * * * * *

Exvangelical

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Exvangelical is a social movement of people who have left evangelicalism, especially white evangelical churches in the United States, for atheism, agnosticism, progressive Christianity, or any other religious belief, or lack thereof.^[1][2][3] People in the movement are called "exvangelicals" or "exvies". The term prodigals is sometimes used for exvangelicals by people who remain evangelical.^[4]

Many exvangelicals attribute their departure to experiences of homophobia, misogyny, and racism in evangelicalism, to skepticism toward the Church's moral and social teachings, to a personal crisis of faith, or to sexual abuse in a religious setting, particularly if the abuse was covered up.

The movement is disseminated largely via podcasts and social media hashtags. The name was coined in 2016, though the movement built upon criticisms of the church that were already widespread among people raised Evangelical.

History

The hashtag #exvangelical was coined by Blake Chastain in 2016 to make "a safe space for people to find solidarity with others who have gone through similar experiences".^[1]

The movement built upon existing skepticism of Evangelicalism's official social and moral agenda, such as its rejection of LGBT and abortion rights, from within Evangelical communities themselves. The movement was catalyzed by Evangelicals' enthusiastic embrace of Donald Trump, and his perceived lack of "values fit" with Evangelicals' nominal beliefs.^[5]

Podcasts spread the movement and provide space for evangelicals to work through the process of de-conversion. Popular exvangelical podcasts include Almost Heretical, Straight White American Jesus, and Chastain's podcast Exvangelical.^[6][1]

Non-fiction books related to the movement include Pure by Linda Kay Klein, Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans, and The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon. Exvangelical novels include Hell Is a World Without You by Jason Kirk.^[7]

Motivations

Many exvangelicals are young people who choose to leave their religion following disagreements over issues such as science, the role and treatment of women,^[8] LGBT rights, sexual abuse cover-ups,^[9][10] and Christian nationalism. Specific incidents cited by exvangelicals for leaving include the Nashville Statement and evangelical support for Trump, which they perceived as hypocritical.^[11]

Purity culture

Exvangelicals often cite bad experiences with purity culture as a major factor in leaving their church; this is particularly true among women. Exvangelical women often reject being held responsible for men's thoughts, and resent the disproportionately harsh punishments women face for sexual sins. Both men and women report difficulty living up to their church's expectations, and surprise at the hypocrisy of church officials who do not live up to (or do not appear to believe in) their own sexual standards.^[12]

For example, exvangelical author Linda Kay Klein writes that treating all girls as potential "stumbling blocks" for evangelical men results a cycle of fear and shame, which she and other girls experienced in secret. Klein began to question purity culture when a youth pastor in her church was convicted of sexual enticement of a twelve-year-old girl.^[1][13]

Joshua Harris wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye in 1997, a book foundational to purity culture, which encouraged young people to avoid dating and instead practice courtship and abstinence. Harris repudiated his work in 2018, apologizing for its content and withdrawing it from publication.^[14] The following year, Harris announced that he was no longer a Christian, describing his experience as a "deconstruction" of his faith and apologizing for his previous teachings against LGBTQ+ people.^[15]

Abuse

Some exvangelicals experienced sexual abuse in a religious setting, or by a religious leader or volunteer. Some report the abuse was ignored or actively covered up. In some cases the victim was subject to DARVO treatment.

For example, exvangelical journalist Becca Andrews writes that, because Evangelical purity culture taught her the role of sexual gatekeeper, she was at first unable to identify a sexual assault forced upon her during her involvement with Christian organization Cru.^[16]

Related movements

Deconstructing faith is a process or movement in which a person challenges their personal beliefs and traditions. It results in some people leaving the Christian faith, while others remain in it but in a different setting (such as leaving a conservative Evangelical church which opposes homosexuality for an LGBTQ+ affirming one), and still others may return to the faith they originally held.

