Boston University theology student Andrew Linscott has produced a useful resource for church school teachers, bible study groups, or pastoral discipleship leaders. “Interpreting the Bible between the Extremes: A Resource for Intentionally Moderate Churches,” is a study guide for intentionally moderate Christians. Written to offer a moderate balance between the right's literalistic approach and the left's neglect of the scriptures, this guide encourages rethinking our approaches to the Bible.

Each of the four sections of the guide includes analysis of historical and theological difficulties that arise in interpreting the Bible, and questions to guide group discussion. There are also two intruging and realistic case studies to stimulate thought in a practical way about the meaning of the Bible for Christians. Linscott's study promotes interactivity and dialogue, which are invaluable virtues for group leaders.

Overall, Linscott wants to encourage taking the “Bible more seriously.” However, the burden of the study is to show that this requires Christians to think critically. Linscott also notes the importance of interpretive methods. The historical-critical method is one that can either be a wonderful tool or an end in itself. To avoid the distortions that can arise in the latter case, Linscott suggests that “the critical approach must ultimately give way to a positive approach which affirms meaning.”

Liberal-Evangelical moderate Christians are all too familiar with the "left versus right" way of thinking. Often ecclesiological and political debates among Christians are assessed in these terms. But as moderate, Christ-centered, radically inclusive Christians, polarizing labels are often frustrating. Perhaps an alternative to left-right thinking is possible.

Reporter Arianna Huffington of the Dallas Morning News has written a series of articles wherein she suggests such an alternative. She claims that a new revolution in thinking is underway. Huffington thinks that, in the arena of political differences, the U.S. culture at large no longer thinks in right versus left categories. Rather, she argues, we now think in terms of right versus wrong.

In her article, “Will gay marriage end left vs. right?” Huffington argues that gay marriage is the latest political issue wherein the new right-wrong thought pattern is evident.

On Thursday, June 4, 2009, President Barack Obama gave a landmark speech in Cairo, Egypt (right). Obama’s stated purpose was to “seek a new beginning” for “the United States and Muslims around the world.”

Obama discussed seven issues that are sources of tension.

• Violent extremism in all of its forms.
• Israelis, Palestinians, and the Arab world.
• The rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.
• Democracy.
• Religious freedom.
• Women's rights.
• Economic development and opportunity.

Following his discussion of these issues, Obama said,

The issues that I have described will not be easy to address. But we have a responsibility to join together on behalf of the world we seek - a world where extremists no longer threaten our people, and American troops have come home; a world where Israelis and Palestinians are each secure in a state of their own, and nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes; a world where governments serve their citizens, and the rights of all God’s children are respected. Those are mutual interests. That is the world we seek. But we can only achieve it together.

Recent events raise the question as to whether or not right wing extremism is gaining momentum in the U.S.

Days ago, James von Brunn (pictured at right) killed a security guard in the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Not long before that, late term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot at church. Further, a group of “skinheads” in Wichita have been accused of plotting to assassinate President Obama. These incidents featuring right-wing extremists appear to be unrelated. But are appearances deceiving? Could heated conservative rhetoric be fanning the flames of the rage driving these incidents?

NPR’s Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan recently discussed this question. Conan interviewed Kathleen Parker (syndicated columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group) and Jamie Kirchick (assistant editor of New Republic and author of “The Religious Right Didn’t Kill George Tiller” for the Wall Street Journal), among other pieces. Parker and Kirchick have quite different points of view on the question.

On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller (pictured at right) was shot and killed. The New York “Daily News” reports that Tiller, “one of only three American doctors who performed late abortions on women with deformed fetuses, was gunned down inside his Wichita church as he chatted with a fellow usher about taking his grandkids to Disneyworld.”

Tiller had been called “Tiller the baby killer” by anti-abortion activists. Having been shot prior to this incident for his pro-choice stand, Tiller “often wore body armor--but not to church.”

Reactions to the Tiller slaying from denominations on both the liberal and conservative wings are flooding the media.

Found in the Middle!

Theology and Ethics for Christians
who are both liberal and evangelical

Wesley J. Wildman & Stephen Chapin Garner

In Lost in the Middle? Wesley J. Wildman and Stephen Chapin Garner articulated a moderate form of Christian faith that makes sense for many moderate Christians with simultaneously liberal and evangelical instincts. Lost challenged Liberal-Evangelical Christians to preach a gospel of radically inclusive, Christ-centeredness. But what precisely does such a gospel message look like? What does it entail for theology, ethics, and ecclesiology? The purpose of Found in the Middle! is to answer these questions.

Found is a practically useful and theologically rich guide book for moderate Christians of the liberal-evangelical sort, and for the church communities that such Christians build and nurture together.

This past week we watched as President Obama spoke to the Muslim world and raised, yet again, the prospect of peace in the Middle East. Many of us are praying that the new administration finds a way to accomplish what so many others have failed to do, but we’re skeptical. I’m not yet an old man, but even I remember five other American Presidents trying and failing to bring the Palestinians and Israelis to a peaceable compromise. I’m not necessarily a cynical man, but I don’t imagine that the tag team of Obama and Hillary will manage it this time either. I used to love NBC’s The West Wing, but as soon as President Bartlett managed to create a peace settlement, the entire show lost credibility!

