I sometimes wonder how widely read this blog is, because while the traffic is modest, some of my points often echo elsewhere.
For example, First Things has an article very reminiscent of my post on the supposed “evangelical century.” Author Carl Trueman takes the same position I do, which is that there really isn’t such a thing as “Evangelicalism.” It’s a category, not a denomination. It contains infinite theologies. Put simply, its defining characteristic is an absence of hierarchy. Otherwise, its adherents have little else in common.
As if to underline how individualized Protestantism has become Trueman outlines his beliefs:
If asked to describe myself, I typically do not call myself an evangelical. I am first a catholic, then a Protestant, and finally a confessional Presbyterian: a catholic because I affirm the truths of the Nicene Creed and the Chalcedonian Formula; a Protestant because I reject the pope’s claim to be the Vicar of Christ and the sacramental system of the Roman Church; a confessional Presbyterian because I affirm the Westminster Confession of Faith as a summary of the Bible’s teaching, and because I hold Presbyterianism to be the proper form of church government.
There is a lot to unpack here, but we can summarize it as cafeteria Christianity. He claims the term “catholic” but repudiates the Church’s ancient practices and hierarchy. He is a Calvinist (no surprise there) and holds that Presbyterianism is the proper form of church government, but all of the state churches preaching it have collapsed and the American branches are torn by schism.
In short, he’s a typical product of a society that produces Calvinist Nestorians.
First Things has another article by Dale M Coulter that demonstrates how even hierarchical Protestant denominations are finding it impossible to enforce canon law. Individual congregations have discovered that they can incorporate as a separate entity and thereby gain ownership of their church and its property. Once this is accomplished, they can make whatever theological changes they wish and their bishops are powerless to stop them. Now the article is about the United Methodist Church, but it applies any Protestant church.
Just as with American businesses, the mid-20th Century saw a period of consolidation in American churches as the various immigrant offshoots and old state churches assimilated and amalgamated. The UMC is one example of this, being founded in 1968 by a merger of older denominations. It lasted less than sixty years.
The collectivist mentality of that era is now gone, replaced by strident individualism, and as a result, hierarchical churches are disintegrating. As the article demonstrates, people choose a Protestant church largely for the preaching, and a charismatic leader need not obey his ecclesiastical superior as long as the congregation is with him. Whether one calls it “disaffiliation” or “excommunication,” it does not seem to have much influence outside of the financial realm.
This illustrates the problem with Trueman’s theology. If there is no apostolic succession, if there are no sacraments, there is nothing special about any particular church. It all comes down to a matter of personal taste, and as tastes change, various organizations will rise and fall.
There is also the increasing temptation to hit the “easy button” and find the least burdensome brand of faith. It’s interesting to see how Methodism – once famed for its emphasis on individual “holiness” has now embraced sexual perversion and deviant behavior through the simple expedient of declaring it no longer sinful. There is a Presbyterian church close to my house that I pass on an almost daily basis with a digital sign that proclaims “YOU ARE ENOUGH!” with a rainbow flag behind it. In another part of town there is something of a “mini-Mainline” with an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and UMC church in close proximity. The former merely has the old rainbow flag, while the latter has the more modern “trans pride” wedge along the hoist. I’m not sure what substantive difference there is between them, other than perhaps the form of the liturgy.
That is why terms like “Evangelical” are ultimately meaningless. One can point to the aggregate number of Methodists, Lutherans or even Presbyterians (like Trueman), but what really matters is how unified they are, and whether than can turn that unity into productive work.
The Catholic Church has plenty of dissidents (particularly among German clergy), but compared to other faiths, it is remarkably unified, and that is what allows it to punch well above its weight both culturally and politically.
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