The #churchtoo movement seeks to draw attention to sexual abuse in churches. Vocal critics of sexual abuse are Emily Joy and Hannah Paasch.^{[8][17][1][6]}

The #emptythepews movement urges opposition to evangelicalism in the United States due to its support for former president Donald Trump. It was started by exvangelical Chrissy Stroop.^[18]

Reception

In Christianity Today's podcast The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, Baylor University professor Matthew Lee Anderson said the experiences of exvangelicals were "something very different than deep, difficult, self-examination in order to find the truth" and any bad experiences that drove people to leave were "sociologically, actually quite marginal experiences inside of white evangelicalism".^[19]

When a Gallup poll showed that fewer than half of Americans belonged to any church in March 2021,^[20] some commentators acknowledged criticisms raised by the exvangelical perspective. Russell Moore, director of the Public Theology Project at Christianity Today, speculated that if he were a teenager today, he may also have left the church. He found that "they have come to think the church doesn’t believe its own moral teachings" and so "the presenting issue in this secularization is not scientism and hedonism but disillusionment and cynicism".^[21]

Exvangelics themselves frequently report that they miss their community, to some degree, upon leaving it. They miss their congregation's support during life events such as childbirth, and opportunities for creative expression such as church music and performance arts. On the other hand, exvangelicals typically feel relief at escaping their community's judgement. One exvangelical reported "I don't miss feeling that I have to live my life in a certain way because somebody else might tattle on me to someone."^[22]

Outside the United States

Although it started in the United States, the exvangelical movement has also been noted in Brazil during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.^[23]

See also

• Ex-Mormon – Disaffiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Ex-Muslims – Sociological perspectives of former Muslims
• Faith to Faithless – UK organisation confronting discrimination against people who left religions.
• Footsteps (organization) – American non-profit organization
• Freedom From Religion Foundation – American nonprofit organization
• Irreligion in the United States
• Off the derech – Term for someone who has left an Orthodox Jewish community
• Recovering from Religion – Non-profit organization supporting people leaving religion
• Religious disaffiliation – Act of leaving a religious group

• Religion portal

References

Citations

1. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Onishi 2019.
2. ^ Frantz, Kenneth E.; Perry, Samuel L. (August 28, 2019). "The Unignorable Plight of the Exvangelicals | RealClearReligion". www.realclearreligion.org. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
3. ^ "What It's Like to Leave the Evangelical Community". www.vice.com. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
4. ^ Bullivant 2022, p. 133.
5. ^ Bullivant 2022, pp. 146.
6. ^ Jump up to:^a b Kight, Stef W. "Exvangelicals are breaking away — and spreading the gospel". Axios. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
7. ^ Altman, Dr. Michael J. "'Hell Is a World Without You' shows readers how squarely they would have been on the path to Jan. 6 if they'd come of age in Evangelicalism'". Religion Dispatches.
8. ^ Jump up to:^a b "As a Teen, Emily Joy Was Abused by a Church Youth Leader. Now She's Leading a Movement to Change Evangelical America". Mother Jones. May 25, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
9. ^ "The sin of silence". Washington Post. May 31, 2018. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
10. ^ "The sexual abuse scandal rocking the Southern Baptist Convention, explained". Vox. June 7, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
11. ^ Herrmann 2021, pp. 12–13.
12. ^ Bullivant 2022, pp. 136–142.
13. ^ Klein, Linda Kay (2018). "Pure:Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free".
14. ^ "Joshua Harris Says 'I Kissed Dating Goodbye' Will Be Discontinued, Apologizes for 'Flaws'". www.christianpost.com. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
15. ^ Sherwood, Harriet (July 29, 2019). "Author of Christian relationship guide says he has lost his faith". The Guardian. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
16. ^ Andrews, Becca (September 2018). "Evangelical Purity Culture Taught Me to Rationalize My Sexual Assault". Mother Jones.
17. ^ "Exvangelical TikTokkers Aren't a Sign of the End Times, But Here's What Evangelicals Need to Understand About 'The Falling Away'". Religion Dispatches. July 22, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
18. ^ Barnett, C. (August 27, 2017). "#EmptyThePews Advocates Quitting Church to Protest Trump". World Religion News. Retrieved January 25, 2023.
19. ^ Chastain, Blake (August 28, 2021). "Evangelicals: You're still not really listening to what exvangelicals are saying". Religion News Service. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
20. ^ Jones, Jeffrey M (March 29, 2021). "U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time". Gallup.com. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
21. ^ Moore, Russell. "Losing Our Religion". createsend.com. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
22. ^ Bullivant 2022, pp. 140–141, 151.
23. ^ Barreto, Raimundo; Py, Fábio (2022). "Ex- and Post-Evangelicalism: Recent Developments in Brazil's Changing Religious Landscape". International Journal of Public Theology. 16 (2): 197–222. doi:10.1163/15697320-20220040. S2CID 251266321.

