Postfundamentalist Evangelicalism

You may wonder what this is: “post-fundamentalist evangelicalism.” The term, as far as I know, belongs to Roger Olson, a prolific author and theology professor. I believe that he subscribes to Arminian theology. His specialty seems to be historical theology. I am reading a little book he put out called the Pocket History of Evangelical Theology, published by InterVarsity Press and apparently is drawn from a larger work, The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology. Olson writes well, I think anyone could follow what he has to say. The book helps in several ways. For one, it defines evangelicalism today, and I think does so quite well. It demonstrates a clear understanding that evangelicalism and fundamentalism are not the same thing. This is also helpful. In addition, it traces the roots of evangelical theology that provides an excellent summary of antecedents. This helps our understanding of both fundamentalism and evangelicalism, since prior to the 1950s, evangelicalism wasn’t “post-fundamentalist” it was coincident with fundamentalism. In other words, prior to the sea change of “new evangelicalism,” fundamentalism and evangelicalism essentially meant the same thing.

All of this gets ahead of ourselves a little bit. For this post I’d like to summarize some of Olson’s work on defining evangelicalism, the subject of his first chapter. He starts out by pointing out seven “justifiable uses” of the term. (Page 8) The next few pages outline the seven uses. I’ll summarize them here:

  1. The etymological use: people “of the good news,” people connected to the gospel. In this use, “evangelical is simply synonymous with authentic Christianity,” as opposed to “moralistic or legalistic religion,” (8) meaning forms of Christianity that depend on liturgical form or ritualistic legalism for right standing with God. Evangelicals in this sense believe in salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
  2. The Reformation use: this use makes evangelical “simply synonymous with Protestant.” (8) In Germany, the “Evangelical” churches are “not-Catholic.” We see this in North America in the names of such denominations as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or the Evangelical Free Church.
  3. The British use: evangelical is used in Anglicanism to describe those Anglicans of the “low church” variety, as opposed to the “high church” Anglicans who border on Catholicism in their love of ritual, forms, and even doctrines that are close to Catholicism.
  4. The fruit of Pietism and revivalism: this use “arises out of the Pietist and revivalist attempts to reform and revive Protestant Christianity in Germany, Great Britain, and North America in the early eighteenth century.” (9-10) Those in support saw the churches (especially the ‘state churches’) as fallen into dead orthodoxy. They campaigned for a “heart religion” that expressed warm and fervent faith. “Evangelicals rejected sacramental salvation and covenant salvation as inadequate views of true conversion to Christ.” (10) This usage (and others) shows some of the historical development of evangelical theology.
  5. As a synonym (virtually) for fundamentalism: this use of the term “comes from the conservative Protestant reaction to the rise of liberal Protestantism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” In this sense, evangelicals were those who actively opposed modernist thought, attempted to secure control of denominations and schools for orthodox doctrine, and, failing that, ended up establishing new institutions. Some of those in this contest were willing to carry the label “fundamentalist” while others, perhaps less comfortable with that term, invested “evangelical” with the same orthodox militancy for truth.
  6. A new use of the term came after the fundamentalist-modernist controversies, as “the 1940s and 1950s postfundamentalist evangelicalism began to break away from the increasingly militant and separatistic fundamentalism of the 1920s and 1930s.” (12) This aspect of evangelicalism is the subject of Olson’s book. He defines postfundamentalist evangelicalism as a renewal of revivalistic evangelicalism, divorced from the extremes of militant fundamentalism. Evangelicals in this sense are “NOT fundamentalists.” Initially, they are reactionary; subsequently they became the broad majority of non-Catholic, non-liturgical, non-fundamentalist conservative Christianity.
  7. The last usage of evangelical is “popular rather than historical.” (13) It is the term journalists (and others) bandy about when describing “Christianish groups.” Even groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses have had the label imposed on them. The popular usage of uninformed people contributes to the confusion about the meaning of the term.

