It's not a good look to omit the word "everything" from the great commission. As in, "baptize them and teach them to obey everything I have commanded."
It's also just about spitting distance from Marcion.
This is a very useful corrective to a common teaching in evangelical circles, which is "we are correcting the church to be more purely spiritual because the liberals are the ones who invented the social gospel, which adulterated the gospel, so we're recovering the purity of it."
The slavery apologetic connection is much more influential than people realize. I myself was shocked when I began to research the insidiousness of the lost cause myth in our national history. I'd taken many of that myth's planks for granted, but the lost cause thinking contributes significantly to the dynamic you describe.
The heart of the good news is that Jesus didn't simply shout at us from heaven, proclaiming a minimalist 'gospel'. He was incarnated among us, full of grace & truth. "Faith without works is dead."
Our American model that accentuates the microphone gift 1 hour out of 168 each week, is an elevation of clergy while developing a passive, apparently non-gifted, listless body of Christ. Passivity in the face of the devil's structural injustice model... is "faith without works"... ie, dead.
Greg Gilbert wrote a dismissive review of Harvie Conns book on 9 Marks a decade ago that made me blanch. Farther back you had Horton worried that right-wing politics would dominate over the Lutheranoid gospel and so he imagined all entailments of the gospel needed a wall of seperation from the "gospel" itself. DeYoung seems to adopt this Spirituality aspect as a bulwark against theonomy.
Its interesting to me that at least a handful of post-theonomic calvinists are more on understanding the needs of the poor as an important call for the church's action.
One reason too that this Spirituality emphasis is that parishioners who favor less injustice-confronting politics will get up in the pastor's face if the politics of acting against real political injustice steps on toes or seems costly.
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
Excellent article. I argued recently that the focus displayed in Evangelicalism is also extremely androcentric and wrongfully limits women in participation in the missio Dei.
It's not a good look to omit the word "everything" from the great commission. As in, "baptize them and teach them to obey everything I have commanded."
It's also just about spitting distance from Marcion.
This is a very useful corrective to a common teaching in evangelical circles, which is "we are correcting the church to be more purely spiritual because the liberals are the ones who invented the social gospel, which adulterated the gospel, so we're recovering the purity of it."
The slavery apologetic connection is much more influential than people realize. I myself was shocked when I began to research the insidiousness of the lost cause myth in our national history. I'd taken many of that myth's planks for granted, but the lost cause thinking contributes significantly to the dynamic you describe.
Extremely well said, Ben.
The heart of the good news is that Jesus didn't simply shout at us from heaven, proclaiming a minimalist 'gospel'. He was incarnated among us, full of grace & truth. "Faith without works is dead."
Our American model that accentuates the microphone gift 1 hour out of 168 each week, is an elevation of clergy while developing a passive, apparently non-gifted, listless body of Christ. Passivity in the face of the devil's structural injustice model... is "faith without works"... ie, dead.
Greg Gilbert wrote a dismissive review of Harvie Conns book on 9 Marks a decade ago that made me blanch. Farther back you had Horton worried that right-wing politics would dominate over the Lutheranoid gospel and so he imagined all entailments of the gospel needed a wall of seperation from the "gospel" itself. DeYoung seems to adopt this Spirituality aspect as a bulwark against theonomy.
Its interesting to me that at least a handful of post-theonomic calvinists are more on understanding the needs of the poor as an important call for the church's action.
One reason too that this Spirituality emphasis is that parishioners who favor less injustice-confronting politics will get up in the pastor's face if the politics of acting against real political injustice steps on toes or seems costly.
I don't think I knew about that Gilbert review. If I did, I had forgotten. Thanks for sharing it here. Read it now... not enthused.
Who would you consider to be post-theonomic calvinists?
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
What about black evangelicalism or Hispanic evangelicalism or Asian evangelicalism, etc. Why be divisive by calling it “white?” You are only turning away people that need to hear it. Christ wants us to be full of grace and to live at peace with everyone as much as it depends on us so lose the divisive language and stop accusing people for being born in the skin they are in. Doesn’t God determine where all people are born and live??
Excellent article. I argued recently that the focus displayed in Evangelicalism is also extremely androcentric and wrongfully limits women in participation in the missio Dei.