Sources

• Bullivant, Stephen (2022). "Exvangelicals". Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America. Oxford University Press. pp. 128–C6.P68. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197587447.003.0006. ISBN 9780197587447.
• Herrmann, Andrew F. (2021). "Purity, Nationalism, and Whiteness: The Fracturing of Fundamentalist Evangelicalism". International Review of Qualitative Research. 13 (4): 414–432. doi:10.1177/1940844720937813. S2CID 225396310.
• Onishi, Bradley (April 9, 2019). "The Rise of #Exvangelical". Religion & Politics. Retrieved September 2, 2021.

Further reading

• Batchelder, Colleen (2020). Exvangelical: Why Millennials and Generation Z are Leaving the Constraints of White Evangelicalism (Doctor of Ministry thesis). George Fox University.
• Fekete, Steven; Knippel, Jessica (2020). "The Devil You Know: An Exploration of Virtual Religious Deconstruction Communities". Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture. 9 (2): 165–184. doi:10.1163/21659214-BJA10021. S2CID 234676913.
• Davis, Ashley (2019). Breaking Evangelical: an Attachment-Focused Framework for Healing Spiritual Trauma (Thesis).
• Luhrmann, T. M. (Winter 2021). "God, Can You Hear Me?". The American Scholar. 90 (1): 34–46. Gale A650413572.
• Andersen, Karlin (2020). Evangelical Erasure?: Digital Communications Technology and the Memory of Rachel Held Evans (Thesis).

The Last Supper

original digitized image

original digitized image

* * * * * *

How Leonardo da Vinci

pictured the Last Supper

article link

The Last Supper (1494-1498) by Leonardo da Vinci
in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan

During the bitter-cold first week in February, I went to snow-bound Milan to write stories about an annual world-class food-and-wine event called “IdentitàGolose” and Milan University’s Library and Archive of Egyptology. With great good luck (because the obligatory reservations made online via www.milan-museum.com often have a two-month backlog), I was able to squeeze in a same-day visit, which lasts barely 15 minutes, to see Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, The Last Supper, one of his 17 paintings and the only one not on canvas. I’d seen it only once before, almost 50 years ago. Just a month before Easter, I thought I’d share with ITV readers the unique way polymath Leonardo (1452-1519), a sculptor, architect, musician, draftsman, scientist, mathematician, engineer, anatomist, geologist, and cartographer, as well as painter, pictured this prelude to Our Savior’s sacrifice by telling this spellbinding mural’s story.

A self-portrait of Da Vinci depicted as the Apostle Jude Thaddeus

THE PAINTING

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, then 30, left Tuscany to be the court painter for Duke Ludovico Sforza (1451-1508) and his wife Duchess Beatrice d’Este (1475-1497) in Milan. A decade or so later, his patron commissioned Leonardo to paint The Last Supper as the centerpiece of his planned mausoleum in the monastery of the recently-completed Dominican Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which was later remodeled by Bramante, also the architect of St. Peter’s Basilica. Leonardo began work, which was supposed to take a year, in 1494, but did not complete the painting until 1498. According to Wikipedia’s article about Leonardo, “the novelist Matteo Bandello observed Leonardo at work and wrote that some days he would paint from dawn to dusk without stopping to eat and then not paint for three or four days at a time. This was beyond the comprehension of the prior of the convent, who hounded him until Leonardo

asked Ludovico to intervene. Vasari describes how Leonardo, troubled over his ability to depict the faces of Christ and Judas (Iscariot), told the Duke that he might be obliged to use the prior as his ‘model’ for Judas.”