And yet, despite my frustrations, I continue to pray for peace along with millions of other Muslims, Jews, and Christians. We pray and hope even as we doubt. We’re frustrated and exasperated in part, because it all seems so petty; these fights over who owned what strip of land six decades ago. The original protagonists are largely dead and gone, so the remaining fighters are stuck fighting a kind of absurd proxy battle, waging war over hurts and harms that they themselves experiences only vicariously through the stories of their parents and grandparents. Certainly, there have been other outrages and attacks on both sides since the 1940s and 1950s. Yes there has been plenty of death and violence to keep the old wounds open. But surely (and this suggestion comes so easily to those of us looking at the conflict from a distance) the price paid in lives and limbs has not been worth it.

“Peace! Peace!” We want to cry. “Just knock it off! Enough already.” But of course it is not so simple. There is an epic battle being waged not only between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but between two different conceptions of the fight in the Middle East. What then is our first calling? Are we called first to be peacemakers or are we given a divine mandate to fight for justice.

As the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel noted in different times and slightly different language, “Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.”   

My late grandfather was a wonderful Christian servant and brilliant social engineer. All five of his children and his many grandchildren rave about him, with only one glaring exception. His kids found him tyrannical when it came to settling fights among siblings. No matter how bad the squabble, not matter the injury (real or perceived), he made them hug one another before either child could go to bed. They still talk (and even complain) about it forty plus years later. But they are a tightly knit family in part because of my grandfather’s insistence that they love one another (or fake it) despite their fights. All along he was teaching them the skill of peacemaking, though he might not have called it that. So they developed the habit of learning to live with and move beyond differences and disputes without one person or one side necessarily winning.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

The art of peacemaking is rarely practiced, and as the fights among politicians and Christians heat up around the nomination of Judge Sotomayor we must think about how we might make and keep the peace in our congregations. How might Liberal-Evangelicals act as moderators and peacemakers? Should we? Can we?

The rhetoric on both sides is overblown. The name-calling is appalling. The ulterior motives for opposing or supporting the nomination of Sotomayor are often barely concealed beneath the surface, and her nomination has become a field upon which dozens of proxy battles are being waged: the battle for women voters, the fight to raise funds from women’s organizations, the battle to encourage donations from pro-life groups, a test of the parliamentary powers of the Republican Senate minority, the battle for Hispanic voters, an ideological conflict between “constitutional pragmatists” and “strict constructionists.” All of these fights predate the rise to fame of this one woman, but because she’s up for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court her record and person become the terrain for this summer’s incarnation of these ongoing wars. And it won’t be much different in our churches.

WBUR’s “Here and Now”, with Robin Young, recently produced a story on “Waiting for Armageddon.” This new documentary shows the way American fundamentalist evangelicals understand their beliefs about the approaching end of days in relation to contemporary events in the Middle East. Young interviews Franco Sacchi, filmmaker in residence at the center for digital imaging arts at Boston University and co-director of the film (pictured at right).

The discussion opens by mentioning that evangelicals are not hoping that the world gets better, but are instead waiting for Armageddon. They see the current turmoil as indicating that the end times are near.

One current example of this point relates to the speech given by the current Catholic Pope in Israel. The Pope called for an “independent Palestinian state,” which stirs up dust in the American evangelical community. According to Young, “about a quarter of Americans are evangelical Christians and they hold a wide range of beliefs, but [this] new documentary focuses on the millions of evangelicals who see biblical prophecy unfolding in current world events.”

Here is comes…Get ready…

Tick, Tick, Tick…Tick…..Tick……..Tick……….

If you’ve ever been on a roller coaster you know the building feelings of suspense that accompany those Ticks or Clicks. The tension builds as the potential energy increases, and we eagerly await the coming plunge. It’s hard to tell whether it’s the thrill of anticipation or the shock of the plunge that makes the first hill on a roller coaster the biggest moment of the entire ride. Doubtless they contribute one to the other. It’s the same feeling I used to get late in an August afternoon in Kentucky, when all of the heat and humidity of the day prepared to break in a violent 10 minute thunder storm. Once you’ve been through one, you can feel the next one coming.

I’ve been getting that sense for several weeks now. The energy has been building these past three months, and just this past week I felt the first prescient raindrops…Tick, Tick…Tick….. This generation’s abortion battle is coming. Moderate Christians of a Liberal-Evangelical bent need to be prepared…and we’ll need more than a good umbrella to keep us dry.

Bob Cornwall, pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Troy, MI, has a blog spot titled: “Ponderings on a Faith Journey: The Thoughts and Opinions of a Disciples of Christ pastor and church historian”. Pastor Cornwall has written a series of blogs on Wildman and Garner’s book, Lost in the Middle?

The latest blog entry on this topic, “Unity not Uniformity”, traces the significance of the proclivity towards being “around people with whom we agree” and the fear involved in being around those with whom we disagree. Cornwall challenges his readers to “embrace the principle of radical inclusivity” propounded in Lost.

Moving towards a “liberal-evangelical” stance involves challenges on both relational and individual levels. Citing Lost, Cornwall encourages each individual to affirm his or her beliefs while giving space to those with differing beliefs. With the realization that “each of our journeys are at different places”, Cornwall is able “to find unity without uniformity.”

Inevitably here at Le Blog I end up mixing politics and religion. My hope is that the mixture is not so much substantive, as it is illustrative. I think that the political realm is a wonderful place to witness and learn from human drama. When asking, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” there seems to be no better place to turn for data than the world of politics. Witness the tragi-comedy of Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter. He’s no longer just haunting Europe—I’ve just outed all of you grinning pinkos!—he’s leaving the GOP and moving across the isle to play nice with his new Democratic allies. (Ok, so they’ve stripped him of his seniority, but he still left the GOP.)

