Engaged orthodoxy
Good question from Brett the other day regarding my views on the “emerging church”. Was I concerned the emerging church was not “conservative” in the best sense of the word?
I don’t see the emerging church as any different from previous attempts to adapt the church to a changing world. It’s a mixed bag. The challenge of being the church in the postmodern world must be met. But not all attempts will succeed.
What’s called for is creative tension. Renewal movements must to make an innovative return to tradition. And they must remain both distinct and connected to the surrounding culture.
In his study of American evangelicalism, Christian Smith has concluded that evangelicalism is the “strongest” of the Christian traditions. He contrasts evangelicalism with both fundamentalism and liberal Protestantism and argues that what distinguishes evangelicalism is its “engaged orthodoxy.” Evangelicals are “committed to maintaining and promoting confidently traditional, orthodox Protestant theology and belief, while at the same time becoming confidently and proactively engaged in the intellectual, cultural, social and political life of the nation.”
In contrast, fundamentalism is defensively separate from the surrounding culture and can be described as “distinction without engagement.” It is very clear about its identity but lacks the means to meaningfully engage the surrounding culture. As a result, fundamentalism is a movement turned in on itself, lacking vitality.
Mainline and liberal Protestants have chosen an even worse position. They are “engaged without distinction.” Their accommodation of the surrounding secular values weakens their impact on society. The social-activist heritage of the sixties and seventies has faded into the background. What remains is “the desire to reinterpret Christian faith in terms of the categories, values and commitments of the modern (and now postmodern) world.”
Smith contends that the key to evangelicalism’s vitality is its ability to exist in tension with the surrounding culture while at the same time remaining engaged with that culture. “A religious movement that unites both clear cultural distinction and intense social engagement will be capable of thriving in a pluralistic, modern (and postmodern) society.”
This is not just good sociology. It’s a Kingdom principle. The principle of the Incarnation. Radically engaged. Radically different.
“American Evangelicalism : Embattled and Thriving” (Christian Smith)
