Western Individualism and the Christian Community: Towards a Faithful Expressing of Church in the West

Abstract

<p>As evangelicals living in Canada, we are tasked with finding a way to faithfully live out the calling of the church in our North American context. Yet as we try to do this, we are regularly faced with the cultural reality of individualism and are often influenced by it in ways that we do not fully understand. This thesis will suggest that the integration of individualism in the Western evangelical church is having a detrimental effect on our ability to create or maintain Biblical community. This thesis will examine the issue of individualism as it relates to Christian community through interviews with 15 evangelical laypersons and pastors. This thesis will also employ secondary sources in the analysis of these interviews, engaging them in dialogue with some classic and contemporary theologians of the church.</p>