What makes this story such a dandy is the rare honesty that Specter showed when announcing his decision to switch parties. His state party was shrinking, and as it shrunk it was becoming more conservative, less tolerant of dissent and outlying positions, and more concerned with doctrinal purity than with winning elections. Specter’s polling showed that he had practically no chance of winning his own Republican primary due to his moderate stances and especially some recent votes in which he sided with the Democrats. So, rather than lose the primary, he switched parties. Yes, we heard the old line, “I’m not leaving the party, the party left me!” but it isn’t clear that any ideological shift had actually taken place. Specter doesn’t line up any more neatly with Democratic ideologues than he did with the Republican purists. There is just more tolerance for internal dissent among the Democrats right now, in large part because they are in charge. Noblesse oblige is so much easier to manage when you’re running the show. So it seems that the moderate middle has moved, shifted, or drifted Left. Is there an inevitable drift toward Liberalism. Are today’s moderates destined to be tomorrow’s Left?

And what does this have to do with our churches?

The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? By Ronald Sider. Baker Books, 2005. 144 pp. $15.00.

If Christians are called to live different lives why aren’t they? Ronald Sider, professor at Eastern Baptist seminary and president of Evangelicals for Social Action, has written a book to address just that issue. He feels that the fact that today’s disciples of Jesus do not act like Jesus and “this scandalous behavior mocks Christ, undermines evangelism, and destroys Christian credibility” (15). This book seeks to understand the crisis of evangelical behavior and state “obedient, faithful correctives” (15).

Leaves From The Notebook Of A Tamed Cynic

One of the great liberal Protestant theologians of the twentieth century, Reinhold Niebuhr, offers an autobiographical account of his early years as a pastor in Leaves From The Notebook Of A Tamed Cynic. Reinhold (1892-1971), brother to H.R. Niebuhr, contributed enormously to theology, ethics, and political philosophy during his later years as professor at Union Theological Seminary (New York City). Among his many accomplishments, Niebuhr had a hand in bringing German theologian Paul Tillich to America, essentially saving Tillich from the Nazis he had repudiated. However, this book consists of Niebuhr’s journal entries prior to his later fame and accomplishments.

The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. By Carl F. H. Henry. Originally published 1947; reprinted, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003. 89 pages. Paperback, $12.00.

Carl F. H. Henry is back from the dead. And no, I’m not a fundamentalist so I don’t mean that literally, but I do suggest that Henry’s desire for fundamentalism in this book still finds resonance with today’s evangelical community. Although this book was written in the late 40’s, it seems to eerily touch on issues still pervasive within the evangelical movement 62 years after its original publication. Carl Henry’s The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism is a short but poignant read into what it really means to be an authentic evangelical. Moreover, this book is essentially a critique of fundamentalism and its inability to equip socially conscious evangelicals. It is a call for evangelicals to actively participate in the world through sound Christian engagement.

The Politics of Jesus: Behold the Man! Our Victorious Lamb. By John Howard Yoder. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1994.

Are the ethics that Jesus and the early church relevant in our crazy world today? What the heck does this Kingdom of God that Jesus speaks of mean? In Politics of Jesus John Yoder, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, seeks to answer these questions by creating a social ethic that relies on the “bulk of specific and concrete content in Jesus’ vision of the divine order which can speak to our age as it has seldom been free to do before, if it can be unleashed from the bonds of inappropriate a prioris” (xi). To accomplish this Yoder negates the “a prioris” or previous ways of thinking that believed that Jesus could speak to modern ethics. Throughout the book Yoder directly addresses the arguments of those who think Jesus’ ethical teachings are not relevant. In this second edition, he updates original 1972 book to address the people that sought to argue against his notion that Jesus’ ethics are applicable to modern society through the use of brief epilogues after each chapter that bring modern scholarship into Yoder’s ethical arguments.

Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. By George Marsden. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991.

There is a great divide in this country between Fundamentalist, Evangelicals, and Liberals within Christianity. Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism traces the history of these theologies back primarily to the mid-19th century with the emergence of Darwinism. The vast majority of the book is focused on the 20th-century divide between Fundamentalism from Evangelicalism with some discussion of liberalism to complete the spectrum of theologies that emerged from the same American Protestant roots.

The author George Marsden is a professor of history at Duke University, School of Divinity. This book emerges from essays written during the 1980’s. Thus, it is important to view the book more as collection of essays woven together around a particular topic than as a cohesive book.

Speaking My Mind. By Tony Campolo. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004. 239 pages.

Tony Campolo, renowned evangelical speaker and prolific writer, maintains in Speaking My Mind what he has been convicted of his whole adult life: That the gospel commitment of a Christian is to a life lived in accordance with the divine authority of Scripture, in relationship with the living Jesus Christ, and in assurance of a resurrection and a life everlasting. Speaking My Mind, however, is not written as a tool for spreading his gospel message to the un-evangelized. It is written to the evangelical community out of a deep concern for what Campolo believes evangelical Christianity has become in America. The evangelical community, says Campolo, despite its growing popularity and marketing success, may harbor “within itself the seeds of its own destruction” (24). It has handled issues like women’s ordination, homosexuality, poverty, politics, and Islam in ways which not only threaten the survival of the evangelical community but which compromise and pervert the heart of the Biblical message. In what may be a surprising juxtaposition of ideas for many readers familiar with evangelicalism, Campolo offers a socially and politically liberal message informed by theologically conservative convictions. For those living comfortably within the evangelical community in America, the book may shake those places in which they feel secure; for those about to give up on the prophetic possibilities and gospel commitment of evangelicalism, however, Campolo offers inspiration and hope.

Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith. By Diana Butler Bass. HarperOne, 2006. 278 pages. $13.95.

If change is central to Christ’s message, why do so many Christian churches resist change? If congregations are dying regularly, is there any hope for the mainline Christian Church? Through a three-year study, which included traveling to mainline churches across the nation, Diana Butler Bass sought to answer these questions. What she found was both truth-telling and hopeful. Mainline churches that listen to Christ’s message of the necessity of change are growing and thriving; meanwhile, mainline churches that resist change are slowly dying. The purpose of this study was to find churches that embrace change and tell their stories in order to build bridges of hope from despair to renewal. Bass divides Christianity for the Rest of Us into three parts, What Happened to the Neighborhood Church?, Ten Signposts of Renewal, and From Tourists to Pilgrims.

Diana Butler Bass is an “author, speaker, [and] educator”, as the title of her blog declares. She writes in order to “help people understand faith both analytically and personally.” As Bass’ sixth book, Christianity for the Rest of Us is a bestseller which serves to help congregations reevaluate their growth process and worship style. Bass’ analysis of American Christianity is so greatly respected that she has appeared in Today, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR. As a respected scholar she contributes regularly to Sojourners’ blog, God’s Politics, created and maintained by author, Rev. Jim Wallis.

There are peculiar stories/myths about the great philosopher Baruch Spinoza leaving Judaism. Instead of simply drifting away, he respected the tradition enough to participate in a ceremony that removed him from the community. Members of his synagogue ritually stepped over him as he lay prone, thus removing him from the community. There aren’t a lot of religious rituals designed for helping people to transition out of a group. For every million Bar Mitzvahs, Baptisms and Upanayanas there might be only one or two excommunications. This imbalance may stem from the simple fact that most people who no longer want to belong to a tradition, do not find that tradition compelling enough to feel the need to participate in a ceremony that formally severs ties. (Violent breakups only occur when we still feel something toward the person we’re dumping, or the person dumping us!)

This past week an article in Canada’s National Post caught my eye and got me thinking about the ways in which so many of us leave churches. The article calls attention to a recent up tick in official apostasy requests being submitted to the Bishops’ offices in Montreal and Quebec City. It seems that the pope’s recent comments on condoms contributing to the AIDS problem in Africa have so infuriated many Quebec Catholics that they are filing formal letters of renunciation. In other words, they are asking to be declared apostates in the eyes of Rome. Gone are the days when being declared an apostate in Quebec or Europe was almost a death sentence, so the requests are largely formalities. But even so, I can’t help but wonder whether non-Catholic Evangelicals might not learn something here. 

As in previous economic downturns, churches are facing a classic conundrum. When the economy worsens, more people turn to religious charities, food programs, and church outreach centers, while at the same time, tithe paying congregants are forced to tighten their belts and purse strings. What to do? Churches across the doctrinal spectrum are looking for new cost cutting strategies, hoping to find ways of avoiding any cuts in services and outreach.

Several weeks ago I caught the tail end of a discussion with Kevin Wright on The Story, a nationally syndicated talk show that usually airs on public radio stations. As with so many events that later seem significant, it didn’t cause me to pause. I was late for picking up my son, had to buy stamps, and needed to get the recycling out of my trunk. So my hands were full, and I didn’t even listen to the end of the interview before turning off the car and running into the post office.  

But that night some of what I heard came back to me, and the next morning I found the podcast of the episode with Wright. I’ve now listened to it several times through, hoping that I’d find a way of responding intelligently, hoping that his words would help me find some of my own. Well after all of that stewing and listening, the most profound thing I’ve come up with yet is this…this guy gets it! He's one of us. He’s a Liberal-Evangelical!

We cannot allow this profound anniversary to pass without comment.

This month marks the150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a book that simultaneously thrilled and scandalized the Christian world even as it failed to deliver on the promise its title made. (The text did many things, but explain the phenomenon of distinct and separate species it did not.)

This past week was also Darwin’s 200th birthday. We don’t need to play out the same old arguments and debates here. The positions are well marked and each side is so fully entrenched that no significant movement seems possible in the near future. I only want to comment on the phenomenon of the debate itself, to call attention to the somewhat odd fact that here rather than somewhere else Biblical literalists have chosen to stake out a position. The more you know about the history of this fight, the more arbitrary it seems. So let’s back up for a moment and think about the costs that we Evangelicals pay for this war. Let’s look at the collateral damage.

The Post Evangelical (Revised North American Edition). By Dave Tomlinson. EmergentYS, a Zondervan publishing group, 2003. 146 pages. $11.00.

Are you a discontented evangelical? Are you somehow left dissatisfied at the way evangelicalism as a movement has influenced your faith and Christianity? If yes, then this book is for you. If no, then read it anyway because it touches on issue salient and contemporary to the liberal-evangelical conversation.

Dave Tomlinson authors an accessible work to both scholars and laypersons alike on a branch of Christianity that has emerged historically from the roots of a salvific orientation and continues today as a centrist theological lens for many Christians. Tomlinson is the vicar of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in North London and founder of “Holy Joe’s,” an unconventional church that meets at a London pub.

Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical Lament. By Randall Balmer. New York: Basic Books, 2006. Pp. xxvii, 242.

This book is the lament of an evangelical at the distortion and the literalistic interpretation of the Gospel by what the author calls the “Religious Right.” By “Religious Right” Balmer means the “movement of politically conservative evangelicals” (xxvii) which includes also some Roman Catholics, Conservative Jews, and Mormons. The author feels that the evangelical faith has been “hijacked” by the Religious Right. The marriage of rightwing evangelicalism with the rightwing politics of America has made the Religious Right a powerful cultural, religious, and political force in America.

Evangelical Disenchantment. By David Hempton. Yale University Press, 2008. 233 pp. $30.00

In his new book Evangelical Disenchantment, David Hempton, a religious historian at Harvard Divinity School, offers nine biographical accounts of exuberant faith, relentless doubt, and acute disenchantment in regards to the evangelical tradition. His subjects are George Eliot, Francis W. Newman, Theodore Dwight Weld, Sarah Grimke, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frances Willard, Vincent van Gogh, Edmund Gosse, and James Baldwin. With the exception of Edmund Gosse, each account shares the same general narrative arc, beginning with fervent commitment to faith, traversing through the painful shadows of doubt and disillusionment, and ending with the renouncement of the evangelical tradition. The journey from pious evangelical faith to resolute disavowal unfolds differently for each, as does the personal aftermath of such radical reversal. Taken together Hempton’s vivid portraits reveal both the strengths and shortcomings “of what is now one of the largest and fastest-growing faith traditions in the world” (198).

Just before the end of 2008 the Pew Forum released its latest findings on the question of how American Christians view the possibility of members of other faith traditions attaining eternal life. The numbers are striking and suggest a growing trend toward Christian exclusivity. In the 2008 study 29% of respondents contend that “mine is [the] one, true faith,” up 9 points from 2002, while 65% hold that “many religions” might lead to eternal life, down 11 points over the same period.

Fidelity With Plausibility: Modest Christologies in the Twentieth Century. By Wesley J. Wildman. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. 441 pages.

“The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God....For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength,” says the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Wesley Wildman opens his discussion on the emergence of Christological absolutism with these verses. The message of these verses, says Wildman, testifies to a scandal of divine concern, “an affirmation of the loving provision of God for human salvation” (149), but it does not demand an absolutized Christology; Christological absolutism was a later development. It was the scandal of divine concern, Wildman reiterates, that was so redeeming and “foolish”.

The Evangelical Universalist. By Gregory MacDonald. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2006. Pp. ix, 201.

Is Christian orthodoxy compatible with belief in the ultimate redemption of the whole human race? MacDonald’s The Evangelical Universalist claims it is possible for an orthodox Christian to hold Christian universalism. This book is an attempt to examine this important theological issue within the framework of “evangelical universalism.” The book is divided into seven chapters with an introduction and appendices.

Christ is central to the author’s theology, and he argues that salvation, finally, depends on one’s faith in the person of Christ, and that in the end everyone will be saved through Christ including those who are in hell. The book begins with an autobiographical note on the author’s conversion from the mainstream view of the church to Christian universalism, and he lays down his own reasons for his thesis in the book. He argues that the teachings of the mainline Christian traditions about hell—such as the theory of retributive justice, teachings of Calvinism, freewill theism, and open theism—are philosophically problematic. He holds that they are incompatible with reason, and that Christians have failed to understand the biblical theology about the ultimate destiny of humanity. Employing reason in interpreting the biblical doctrine of hell, MacDonald believes that Christian universalism is a viable means for understanding what the Bible teaches about hell.

Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture. By John Shelby Spong. Harper San Francisco, 1991. 249 pages. $11.00.

Are there really two creation stories in the Bible? Was woman literally created from man’s side? Is homosexuality actually a detestable sin against God? Is God responsible for killing millions, if not billions, of people and animals? Are the Gospels inerrant if they contradict each other? These are the kinds of questions that Bishop John Shelby Spong wants to raise. As the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark for twenty-four years and the author of more than eleven riveting books, Spong challenges the Fundamentalist Christian thought. Spong, a retired Bishop, uses his web page and newsletters to continue to guide those whom he has inspired to a more progressive faith. While visiting Bishop Spong’s webpage, one will find that he expresses his faith journey as, "I am not even a disillusioned former Christian, as some of my scholar-friends identify themselves. I am a believer who knows and loves the Bible deeply. But I also recognize that parts of it have been used to undergird prejudices and to mask violence." As a heterosexual, married, mainline Christian, highly educated, male, Spong is one of the greatest Christian proponents of gay rights in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addition to combating homophobia, Spong has also made strides for feminism and racial equality. Spong is a theologian to be highly respected; yet he is also opposed by many Conservative Christians who regard his interpretation of scripture as heretical. Through the course of this book, Spong tackles the “pre-scientific” assumptions of the Bible; the four P’s: Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, and Protest; Paul; the Gospels; Christmas; Easter; and “Who is Christ for us?”

The new administration of President Obama announced this week that they will be keeping and expanding on the office of faith-based initiatives begun under President George W. Bush. The renamed office—it’s now called The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships—will continue to work closely with community groups including churches, synagogues, temples and mosques in order to promote local solutions to national challenges. All the details have yet to be worked out, but it is clear that the office will expand even as it shifts its priorities to more closely match those of President Obama.