Olson wants to describe the theological development and unique contributions of postfundamentalist evangelicalism. He defines it further with this:

“Evangelicalism is a loose affiliation (coalition, network, mosaic, patchwork, family) of mostly Protestant Christians of many orthodox (Trinitarian) denominations and independent churches and parachurch organizations that affirm…

  • “a supernatural worldview…
  • “the unsurpassable authority of the Bible…
  • “Jesus Christ as unique Lord, God, and Savior…
  • “the fallenness of humanity and salvation provided by Jesus Christ…
  • “the necessity of personal repentance and faith…
  • “the importance of a devotional life…
  • “the urgency of gospel evangelism and social transformation;
  • “and the return of Jesus Christ…” (14-15)

Olson says, “many evangelicals affirm more; none affirms less or deny any of these basic belief commitments.” (15)

Of the list above, most fundamentalists would likewise affirm these ideas, except perhaps “the urgency of … social transformation.” This tenet is a defining mark of evangelicalism. It is what Carl Henry called for in his book, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Fundamentalism also insists on separatism (as noted above), which evangelicals specifically reject. Olson quotes Donald Bloesch in The Future of Evangelical Christianity as saying,

“Evangelicalism unashamedly stands for the fundamentals of the historic faith, but as a movement it transcends and corrects the defensive, sectarian mentality commonly associated with Fundamentalism.” (Bloesch, 15, cited in Olson 20)

I have to say that Olson’s definitions seem accurate to me. Evangelicalism (i.e. postfundamentalist evangelicalism) and Fundamentalism depart at this point: Evangelicalism rejects separatism while Fundamentalism embraces it; Evangelicalism embraces social transformation, while Fundamentalism rejects it (without rejecting compassion for others — the key word is transformation).

There is a lot more of interest in Olson’s book. I plan to produce a few more blog posts from his little book. I recommend it to those interested in our subject.

Northland Today (2013.4.23)

I am not going to load this post up with a lot of commentary. Just three points:

I guess that is what this means:

It has been our desire to reach out to scripturally solid churches who in the past have not been familiar with Northland as well as continue to serve our current constituents.

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hoorah, I guess

Something blew by today that makes me wonder. Should I comment? Big announcement, excitement, pleased with accomplishment… I’ve seen some of the work, it’s pretty good, I guess. But…

Does it mean collaboration with Mr. Grace Awakening? It would appear so…

When the word collaboration is used… ok, “collaborated”… with a ministry that is skewed, some say antinomian… one has to wonder at the level of discernment.

It is disheartening. The upcoming musical release will be well done, no doubt. We will have little to criticize about content and style, I am sure.

But man… what are we to make of this level of cooperation?

I hope some of the fellows coming out of fundamentalist institutions are learning what fundamentalism means and why its important. Many of the most noticeable ones just don’t seem to get it.

Still, one of our best and brightest has been noticed by a prominent church with an internationally known pastor and has produced something. Hoorah, I guess.

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defining ‘conservative evangelical’

A couple of my recent reading sources lead me to look at the term ‘conservative evangelical’ from a different perspective other than my normal ‘rabid fundamentalism’. One source is a book edited by Timothy George and David Dockery, Theologians of the Baptist Tradition. The other is an article by Michael Clawson appearing on Roger Olson’s site, “Young, Restless, and Fundamentalist: Neo-fundamentalism among American Evangelicals(HT: Sharper Iron).

Both of these sources come at the question from the evangelical side of the spectrum, in the case of Clawson and Olson, it is on the outside of conservative evangelicalism looking in, whereas George and Dockery are more or less on the inside of the movement. Both sources offer some interesting observations of the so-called ‘conservative evangelical’ movement.

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the Jakes-shakes continue

Another blog reacting to the TD Jakes invitation and defense by James MacDonald.

What makes this one interesting is…

  • That the author is a pastor in the Harvest Bible Fellowship, James MacDonald’s organization.
  • That the author is a graduate of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary
  • That some of the author’s co-bloggers are also graduates of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. (One is the son of a very close friend from ‘back in the day’.)

Given those connections, the separatistic bent of the blog post makes a bit more sense. (Although it remains to be seen if actual separation will take place.)

Along with making the post make a bit more sense, these facts raise some interesting questions:

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elephantine update

Thabiti Anyabwile comments on the Mark Driscoll / James MacDonald / T. D. Jakes love-in. You need to read it.

