Early in 19th century America, disputing the religious dogmatism of the Puritans, Ralph Waldo Emerson preached that “it is by yourself without ambassador that God speaks to you… It is God in you that responds to God without.”
With notable exceptions, this is now the faith of most Americans. It is a private religious faith — vague, incommunicable, sentimental, unanchored by Scripture, creed, or doctrine, and buttressed only by the latest personal revelation. To be sure, God is not dead, as naysayers claimed in the 1960s. Nevertheless, he has been marginalized and domesticated by individual believers.
How did this come to pass?
This piece is spot on.