It is generally believed that the white-bearded Apostle on the right of the painting, Jude Thaddeus, is the artist’s self-portrait.

Leonardo also probably cryptically “signed” this work; the knot at the end of the tablecloth’s right-hand edge represents the Latin word for knot, vincium.

An earlier version of the scene: The Last Supper by Ghirlandaio (1482). Located in Florence

LEONARDO’S CONCEPTION

The Last Supper theme was a traditional one for refectories, although this room wasn’t a refectory at the time Leonardo painted his masterpiece on the north wall. His work of art represents the Last Supper as told in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his twelve Apostles would betray him before sunrise, but does not reveal which one. We know that Leonardo studied earlier paintings by Ghirlandaio and Andrea del Castagno with traditional iconography that focuses instead on the moment of the traitor’s identification, when Judas, who is represented in an isolated position with respect to the other Apostles, receives a piece of bread from Jesus and dips it in his dish. Leonardo, however, preferred the moment prior to this, dominated by doubt. His is the first version of this theme with the Apostles displaying the human emotions of doubt, shock, fear, and anger through the expressions on their faces, the movements of their hands, and their body language, which contrast with Jesus’ calmness. It should also be mentioned that the daylight and unbroken bread confirm that it is too early for Judas to have been identified as the traitor.

Giacomo Raffaelli’s life-size mosaic copy of Leonardo’s
Last Supper (1809-14), now in Vienna’s Minoritenkirche

TECHNIQUE

A wall panel in the entrance to the refectory explains: “Leonardo creates a sense of continuity between the actual space of the refectory and the painted space through an exceptional use of perspective, which has Christ’s right temple as its vanishing point; all the lines of perspective in the composition guide the viewer’s eye towards Jesus’ face, the narrative center of the work.” Leonardo’s early ideas, both notes and preparatory drawings, for this painting are illustrated in a sheet of figure studies, no. 12542r, conserved in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle.

Another first is that Leonardo’s Judas is not seated as is customary with his back to the viewer and, unlike the other well-lit Apostles, is in a shadow. He is also holding a purse. Although he would not yet have received the 30 silver coins, he was the treasurer for the Apostles. Until The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci were discovered during the 19th century, only Judas, Peter, John and Jesus could be positively identified.

The painting contains several references to the number 3 or the Blessed Trinity. The Apostles are seated in groups of three: to the left of Jesus (from the viewer’s point of view): Bartholomew, James the Lesser, and Andrew; Peter, Judas Iscariot, and John; to the right of Jesus: Thomas, James the Greater, and Philip; Matthew, Jude Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot; there are three windows behind Jesus; and the shape of Jesus’ figure resembles a triangle.

MEDIUM

Also unique to The Last Supper is the medium Leonardo, always the inventor, used. According to Wikipedia, “he painted it on a dry wall rather than on wet plaster, so it is not a true fresco. Since a fresco cannot be modified as the artist works, Leonardo instead chose to seal the stone wall with a layer of pitch, gesso, and mastic, then paint onto the sealing layer with tempera.” Because of the method he used so that he, a known procrastinator with a marked tendency to leave projects unfinished, could make changes, his masterpiece began to deteriorate after a few years. The only evidence we have of what the original painting looked like is a 16th-century oil canvas by an unknown artist, in approximately original size, now housed in the Premonstratensian monastery, founded in 1128, at Tongerlo in Westerlo near Antwerp in Belgium. The copy reveals many details that are no longer visible in the original fresco, in particular the food, the room’s décor, and the landscape. Between 1809 and 1814 the Roman mosaic artist Giacomo Raffaelli made another life-size copy, commissioned by Napoleon and now in the Viennese Minoritenkirche.