American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction. By Mark A. Noll. Blackwell Publishing, 2001. 320 pages. Price, $38.00.

Mark A. Noll, professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, has produced a book which is historical, political, and religious all in one package. American Evangelical Christianity offers a subtle and unique presentation of the movements leading to modern evangelicalism in America.

The first sentence of the book offers a terse summary of what will follow: “This book describes, interprets, and evaluates a stream of Christianity that was the predominant form of religion in the early history the United States, that existed as a large but disintegrating force in the first half of the twentieth century, and that has been an increasingly visible but frequently misunderstood political presence over the past fifty years” (1). This is undertaken in two Parts, wherein Noll argues that evangelicalism is a culturally adaptable religious form. In Part III, Noll offers political advice to evangelicals, encouraging a “Christian Politics”. I will summarize the most important elements of this book before offering some evaluative comments.

Several prominent ministers played important roles in the 2008 Presidential election, but as the Obama team prepares to take office on January 20 some lesser known church leaders are preparing for a moment in the spotlight. The selection of Pastor Rick Warren to offer the invocation has already caused headlines and consternation among many progressive Democrats. Now the selection of Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal church’s first openly gay bishop, to lead an inauguration day event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial promises to garner further attention.  Further, Obama’s choice to offer the sermon at the national prayer service on January 21, Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is ground breaking in its own right. Rev. Watkins will be the first female minister to play such a prominent roll.

Lost in the Middle?

Claiming an inclusive faith for
moderate Christians who are
both liberal and evangelical

Wesley J. Wildman & Stephen Chapin Garner

Lost in the Middle? is the first of two volumes written by, for, and about Liberal Evangelicals. The authors explore the sometimes harrowing space between the Liberal and Conservative wings of contemporary Christianity, looking for signs of life and hope. In the middle they find others like themselves, desperate for a voice and eager for fellowship with other Christ-centered, moderate Evangelicals. Like many of us Wildman and Garner look longingly at the energy and organizational vigor of the Conservative Evangelical churches and wish they could claim some of that without the intolerance and dogmatism that so often haunts Conservative congregations. They also see in the Liberal Protestant congregations something that they dearly desire, a passion for social justice and tolerance of difference, but they refuse to push Jesus aside for the sake of a more palatable gospel as have so many Liberal congregations. What they find in the middle, in the no-man’s-land between Conservative Fundamentalism and wishy-washy Liberalism is the deeper challenge of building loving, Christ-centered, pluralistic congregations that can take on the challenge of radical discipleship.

You can see the book on Amazon.com by clicking the link in the right margin. Note that Alban Institute is soon to publish a study guide to assist groups who want to read and study the book together. This site will soon furnish an online version of the study guide consisting of selections from the print version.

McLaren, Brian. Generous Orthodoxy: why I am a missional, evangelical, post/Protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian. El Cajon, CA: Youth Specialties, 2004.

Brian McLaren, one of the early leaders of the recent emergent church movement, wrote Generous Orthodoxyto convey his understanding of the Christian message. He accomplishes this through a confessional faith story of how has interacted with Jesus Christ and Christianity throughout his life. McLaren weaves an auto-biographical narration of his life into a declaration about the way he believes Church should be. His own faith was formed by being uncomfortable with any one brand of Christianity. He incorporates experiences of various denominations within Christianity—from the far right to liberal churches and many in between—into his understanding of his own faith. As he touches each of these types of Christianity he conveys a distinctive understanding of Jesus Christ that draws on elements collected from each of those variations of Christianity.

A Secular Age. By Charles Taylor. Harvard University Press, 2007. 874 pp. $39.95

That we live in a secular age is a fact that few can doubt. For individuals in modern Western society, belief in God has become one personal choice among many, roughly analogous to belief in a given political issue; some rally behind it, others vigorously oppose it, while still others remain more or less indifferent. And yet, less than five hundred years ago it was virtually impossible not to believe in God. So what happened? This is the question which Charles Taylor seeks to answer in his magisterial A Secular Age. In this lengthy volume Taylor explores the myriad of historical, ideological, and social conditions which led to the radical shift whereby secularism replaced religious belief as the “forgone conclusion” of Western society. Taylor, a Canadian philosopher, recently won the Templeton prize for research regarding spiritual realities, which began with his 1999 Gifford lectures entitled Living in a Secular Age? and culminated in the publication of A Secular Age in 2007. The book is divided into five sections; the first three consist of an historical narrative which provided the basis for his 1999 Gifford lectures, while the final two sections deal with more contemporary matters, which Taylor had wanted to discuss in his Gifford lectures, “but lacked the time and competence to treat properly”(ix). Consequently, the following review will be divided into two parts, the first dealing with sections I-III and the second with sections IV-V.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. By Mark A. Noll. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994. 274 pages. $22.00.

There is a scandal plaguing the evangelical church. No, it is not regarding a sexual indiscretion or any sort of moral practice. Mark Noll asserts that the scandal of evangelicalism “is that there is not much of an evangelical mind” (3). Noll is an evangelical scholar who currently teaches history at the University of Notre Dame. For many years Noll was a professor at Wheaton College in history and theology. It was during his time at Wheaton that Noll penned The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. When looking at evangelicals he is greatly distressed because “notwithstanding all their other virtues…American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations” (3).

