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Book Review
The Younger Evangelicals Reviewed by Dave Livermore Webber’s Younger Evangelicals is one of the most significant pieces I’ve read in a long time. It made me a negligent parent for a couple days because I kept slipping away from my kids to read another chapter…and another…and another. It was like I was reading an autobiography…mine! Without putting people in boxes nor coming off as one with an axe to grind, Webber looks at evangelicalism over the last century and explores three movements within the Evangelical Church—Traditional Evangelicals, Pragmatic Evangelicals, and Younger Evangelicals. Webber’s book couples good narrative with helpful charts that make some meaningful comparisons between these three movements. Webber raises a number of shifts that have occurred in these movements of evangelicalism, including a shift from an ahistoical attitude to a deep appreciation for what the People of God have been about throughout the ages. The shift theologically has moved from an emphasis upon propositional truth to a story-oriented theology. As for apologetics, the shift is occurring from an emphasis upon rational argument to an appreciation for truth verified through community. As for me, I grew up in a strong strand of Traditionalism. Our hallmarks were separatism, inerrancy, and avoiding the slippery slope of liberalism. Meanwhile, pragmatic boomers were reacting against a church culture that was largely becoming irrelevant to most of the rest of culture. I found some freedom in the relevance of the seeker churches that were emerging during my adolescence and college years. But somehow I still felt this burning desire for something that connected to the church of the past, with a relevance to what was occurring in the world around me. Life as a “younger evangelical” can be a lonely road at times. When I was a grad student at Michigan State, my friends there gave me warm acceptance when I expressed great disdain for some prominent vice of evangelicalism—either our unthinking boasting of truth, our extreme rationality that ignores mystery, or our acceptance of the American market way. However, as soon as I challenged some of the ills and inconsistencies of relativism and tolerance, my grad school friends gave me cold stares or passionate tirades, accusing me of being an evangelical bigot. Meanwhile, my peers in the evangelical community have often felt no more accepting. My unwillingness to write off postmodernism as the greatest threat to the Gospel brings me accusations of being a relativist who simply wants to let people “feel good” and a person with a faulty hermeneutic. I’ve been told postmodernism is “much ado about nothing”. I’m a passionate theologian who longs to live out my theology in relevant wineskins for the contexts where I find myself. Webber says postmoderns don’t want to be handed a plate of relativism. He writes, “Today, young people come to church because ‘it stands for something.’ But the gospel it stands for is presented as ‘story,’ not a noncontradictory, rationally defended, logically consistent fact apprehended by cognitive acquiescence” (page 49). I urge you to put Webber’s book on your “must-read” list. It’s a provocative and challenging book that challenges the way we practice church in the 21st Century. I’ve included several samplings from the book below, though the charts don’t have nearly as much meaning apart from the narrative Webber provides with them in the book. Order the book! Check out a few samplings… Characteristics of the Younger Evangelical (Webber, page 54) 1. Grew up in a postmodern world 2. Marked by a post 9/11 era 3. Have recovered the biblical understanding of human nature 4. Are aware of a new context for ministry 5. Differ with the pragmatist approach to ministry 6. Minister in a new paradigm of thought 7. Stand for the absolutes of the Christian faith in a new way 8. Recognize the road to the future runs through the past 9. Committed to the plight of the poor, especially in urban centers 10. Willing to live by the rules 11. Facility with technology 12. Highly visual 13. Communicate through stories 14. Grasp the power of imagination 15. Advocate the resurgence of the arts 16. Appreciate the power of performative symbol 17. Long for community 18. Committed to multicultural communities of faith 19. Committed to intergenerational ministry 20. Attracted to absolutes 21. Ready to commit 22. Search for shared wisdom 23. Demand authenticity 24. Realize the unity between thought and action
Approach to Theology (Webber, page 92)
Approach to Leadership (Webber, page 153)
Approach to Spiritual Formation (Webber, page 185)
Approach to Worship (Webber, page 201)
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