The Last Supper by Dalí

DETERIORATION

In 1517, Don Antonio de Beatis was the first to testify that Leonardo’s painting “is already beginning to be damaged.” Some 50 years later, in 1566, Leonardo’s biographer Giorgio Vasari wrote in his Lives: “Of the original by Leonardo (…) one can now perceive only a glaring stain.” A century later, the Dominican Fathers enlarged the door at the center of the wall that connected the refectory to the kitchen, which, although later bricked up, is still visible. It eliminated the part that depicted Christ’s feet, which, through early copies, were supposedly in a position symbolizing his forthcoming crucifixion. Further damage was done in 1768 when a curtain was hung over the painting to protect it; instead it trapped moisture on the surface, and whenever pulled back, scratched the flaking paint. In 1722, an English traveler testified that the rough wall was visible in various parts of the “fresco.” In 1799, when Napoleon’s troops turned the refectory into a stable and barn, the painting suffered still further vandalism. The soldiers passed their free time throwing stones at the painting and climbed ladders to scratch out the Apostles’ eyes. In 1812, the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie was used as a headquarters by the fire brigade and subsequently as a military barracks. In 1934, the refectory became a state museum, while the church and the cloisters were returned to the Dominicans. During the Second World War, on the night of August 15, 1943, a bomb struck the cloisters, causing the collapse of the refectory’s vault and its east wall. The Last Supper was saved from bomb splinters thanks to sandbags put in place at the start of the war. After a long period of “open air,” the collapsed parts of the refectory were rebuilt in 1947.

The Last Supper by Andy Warhol

RESTORATION

The Last Supper by Andy Warhol

A first restoration was attempted in 1726 by Michelangelo Bellotti, who filled in missing sections with oil paint and then varnished the whole mural; many others followed over the next two centuries. By the end of the 1970s the painting’s appearance had so badly deteriorated that, from 1978 to 1999, Pinin Brambilla Barcilon guided a major restoration project, which, in a sealed, climate-controlled ambience, undertook to stabilize the painting permanently and reverse the damage caused by dirt, pollution and the misguided 18th- and 19th- century restoration attempts. On May 28th, 1999, the painting was put back on display.

In 1980, UNESCO made the Santa Maria delle Grazie complex and The Last Supper a World Heritage site.

SPECULATIONS

Perhaps because of its deteriorated state, Leonardo’s Last Supper has been the target of much speculation by historians and writers, usually centered around purported hidden messages within the painting.

Several examples follow:

1) The Templar Revelation (1997) by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince and The Da Vinci Code (2003) by Dan Brown both identify the person seated at Jesus’s right hand not as John the Apostle, but as a woman, and none other than Mary Magdalene, who supposedly bore Christ’s child after his death. It is true that the beardless John looks quite effeminate, but he was much younger than the other Apostles except for Phillip and maybe Matthew, both of whom are beardless here, too, while the others all have beards. Moreover, the Bible never mentions Mary Magdalene as present at the Last Supper, and if John is Mary, then where is John?

2) According to an article by Matthew Moore published on July 30, 2007 in The Telegraph, Slavisa Pesci, “an information technologist and amateur scholar,” superimposed Leonardo’s version of The Last Supper on its mirror image (with both images of Jesus lined up) and claimed that the resultant picture has a Templar Knight on the far left, a woman dressed in orange and holding a swaddled baby in her arms to the left of Jesus, and the Holy Grail in the form of a chalice in front of Jesus. With the naked eye no chalice is visible, although Jesus’ left hand is pointing to the Eucharist and his right to a glass of wine.

3) Giovanni Maria Pala, an Italian musician, has indicated that the positions of the hands and loaves of bread can be interpreted as notes on a musical staff, and, if read from right to left (because Leonardo was left-handed), form a musical composition.