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind is broken down into four sections. The first section comprises the opening two chapters and discusses the contemporary scandal for evangelicals (their lack of influence and contribution to the collective intellect) and why this is an important issue for evangelicals. Section two of the book evaluates the history of evangelicalism and factors that contributed to a lack critical thinking, specifically noting the “intellectual disaster of fundamentalism” (109). Noll addresses the ramifications of the scandal in section three by discussing how evangelicals have thought about politics and participated in science. In the concluding fourth section Noll asks if there is any hope for the future of the evangelical mind. This book is “an effort to show why this scandal emerged as it did in North America and how it might be possible to minimize its pernicious effects” (23).

American Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving. By Christian Smith. University of Chicago Press, 1998. 324 pages. $18.00.

If you thought traditional religion could not thrive in the pluralistic society we live in you were wrong. At least according to Christian Smith in American Evangelicalism. Smith is a professor of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. As a sociologist Smith’s concern is whether “modernity creates the conditions in which traditional religion may thrive” (218). He will argue that not only is it possible but we can see example of this by examining evangelicalism. In case the audience is unfamiliar with evangelicalism Smith gives a brief history on the groups formation out of fundamentalism. He distinguishes three markers that set evangelicalism apart from its fundamentalist heritage: 1) Spreading the gospel should not be sacrificed for doctrinal purity; 2) evangelicals “wanted a true Christian faith that could hold its own in academic circles” (10); 3) “this group of emerging fundamentalist reformers believed that orthodox Christians needed to be socially and politically active” (10).

The Struggle for American’s Soul: Evangelicals, Liberals and Secularism. By Robert Wuthnow. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989. 183 pages. $22.00.

The title of Robert Wuthnow’s book, The Struggle for America’s Soul, offers two assumptions intrinsically tied to the thesis and purpose of this book. First, it assumes that America has a soul and second, that there is a battle for its ownership between Evangelicals and Liberals. Robert Wuthnow currently holds the Gerhard R. Andlinger professorship of sociology at Princeton University. He is an accomplished author and scholar with recent published works that include, After the Baby Boomers:  How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion; America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity; and Saving America? Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society. As the director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, Wuthnow is widely recognized as one of the leading scholars in the field of sociology of religion. Essentially, in this book, Wuthnow seeks to study, from a sociologist’s perspective, the struggle in American religion that “has roots in different views of the Bible, in different styles of moral reasoning, and even in different concepts of spirituality” (xii).

The Dialectics of Secularization. Jürgen Habermas and Joseph Ratzinger. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2005. 85 pages.

In January of 2004, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, posed this provoking question to his audience at the Catholic Academy of Bavaria: Is religion “an archaic and dangerous force that builds up false universalisms, thereby leading to intolerance and acts of terrorism” (64)? The context for the question was a debate between himself, then Prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Jürgen Habermas, a liberal, secular philosopher, receiver of the Kyoto Prize for lifetime achievement, and self-proclaimed as “tone-deaf in the religious sphere” (11). The Dialectics of Secularization is a transcript of their dialogue in response to the agreed upon subject: “The Pre-Political Moral Foundations of a Free State”.

In other words, must a constitutionally-defined free state justify its ethical norms with an antecedent, universal claim for truth and, thus, compromise its own claim of a neutral world view? On the other hand, how can any religion which does make universal claims justify those claims in a manifestly plural world without bending towards intolerance, injustice and, in the extreme case, acts of terrorism? One might think Cardinal Ratzinger, staunch defender of Catholicism, would be obliged to answer “no” to his own proposition of religion as an archaic and dangerous force; and one might think that Habermas would defend his own commitment to a neutral, universally accessible reason as the antidote to claims of any revelation antecedent to reason. Instead, however, both men promote the limits of their respective positions, succeeding in the difficult but worthwhile balancing act of criticizing the presumptuous over-reach of their own tradition while still articulating unwavering conviction.

Evangelical vs. Liberal: The Clash of Christian Cultures in the Pacific Northwest. By James K. Wellman Jr. New York: OUP, 2008. ISBN 9780195300116. Pp. i-xv, 1-306.

This book is the product of a project the author has undertaken to study the liberal and evangelical Christianity in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) with a view to discovering how these two distinct groups of Christianity interact with each other. The book is divided into three parts comprising twelve chapters. The first part deals with the context, theory of methodology of the study. The study was done in one of the most secular regions of the US, western Washington and western Origen. The author made a comparative study of twenty-four evangelical and ten liberal churches of this region through extensive and systematic interviews of both the clergy and the laypeople. Using the results of his study, the author has attempted to analyze, compare, and contrast evangelicals and liberals. He has identified the liberal/evangelical Christians as two religious subcultures that compete for dominance within the American religious landscape, which has implications for American politics and cultures.

Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think And What To Do About It. By Os Guinness. Baker Books, 2001. 160 pages. $9.99.

Ever wonder why some of the more conservative-evangelical Christians tend to dismiss reasonable questions about their faith, make statements such as “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!”, or presuppose a theocratic ideal in a democratic government (i.e. the USA)? Many other such characterizations of the evangelical attitude could be mentioned, but getting to its core is the task undertaken by Os Guiness in Fit Bodies Fat Minds.

