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The futures of evangelicalism - Issues and prospectsCome back, Francis SchaefferTHE FUTURES OF EVANGELICALISM Flowing out of a day conference at the University of Gloucestershire (on the same theme as the book's title) comes a collection of 11 essays examining the 'trajectories' that evangelicalism could take in the future. The subjects covered are theology, the church, biblical interpretation, biblical theology, mission, ethics, world-views, spirituality, philosophy, the charismatic movement (in the UK, US and globally) and politics - enough issues to keep you thinking for quite a while! All these issues are important to face up to. Too often evangelicalism has bred a 'keep your head down as the bullets whiz by' approach to thinking about anything, let alone the unknown future. The contributors, too, are noteworthy, and include Alister McGrath, Eugene Peterson, Graeme Goldsworthy, Kevin Vanhoozer and Chris Wright. As you would expect from such writers, a lot that they say is very helpful. UnevenYet I came away rather dissatisfied with the book. First, the 'read' is quite uneven, with some contributions being very accessible (notably Chris Wright's description of church growth in 'the Rest' as opposed to church decline in the 'West'), while others were difficult and demanding. Second, the perspective seemed rather strange. The book purports to be about the futures of evangelicalism with a Western focus, but there was nothing on Western Europe apart from the UK. Even then, I was constantly asking myself whether a particular writer was North American or British, and was he speaking about the evangelicalism we see here as opposed to 'over there'. Of course, there is much in common in the Christian heritage of both areas, yet there is also much that is different. The UK, and England in particular, has had its tertiary education and thus its media/legal/political/educational elite, hugely influenced by Continental thinking. Many of the 'trendsetters' in the secular world, and through them the other people we are trying to reach in the UK, are affected by the cynicism and hardness that marks Western Europe rather than some parts of the USA. Many passing cultural items (films, food, fads) may be American, but the general mindset here is much more European. Church-going patterns in the UK bear much more resemblance to our European neighbours than to the USA. Yet the book generally puts the two English-speaking zones into one conceptual group, and I found myself questioning the relevance of some material for our future in Britain. Third, some aspects of evangelicalism's futures were weakly dealt with or missing completely. Biblical hermeneutics is a massive and complex subject, but it is where many of the postmodern battles are being fought and this could have done with a more thorough treatment. The issues of science, technology and the 'Third Revolution' of IT, and its impact on our assumptions, beliefs and lifestyle, have been raised in many recent works as matters of huge importance (see for example Phillip Johnson's recent The Right Questions, or Don Carson's The Gagging of God). But any treatment of this is missing, as is any consideration of the effect of commercialism and the crasser forms of materialism. Apart from the chapter on mission, most of the discussion of church growth was focused on the growth of Pentecostal or charismatic churches. These were interesting and informative, but uneven in feel (one dealt with the UK scene, the other with North America and the world, while also considering the impact the movement should have on making theology more biblical - all in one go!). Yet there was no discussion on the impact of other 'strands' of evangelicalism such as the growth of Anglican Evangelical influence, or North American church growth strategy as it has been exported elsewhere. Secularisation ignoredI was also surprised to find no discussion on the secular trends that are likely to impact evangelicalism soon. Unlike Francis Schaeffer, whose analysis of the culture and world-view meant that he clearly saw abortion, euthanasia and other moral/spiritual matters coming, well ahead of time, there was no such consideration here of forthcoming dilemmas. It would not surprise me if the church in Western Europe one day faces state control over what is taught to children, and is confronted with the issue of whether to encourage disobedience to laws that over-regulate on matters such as child rearing or discipline. We may be caught up in problems over 'incitement to religious hatred' as our concepts of 'tolerance' change, and may face difficulties over employment law and ethical standards. Some of these are not distant, but imminent for many Western European Christians. But these, and other trends, received scant attention. Finally I thought that the treatments of the futures of charismatic evangelicalism were hardly fair to those who take a different theological position. It is truly heart-warming (and humbling) to have seen God add many children to his family through the outreach of churches holding to these positions. But both contributions I thought were weak on analysis, too strong on positive evaluation, and assumed or asserted the rightness of their theological position without question, and without any awareness that those who don't see it that way are not just 'bucking a future' that the Spirit wants to take us down. So, much to ponder, but also much that left me wondering if the 'futures' market is best left to those who have the space to develop their ideas more thoroughly than is possible in a symposium of this type. Dr. Ray Evans,
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