Evangelicalism
From Neoredemptive
The evangelical movement... 1950s USA/England... reaction vs fundamentalism and hyper-calvinism... cultural engagement without compromising core principles (authority of Scripture, saving experience with Jesus Christ).
Contents |
Loss of Theological Integrity and Identity
David Wells argues in The Courage to be Protestant that evangelicalism has diluted and spread itself across at least three radically divergent theological teams (the "classical evangelicals", the "marketers", and the "emergents"), and that the word "evangelical" has therefore lost any practical meaning. The theme of a disintegrating evangelical identity is echoed in his previous books, and in the works of others (Reclaiming the Center, etc).
Loss of Theological Identity
As documented wrt Post-Conservative, Post-Evangelicals, etc.
The Foundationalist Question
While some sectors of Evangelicalism insist that it must rest upon a foundationalist epistemology (see Reclaiming the Center), this position is hardly a foregone conclusion. Foundationalism is not a necessary precondition to the knowing or the proclaiming of absolute, trans-contextual truth (see Truth and the New Kind of Christian).
The Charismatic Question
Some evangelical authors believe charismatic theology to be fundamentally incompatible with their understanding of the Sufficiency of Scripture. Others regard it as a necessary consequence of fidelity to Scripture.
Clinging to the Good
We are hesitant to call ourselves "evangelical" because the word has come to denote more confusion than clarity. We love what is good and right in the evangelical tradition: resisting the twin urges of isolationism and synchretism, standing boldly upon the revelational authority of Scripture, and insisting that Jesus Christ is not a proposition to be reasoned about but rather a man to be met. We mourn the disintegration of this strong backbone of conviction and its replacement with a pudding of cultural identity and sentimental allegiance to an empty name. Our allegiance now is not to the name "evangelical" and whatever baggage and detritus it may have accumulated, but to that which was and is good in it and which can be carried forward regardless of what self-identified "evangelicals" of any stripe may say or do.