As an evangelical, Guinness is in a unique position to write this book. All too familiar with the evangelical perspective, he critiques his own camp. This book is written with the goal of reforming the way in which Christians think (c.f. 11). Guinness introduces his message in two ways. First, he will point out the problem of evangelical anti-intellectualism, which he defines as “a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind” (9). Second, he will argue that anti-intellectualism is a sin which must be addressed: “we evangelicals need to examine our anti-intellectualism, confess its pervasiveness, repent of its wrongness, and seek God’s restoration to live up to our name- truly being people of the gospel who love God not only with our hearts, souls, and strength, but also with our minds” (11). The problem Guinness posits is that American evangelicals are more concerned with their abs and cardio than with the development of their minds. Tracing the development of anti-intellectualism in two parts: I, “A Ghost Mind”; and II, “An Idiot Culture”; Part III, “Let My People Think”, offers solutions to this problem. I will now summarize Guinness’ argument.

This year for Christmas we decided to leave the less than cozy confines of Montreal in order to head south to visit family in Kentucky and Texas. Given the ease of flying with a small child and the famous courtesy of airport security we opted to rent a car and drive. This meant driving through the night 12 hours to Kentucky, then 16 hours to Texas...and then back again. Well, at least we kept our dignity and were able to snack on regular sized bags of pretzels and not the tiny ones the airlines use.

Our travel plans are relevant only because they meant that in our satellite radio equipped rental car I was able to flip back and forth between CNN, BBC, Fox News, and NPR, in addition to all of the other talk radio news stations available throughout the South and Midwest of the USA. What did I learn from 56 hours of talk radio?

On November 4, 2008 America elected its first Mega-church minister to the highest office in the land. Prepare yourselves for Rick Warren’s inauguration!

National Public Radio (NPR) listeners are generally more liberal than the American population at large, so when they tuned in to the December 2 edition of “Fresh Air” they were likely not shocked to hear a defense of environmentalism, President-elect Obama, and civil unions for same-sex couples. But many members of the National Association of Evangelicals who were listening were shocked to hear these views espoused by their own spokesman, Rev. Richard Cizik.

Cizik has worked for the NAE for 28 years, and for the last several has been something of a lightening rod, attracting the ire of conservative Evangelicals like James Dobson because of his advocacy on behalf of “creation care.” He weathered these criticisms in part because his views on climate change and openness to fresh ideas promised to bring in the new generation of young Evangelicals. However, his December 2 comments proved to be the proverbial “last straw.” Cizik admitted that his views on homosexuality and gay unions were “shifting.” Conservatives responded by suggesting that the leadership at the NAE should shift as well.

Is there anything new to be said about Christmas?

I’m not the only one asking this question this week. Trust me; your ministers are desperately seeking an answer to this question themselves as they prepare Advent sermons, Christmas eve sermons, Christmas eve early service children’s talks, Christmas day sermons and, in some cases, homilies for the late night Christmas eve carol sing.  Think about all of the words that they have to generate; what makes matters worse they are intimately aware of what they said last year (even if most of us aren’t). They are panicked about saying something new—something even more profound than last Christmas.

But for roughly 2000 years they had to preach the same story with the same cast of characters; so the chances of coming up with something new, or of seeing some nuance that will yield profound insights, is pretty slim.  The good news for these harried servants of God is that for once it doesn’t much matter what they say so long as they stick to the general script. The story can do the work for them. A couple of shepherds and kings from central casting, a baby doll, a couple of bales of hay and some of the kids in paper wings and you have all you need for a successful Christmas story.

Before the terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed the course of world events and the administration of George W. Bush, it looked like his focus as President was going to be on making his Faith-based Initiative a reality, despite considerable opposition from Democrats and other groups dedicated to keeping religion and politics separate. Over eight years President Bush has managed to bring his Faith-based initiative to fruition and has had some successes. For proof, one need look no further than the public pronouncements of support from soon-to-be President Obama.

For decades American Episcopalians have made fun of themselves, referring to themselves as “God’s frozen people.” They are frozen no longer.

In the wake the ordination of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire conservative Episcopalians in the U.S. have been generating considerable heat. They have protested, prayed, and threatened to put themselves under the leadership of more conservative African Bishops. However, their repeated failures to reconcile themselves to the increasingly liberal attitudes of many of their American, Canadian, and English sisters and brothers has finally lead to a definitive break.

Newly empowered with the knowledge that they helped bring about an Obama victory and strengthen the Democratic Party’s position in both houses of Congress, the Christian Left and other progressive religious groups are urging President-Elect Obama to put an end to the U.S. use of torture and detentions without trial. The prison facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba is fast becoming a symbol of the kinds of practices that the incoming President must change.

I walk down my front stairs, do some quick stretches, and then start my warm-up walk. Over the last few months this has been my opportunity to scroll through my podcast options and pick a few that I’ll listen to while I run—an admittedly generous interpretation of what I do as I climb the Royal Mount that gives Montreal its name. But today I’m a bit disappointed. Mathews’ Hardball, Olbermann’s Countdown, KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center, and even my favorite, NPR’s It’s All Politics—none of them have quite the same appeal. The election is over, and while I don’t have buyer’s remorse, I do feel something of a letdown. So what now? What did we learn?

Well, one thing we learned is that the “Religious Left” is a growing force in electoral politics. The Pew Forum is doing a good job of documenting that. We saw again that the enthusiasm of supporters is as important as their mere numbers. We also learned that we are a nation eager to pat ourselves on the back. As a young Canadian I spoke with this week sardonically put it, “It’s good to know that there are no more racists in America.” I won’t add to the chorus of self-congratulatory voices, but I do think we can learn some things as Christian moderates from this election that might help us think about the ways in which we interact in congregations.