4) Reported by British Vatican correspondent Richard Owen in an article entitled, “Da Vinci ‘predicted the world would end in 4066’ says Vatican researcher” in the London Times on March 15, 2010, is the most far-fetched of all theories. Sabrina Sforza Galitzia claimed to have deciphered the “mathematical and astrological” puzzle in Leonardo’s The Last Supper. She said that Leonardo foresaw the end of the world in a “universal flood” which would begin on March 21, 4006, and end on November 1 the same year. Leonardo believed that this would mark “a new start for humanity.”

The Last Supper by Escobar

Leonardo’s Last Supper is open all day Tuesday to Sunday from 8:15 AM to 7 PM with a maximum group of 25 people admitted every 15 minutes. Closed Mondays and on January 1st, May 1st, and Christmas Day. My same-day ticket, reserved by my hotel, cost 8 euros.

Epilogue

If you can’t make it to Milan, in Room VIII of the Pinocateca in the Vatican Museums there’s a Flemish tapestry of the Last Supper designed by Raphael, and in Raphael’s loggia on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace, one of the frescoes executed by Raphael’s workshop from 1517-19 is of the Last Supper. One of the frescoes on the northern wall of the Sistine Chapel, devoted to scenes from the life of Jesus and painted by Cosimo Rosselli (1431-1507) in 1481-2, also depicts the Last Supper.

There are several modern renditions of the Last Supper in the US. In 1955, Salvador Dalí painted The Sacrament of the Last Supper, one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Sculptor Marisol Escobar was inspired by Leonardo’s Last Supper. Her work is in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. And in 1986, Andy Warhol was commissioned to produce a series of paintings based on The Last Supper. They were first exhibited in a bank across the street from Santa Maria delle Grazie. This was Warhol’s last series of paintings before his death. On loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh, one of Warhol’s many paintings of The Last Supper (the Museum, at 117 Sandusky Street, owns three others) will take part in the traveling exhibition of 300 works “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal” to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the artist’s death. The exhibition opened at the ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands, in Singapore on March 17 and will travel to five other Asian cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo, over the next 27 months.

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POEMS

The Last Supper, by Lydia Sigourney

The Last Supper, by Jack Stewart

The Last Supper, by Rainer Maria Rilke

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10 Secrets of The Last Supper

by Leonardo da Vinci

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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began what would become one of history's most influential works of art - The Last Supper

The Last Supper is Leonardo's visual interpretation of an event chronicled in all four of the Gospels (books in the Christian New Testament). The evening before Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples, he gathered them together to eat, tell them he knew what was coming and wash their feet (a gesture symbolizing that all were equal under the eyes of the Lord). As they ate and drank together, Christ gave the disciples explicit instructions on how to eat and drink in the future, in remembrance of him. It was the first celebration of the Eucharist, a ritual still performed.

Specifically, The Last Supper depicts the next few seconds in this story after Christ dropped the bombshell that one disciple would betray him before sunrise, and all twelve have reacted to the news with different degrees of horror, anger, and shock.

Leonardo hadn't worked on such a large painting and had no experience in the standard mural medium of fresco. The painting was made using experimental pigments directly on the dry plaster wall and unlike frescos, where the pigments are mixed with the wet plaster, it has not stood the test of time well. Even before it was finished there were problems with the paint flaking from the wall and Leonardo had to repair it. Over the years it has crumbled, been vandalized bombed and restored. Today we are probably looking at very little of the original.

Much of the recent interest in the painting has centered on the details hidden within the painting, but in directing attention to these 'hidden' details, most people miss the incredible sense of perspective the work displays. The sharp angling of the walls within the picture, which leads back to the seemingly distant back wall of the room and the windows that show the hills and sky beyond. The type of day shown through these windows adds to the feeling of serenity that rests in the center of the piece, around the figure of Christ.

