We Lost Evangelism
We Lost Evangelism
We Lost Evangelism
Scot McKnight
Not long ago I posted on the loss of the evangelical soul, a post in part
stimulated by the tone of conversations I am witnessing on FB. Everybody’s
a prophet these days and thinks so because, so they think, they are speaking
truth to power. They’re not. They’re yelling in a barrel full of self-appointed
prophets.
Today’s post moves into signs of evangelicalism’s demise. Let’s get the
standard definition of evangelicalism on the table first: An evangelical is
committed to these four elements: the Bible, the cross as the place of
atonement, the necessity of personal conversion, and an active Christian life
both in missions/evangelism as well as justice, peace and reconciliation. On
top of this, evangelicalism is non-denominational and cross-denominational.
For one very good sketch of evangelicalism, I recommend David
Bebbington, The Dominance of Evangelicalism. For a more intra-mural
debate, Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism.
Those four elements are crumbling, folks, they are crumbling. It’s not that
evangelicalism has been yet again swamped by politics and lost its way.
Rather, it is swamped by politics because those four elements are crumbling.
Bible and theology are of little interest other than an odd Bible citation to
prop up a claim. Small groups read books by well-known authors, rarely are
they studies on a single book of the Bible (publishers aren’t selling these as
well today), far too many of its most prominent theologians write books
unanchored in Scripture and they do not begin with sketches of the Bible.
Atonement Confusion
Atonement theology has fallen on hard times. It has become politicized into
penal substitution, which for some means propitiation, vs. some other center
of gravity—and more and more it has moved toward Girardian scapegoat
theory, exemplary theology or a very soft Christus victor. Hard-headed
conservatives are protecting propitiation at all costs and neglecting kingdom
themes in the process and so distort atonement, while committed
progressivists are determined to prevent the wrath of God against sin and
sinners (mentioning Jonathan Edwards does the trick) so they can find some
“theory” of atonement that turns the Holy Week into justice and more
justice. Evangelicalism from beginning to end is a cross-shaped atonement-
based gospel and there is little appeal for a new book like John R.W.
Stott’s The Cross of Christ except with the propitiation crowd, who are in
an echo chamber of Stott. I have attempted to sketch a comprehensive
theory of atonement in A Community Called Atonement.
Leaders want a place in the circles around the White House, and when given
one it’s a source of pride. Pride is no longer accorded those who faithfully
read and teach the Bible, who glory in the cross of Christ, who preach
conversions and transformations, and who are engaged in a piety- and
evangelism-based activism that encompasses the whole person.
The center of gravity of too much of evangelicalism has shifted away from
these crumbling core themes to something else, but in the process
evangelicalism has lost its soul.