. >> the university of north carolina's mary worthen sat down with book tv to discuss her book "apostles of reason: the crisis of authority in american evangelicalism." this half-hour interview as part of book tv college series. >> host: mary worthen is a history professor. what courses do you teach? >> guest: i teach a big survey course on the history of religion in north america, a course on modern american intellectual history. one of the most fun is called sin and evil in modern america, a small research seminar. you can imagine the kind of things students get into. >> host: you are also the author of this book, "apostles of reason: the crisis of authority in american evangelicalism". what is evangelicalism? >> guest: that is a great question. any scholar or observer tries to explain what is going on in modern american politics and religion has to contend with this slippery term. some scholars have tried to define evangelicalism in terms of a check list of shared doctrines like an emphasis on a born-again conversion experience , a high view of the authority of the bible, emphasis on

. >> host: mary worthen is a history professor. what courses do you teach? >> guest: i teach a big survey course on the history of religion in north america, a course on modern american intellectual history. one of the most fun is called sin and evil in modern america, a small research seminar. you can imagine the kind of things students get into. >> host: you are also the author of this book, "apostles of reason: the crisis of authority in american evangelicalism". what isval >> po >> has to contend with this tour ran some scholars haver tried to evangelicalism asset checklist of shared doctrine of of born-again conversion experience bohaiin view of the authority of the bible and that is helpful but i was trying to find a definition to allow me to crawl and to speak pentecost goals and to agree on a list of doctrines as the set of shared questions of. i found myself focusing on the questions rather than the answers. >> host: to have to bebi conservative to bet al evangelical? >> guest: not politically i use a loosely but to invest in the traditional orienta

. >> host: mary worthen is a history professor. what courses do you teach? >> guest: i teach a big survey course on the history of religion in north america, a course on modern american intellectual history. one of the most fun is called sin and evil in modern america, a small research seminar. you can imagine the kind of things student