NeoZine

Gen-X Christianity

The Restlessness

The “New Calvinists” they’re called, which means they embrace Reformed theology, a term broadly describing adherents of Calvinism and Covenant Theology.

A young generation of Christian leaders like Mark Driscoll are capturing headlines even in the NeoZine! Dubbed “the young and restless Reformed” for their innovative churches (or theopraxy¹ ) while maintaining deep roots in old-fashioned Reformed theology.² The super-restless ones (like Brian McLaren) are so bored they are mixing innovative beliefs in their Reformed roots, but even these innovators retain the Roman Catholic beliefs that plagued the early Reformation.

Reformed churches were once-monolithic Protestant denominations sponsored by European monarchs, such as the Episcopalians (from the Church of England), Lutherans (from Germany) and Presbyterians (from Scotland), so it is unsurprising they became increasingly irrelevant since the ’60s. Research shows about 7% of the population is “evangelical”, and the hardest-hit are these Reformed denominations.³

But the Restless Reformed are trying to stop the bleeding.

A Gen-X Revolution?

Generation-X is making a big splash in American Christianity as they emerge from colleges and seminaries and take positions in the professional world. These influential Gen-X leaders are diverse, ranging from the theologically-liberal Emergent Village (from Princeton Seminary) and theologically-conservative leaders like Driscoll, but across the spectrum they share a dissatisfaction with Protestant church institutions (a familiar theme at Xenos since the 1970s and the Jesus Movement–Perpetual Change).

Emergent superman Rob Bell--nice glasses.

D.A. Carson explains the rise of the Emergent movement and emerging churches:

According to D.A. Carson, the emerging church movement “arose as a protest against the institutional church, modernism and seeker-sensitive churches… “It has encouraged evangelicals to take note of cultural trends and has emphasized authenticity among believers…At its heart “lies the conviction that changes in the culture signal that a new church is emerging. Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging church. Those who fail to do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide the gospel.” (Theopedia: Emergent Church)

Their shared dissatisfaction fits under a broad umbrella called emerging church, a term describing the churches emerging from Gen-X influence. Driscoll says his generation is predisposed towards dissatisfaction with church institutions:

This generation can be a whiny bunch of idealists getting together in small groups to complain about mega-churches and the religious right rather than doing something. – quoted in Relevant Magazine

Out of this broad-based dissatisfaction, innovative thinkers are emerging along different lines:

• Those like the Emergent Village call for an evolution of Christianity more compatible with secular Postmodernism, typified by ambivalence towards objective truth (or absolute truth).⁴
• Those like Driscoll who maintain a classical epistemology (view of truth).
• Those in-between wishing to harmonize or converse with both extremes, like Scott McNight from Christianity Today.

Driscoll describes what these different Restless Reformed look like as they are emerging:

In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.

If Jesus is not the hippie envisioned by Jesus Freaks, is He the redneck envisioned by Driscoll ?

The Thrill is Gone

Despite their different emerging paths, it is fair to say they share the famous Gen-X trademark: a penchant for the banal. (What does “Generation-X” mean, anyway? “Nobody knows, and nobody cares.”) The Restless Reformed know how take the zing out.

The Emergent Village people kill a good thing by drowning it with Postmodern Political-Correctness. PC already dominates the lawsuit-conscious workplace, but who relishes another walloping dose at church? Answer: the Gen-X crowd. So PC thrives with the Emergent church:

There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. Driscoll, Relevant Magazine, Jan., 2007

It may be unfair to describe the Restless Reformed as “banal”. They deserve accolades for  courageous efforts dragging old, tired Reformed brethren out of the Middle Ages.  The Reformed churches are among the most stodgy of American evangelicals — preserving hand-hewn pews, stained glass, ornate altars and priestly robes. It is wonderful craftsmanship, but musty (and creepy).

Driscoll thus chides his Reformed brethren (and others):

“So if you’re sitting in pews, you’re right at the cutting edge of the 13th century! Congratulations!” – Why Multi-Site?

He’s called “Mark the Cussing Pastor” for irreverent language like “get laid” (see his Banned Church Planting Video), and “The Chickified Church” dominated by “evangellyfish”:

The major blind spot of mega-churches is that they tend to be very effeminate with aesthetics, music, and preaching perfectly tailored for moms. Manly men are repelled by this, and many of the men who find it appealing are the types to sing prom songs to Jesus and learn about their feelings while sitting in a seafoam green chair drinking herbal tea—the spiritual equivalent of Richard Simmons – Interview, Christianity Today

The dress-down attire of Driscoll and his Gen-X peers is a radical departure from the “business casual” favored by older Reformed leaders like Hybels. Watch Matt Chandler, also a Gen-X dude, who swigs water and saunters on the stage in a most un-Reformed style.

They are young, they are innovative, but still the Restless Reformed can dampen the joy of the Gospel with all the musty mystique of a Benedictine chant. To dive into Reformed theology is not a refreshing plunge into a pool of God’s love, but rather a dull thud from hitting hardened Reformed dogma — set in stone by old John Calvin in the late 1500s.

What makes Reformed theology so spiritually depressing? Quite simply, its affinity with dogma from the Middle Ages.

Shared Beliefs

It is no surprise that the earliest Protestant Reformers did not understand all the extra-biblical beliefs picked up during a thousand years of Dark Ages.⁵ It is surprising that Reformed churches are locked in the year 1536 and John Calvin’s Institutio Christiane Religionis (“Institutes of the Christian Religion”).

There are three major areas of extra-biblical dogma shared by Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Reformed theology. Although beliefs are quite firmly embraced, they are not advertised much today, for obvious reasons:

• Five-point Calvinism, which says God predetermines all human choice, but God also holds individual humans 100% responsible for His predetermined choices.⁶ It is what Calvin himself called “the dictim horribulum” (the “horrible decree”) which truly degrades the good character of God.
• Covenant theology, which decrees that human-engineered institutions bearing the name “church” must conquer and subdue the earth in the name of Jesus Christ (and the name of the human institution). This dogma has obviously degraded the Gospel of Christ more than any other in history by replacing God’s love with human swords.
• The Law as a Means of Growth, which smothers the joy of the “New and Living Way” taught by Jesus Christ. This dogma advocates returning to an Old Testament approach to God.⁷

Next: a condensed history of Reformed Theology and its genesis.

Footnotes:

1. Theopraxy is the practice of theology, or what some call “the practice of God.” [↩]
2. See Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists” Collin Hanson. Reviewed online at Christianity Today, March, 2008. [↩]
3. See Dennis McCallum’s review of “Fall of the Evangelical Nation“. [↩]
4. See Wikipedia – Emerging Church: Postmodern World View and the language of deconstruction. [↩]
5. The term “Dark Ages” refers to the cultural and literary darkness that descended over Europe after Rome fell, throwing Europe into chaos. [↩]
6. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox dogma refer to this as “Augustinianism” rather than “Calvinism”, for obvious reasons. [↩]
7. The Law as a Means of Growth” is referring to the Reformed concept of tertius usus legis (“the third use of the law,” also known as usus normativus). In Reformed thought, this third use is generally defined as that function of the Mosaic Law which instructs believers how to live in accordance with God’s prescriptive will, i.e., “reminding them of their duties, and leading them in the way of life and salvation” (Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 4th ed., revised and enlarged [Grand Rapids: Win. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969], 615). [↩]

Related posts:

1. Silly Conversations
2. Heartless Institutions
3. The Dawn of Covenant Theology
4. The Emergent Church