Claim. British historian Paul Johnson identifies five features of “the specifically American form of Christianity” that cut across denominations and constitute an ecumenical-and-American type of devotion: (1) evangelical vigor, (2) a tendency to downgrade the clergy, (3) little stress on liturgical correctness, (4) even less stress on parish boundaries, and (5) emphasis on individual experience.
Elaboration. From historical-background: Johnson’s five-feature summary is a complementary outside view to Hatch’s three principles. Where Hatch describes the structural shift (whose experience is authoritative; who shapes the faith), Johnson describes the resulting shape of American Christianity as observable across the Catholic-Protestant-evangelical spectrum.
Hendricks’s diagnostic use of these features: he argues UC’s distinctive trajectory aligns closely with all five — UC has historically been evangelically vigorous (1970s growth), has favored populist lay-leadership over a professional clergy (2), has minimized liturgical formalism (3), has crossed denominational/parish lines (4), and has centered individual encounter with God and True Parents (5). To the extent UC has drifted from these features (more institutional clergy, more programmed liturgy, more parish-like attachment to specific organizations), Hendricks reads this as drift away from the populist form that produced UC’s growth.
The 5 features also serve as a diagnostic checklist for any UC pastoral initiative: which features does this initiative preserve, and which does it sacrifice?
See also. populist-church, hatch-democratization-of-american-christianity