The Layout of The Last Supper

The Last Supper Perspective

Leonardo balanced the perspective construction of the Last Supper so that its vanishing point is immediately behind Christ's right temple, pointing to the physical location of the center, or sensus communis, of his brain. By pulling a string in radial directions from this point, he marked the table ends, floor lines, and orthogonal edges of the six ceiling coffer columns. From the right and/or left edge of the horizon line, he drew diagonal lines up to the coffer corners, locating points for the horizontal lines of the 12 coffer rows.

Leonardo was well known for his love of symmetry. In his Last Supper, the layout is largely horizontal. The large table is seen in the foreground of the image with all of the figures behind it. The painting is largely symmetrical with the same number of figures on either side of Jesus. The above diagram shows how the perspective the Last Super was worked out with a series of marks at key points highlighting the architectural aspects of the composition and positioning of the figures.

10 Facts You Might not

Know about the Masterpiece

1. Who's who in "The Last Supper"

Who's who in the Last Supper

2. The secret of "The Last Supper"

The Last Supper is a very popular religious scene painted by many celebrated artists. Unlike artists before and after him, Leonardo da Vinci chose not to put halos on Jusus Christ. Many art historians believe that Leonardo da Vinci believe in nature, not in God. To Leonardo, nature is God, so he treated every character in the fresco as common people.

3. "Last Supper" is a failed experiment.

Unlike traditional frescoes, which Renaissance masters painted on wet plaster walls, Leonardo experimented with tempura paint on a dry, sealed plaster wall in the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery in Milan, Italy. The experiment proved unsuccessful, however, because the paint did not adhere properly and began to flake away only a few decades after the work was finished.

4. The spilled salt is symbolic.

Speculations about symbolism in the artwork are plentiful. For example, many scholars have discussed the meaning of the spilled salt container near Judas's elbow. Spilled salt could symbolize bad luck, loss, religion, or Jesus as salt of the earth.

5. Eel or herring?

Scholars have also remarked on da Vinci's choice of food. They dispute whether the fish on the table is herring or eel since each carries its own symbolic meaning. In Italian, the word for eel is "aringa." The similar word, "arringa," means to indoctrinate. In northern Italian dialect, the word for herring is "renga," which also describes someone who denies religion. This would fit with Jesus' biblical prediction that his apostle Peter would deny knowing him.

6. Da Vinci used a hammer and nail to help him to achieve the one-point perspective.

What makes the masterpiece so striking is the perspective from which it's painted, which seems to invite the viewer to step right into the dramatic scene. To achieve this illusion, da Vinci hammered a nail into the wall, then tied string to it to make marks that helped guide his hand in creating the painting's angles.

7. The existing mural is not 100% da Vinci's work.

At the end of the 20th century, restorer Panin Brambilla Barcilon and his crew relied on microscopic photographs, core samples, infrared reflectoscopy and sonar to remove the added layers of paint and restore the original as accurately as possible. Critics maintain that only a fraction of the painting that exists today is the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

8. Three early copies of the original exist.

Three of da Vinci's students, including Giampietrino, made copies of his painting early in the 16th century. Giampietrino did a full-scale copy that is now in London's Royal Academy of Arts. This oil painting on canvas was the primary resource for the latest restoration of the work. The second copy by Andrea Solari is in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Belgium while the third copy by Cesare da Sesto is in the Church of Saint Ambrogio in Switzerland.

The Last Supper Copy - by Giampietrino

9. The painting is also a musical score.

According to Italian musician Giovanni Maria Pala, da Vinci incorporated musical notes in "The Last Supper." In 2007, Pala created a 40-second melody from the notes that were allegedly hidden in the scene.

10. The painting has been a victim of neglect and abuse.

In 1652, monastery residents cut a new door in the wall of the deteriorating painting, which removed a chunk of the artwork showing the feet of Jesus. Late in the 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte's soldiers turned the area into a stable and further damaged the wall with projectiles. During World War II, the Nazis bombed the monastery, reducing surrounding walls to rubble.