Every religious system, Christianity included, "serves two functions. First, it is a message of personal salvation, telling us how to get right with God; and second, it is a lens for interpreting the world. Historically, evangelicals have been good at the first function--at 'saving souls.' But they have not been nearly as good at helping people to interpret the world around them--at providing a set of interrelated concepts that function as a lens to give a biblical view of areas like science, politics, economics, or bioethics. As [Martin] Marty put it, evangelicals have typically 'accented personal piety and individual salvation, leaving [people] to their own devices to interpret the world around them.'" Nancy Pearcy, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, p. 35 (She credits Martin Marty with the ideas contained in this quotation's second sentence.)

"Secularization did not cause the death of [Christianity]" but it did cause it to "become but one sector of modern life along with many others. [Christianity] lost its claim to universality and its power of interpretation." Walter Kasper, quoted in Pearcy, Total Truth, p. 69.

"The ironic fate of Jesus in America was to end up being worshiped by many Christians who thought they were solely submitting to his authority when they were actually subjecting him to the authority of their personal obsessions or their culture's norms." 
        Richard W. Fox in Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession