Classical Theology vs. Modern Evangelical Experientialism

The useful part

Thus, classical humanities have been eclipsed in the schoolroom, to be replaced with disciplines that have an obvious application to the workplace. What is the point of reading Homer, for example, when one could spend that time learning how to read a balance sheet or how to manage a sales campaign? Truth is perhaps not reduced to its ability to generate results, but those truths that do are likely to be prioritized, while those that do not, neglected or ignored.

How it works

• Trueman In Classical Theology for the Modern Mind, historical scholar Carl Trueman examines how remembering history, reciting creeds, and studying ecclesiology counter cultural pathologies that inhibit...
• It is striking how often the priorities of such prayers focus on bodily health rather than spiritual maturity.
• Further, the church's worship always connects somehow to the past, even in those churches that pride themselves on their contemporary worship ethos.
• Therefore the gospel's truths are not to be determined by its therapeutic value or made coterminous with how it makes us feel.
• Problems (Carl Trueman) February 05, 2024 Carl Trueman explains how historic creeds and confessions of the church can help to shape God's people living in a culture consumed with individualism and identity.

What to take from it

Because it asserts the doctrine of God as prior to all things, it does not pander to the modern need to be made to feel good about ourselves. This pragmatic orientation of wider society has its counterpart in the church. We can all be vulnerable to the tendency to instrumentalize the gospel by demanding that it has to have some direct, practical relevance, whether that be in terms of action or experience.

Example or evidence

• For the modern mind, so much of the understanding of truth correlates to that idea or practice that delivers the right results.
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• We want the gospel to do something and to do so in an obvious, immediate way.

Details worth keeping

We want it to change lives, improve our communities, or transform politics. The church, particularly the evangelical church, is not immune to that impulse. This means that classical theology is likely to appear dry, pedantic, and irrelevant to everyday Christian life in an evangelical Protestantism oriented toward emotional and practical responses to the gospel.

Related coverage

• Crossway: Dr. Carl Trueman defines classical theology and how its impact throughout church history has helped maintain sound doctrine and rich worship in the church.
• Anglicanmainstream: By Matthew Kalundu, TGC.
• Anglicanmainstream: By Rollin Grams, Bible and Mission.
• Anglicanmainstream: by Iona Lowe, The Critic Extremely online Christianity is making faith too much of a performative exercise Just when I thought modern performativism could not surprise me, I was confronted with a new...