Money quote:

 And we kid ourselves if we think the Elephant Room invitation itself isn’t an endorsement of sorts.  We can’t downplay the associations by calling for people to suspend judgment and responding ad hominem against “discernment bloggers.”  We certainly can’t do that while simultaneously pointing to our association at The Gospel Coalition as a happy certification of orthodoxy and good practice, as Driscoll seems to do here with MacDonald. [emphasis added]

What a blessing it would be if men like Thabiti and the more conservative evangelicals would finally see that this is the crux of the fundamentalist-evangelical divide, and then get on the right side of it.

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together for ?

Yes, it’s the Rick and John show once again. Appearing at your favorite popularizer of Reformed theology web-site or your favorite popularizer of Purposeful theology web-site. So says Baptist Press.

Frankly, I’m appalled at the kinds of slanders that have been brought against this book by people whose methods of critique, if they were consistently applied to the Bible, would undo it as the Word of God.

Which book? Purpose Driven Life.

Who said it? John Piper … see the video at one of the links above.

When and Where? May 1, 2011, during the Desiring God Regional Conference at Saddleback Church.

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what do you think about apostles … today?

I grew up in Alberta, Canada, for any who might not know. Alberta is one of the wealthiest provinces in Canada due to huge oilfields. The oilfields were mainly discovered after World War II. Prior to that, Alberta was largely an agricultural economy subject to the ups and downs of world markets. And of course, the Great Depression was a huge downer.

During those years, a radio preacher got interested in the theories of Social Credit. He lobbied the government to adopt these policies, but when rebuffed formed the Social Credit party and became Premier of the province in 1935. He was Premier for eight years, but died suddenly, to be replaced by his right hand man.

The preacher’s name was William Aberhart. He was a complicated individual, very insecure as a person in some ways, and very eclectic in his theology, although we would probably think of him as basically orthodox.

When I say eclectic, I mean that he would pick up new theology as he went along, becoming an enthusiast for some new quirk as it came to his attention. He mostly served as a lay preacher, but at one point he led a Baptist church in Calgary to designate him as its “apostle”. Under him, there served a pastor, but he was the “apostle.”

What do you think of that?

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show me the silent majority

Kevin Bauder’s latest installment tells the history of separation from a point of view totally foreign to me. Essentially, he seems to be arguing that there has been a silent majority within evangelical Christendom that never was actually new-evangelical.

  • This silent majority was at first willing to be identified as fundamentalists but had little stomach for the fight the fundamentalists waged against the liberals.
  • This silent majority wasn’t new-evangelical, but it sided with the new evangelical forces on the left of the NAE against the fundamentalists. (??)
  • The silent majority didn’t approve of Billy Graham’s cooperative evangelicalism, but they didn’t break with Graham over it. (???)

You know, I’d really like to see some evidence of these last two points especially. I see many ‘attaboys’ on SI about it, but really, shouldn’t we demand some evidence and not just rely on Bauder’s say-so?

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a new-fundamentalist manifesto?

In a relatively recent (but undated) press release, Central Baptist Theological Seminary announced that discussions of a proposed merger between Central and Faith Baptist Theological Seminary have ceased. Instead, some kind of cooperation between the two institutions will be pursued “short of a merger”.

Below the press release, links are provided to several ‘ethos statements’, also undated. They provide an interesting glimpse into the state of mind CBTS considers to be its “distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs”. *

In reading these documents, some observations come to mind. First, comparing the “Ethos Statement on Salvation & Sanctification” and the “Ethos Statement on Hermeneutics & Eschatology” with the “Ethos Statement on Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism”, a curious difference is immediately noticeable. The first two documents are full of phrases like this: “Some of us believe that…” contrasted with “while others believe…” or “while others understand…” The third document contains no expressions like this at all. One has to wonder how much these first two documents really distinguish the character or guiding beliefs of the institution. Some believe one thing, others believe another. Doesn’t sound like a statement of certainty to me. It seems that the third document, the “Ethos Statement on Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism” is more definitive than the first two.

Second, regarding the “Ethos Statement on Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism” specifically, my first impression is that it represents something new. It isn’t the way fundamentalists have typically expressed themselves in the last 60 years, but it does seem to be a summary statement of new views of fundamentalism that some have been advocating in recent years. Yet, this statement is perhaps less definitive than it appears because there remain several important unanswered questions.

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