Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Roots, Consequences, and Resolutions (Book Review)

Volume 45 Number 3 Article 6 March 2017 Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Roots, Consequences, and Resolutions (Book Review) Scott Culpepper Dordt College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Culpepper, Scott (2017) "Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Roots, Consequences, and Resolutions (Book Review)," Pro Rege: Vol. 45: No. 3, 31 - 33. Available at: https://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/pro_rege/vol45/iss3/6 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at Digital Collections @ Dordt. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pro Rege by an authorized administrator of Digital Collections @ Dordt. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BOOK REVIEWS The Crisis of Evangelical Christianity: Roots, Consequences, and Resolutions. Sewell, Keith C. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2016. 292pp. ISBN: 978-1498238755. Reviewed by K. Scott Culpepper, Associate Professor of History, Dordt College. The quest to define the elusive concept of “evan- Kuyperian lens. Secondly, Sewell looks at the evangelicalism” has claimed a flood of ink and reams gelical tradition in its larger international context, as upon reams of paper, not to mention all the digital shaped by his varied experiences in Europe, North incarnations of those debates. The election of 2016 America, and Australasia. This broader perspective smashed into all previous understandings of “evan- yields a more comprehensive canvas for comparison gelicals” and “evangelicalism” with all the gentle and contrast than most works on evangelicalism. force of a hydrogen bomb. Pundits, prognostica- Sewell does not mince words in his critique of tors, and professors alike returned to the drawing evangelicalism. He contends that this movement, board, while prominent religious leaders questioned which elevates the importance of Scripture to such once again the utility of the term “evangelical.” an extent, is not so scriptural when evaluated in Keith C. Sewell’s The Crisis of Evangelicalism: Roots, light of its claims regarding creation and culture. Consequences, and Resolutions arrives, then, at a time- Sewell writes, “In Evangelicalism, the dominant ly moment. Sewell, Professor of History Emeritus tendency has been to emphasize the repentant in- at Dordt College, has forged a distinguished career, dividual before the cross in a way that neglects what teaching and writing about evangelicalism in its the Scriptures have to say about the order of cre- many historical contexts. Sewell shares the fruit of ation and the kingdom of God” (6). The conse- those labors now as both a guide to scholars and a quence of this neglect is no less a reduction of the jeremiad that calls evangelicals to resolve the crisis gospel message itself: “This ‘creational deficit’ across that he sees at the roots of evangelical theology and Evangelicalism has meant that even Evangelicalism’s praxis. evangelism has characteristically fallen short of the Two important elements set Sewell’s work apart Biblical norm—the gospel has not been brought from other treatments of evangelical history and to every creature and to every part of life as the theology. First, Sewell assumes an unabashedly Bible teaches, but for the most part only to indi- Reformed perspective rooted in the Kuyperian tra- vidual souls” (7). This creational aspect of the crisis dition. While elements of Kuyperian thought have leads, in Sewell’s estimation, to a corresponding cul- been critical to the development of the evangelical tural deficiency as well. Sewell continues, “At best, Christian scholarship championed by scholars such Evangelicalism has exhibited only a sporadic and as the philosopher Arthur Holmes and the historian fluctuating awareness of the religious significance Mark Noll, Sewell correctly notes that much of this of human culture and of the truth that all of life scholarship has omitted or diluted the creational is religion [Sewell’s emphasis]—in the sense of lived theology so central to Dutch Reformed thought. coram Deo; before the face of God” (7). Even evangelical scholars who have been conscious Sewell locates the beginnings of continuing of their indebtedness to the Kuyperian tradition tensions within evangelicalism to unresolved is- tend to yield to the evangelical insistence on priori- sues stemming from the period of the Protestant tizing evangelism and shallow activism over a more Reformation in the 16th century. He identifies a fulsome understanding of the creational mandate. tendency to create theological dichotomies as a Sewell seeks to correct this imbalance in the evan- persistent problem, leading to an avoidance of re- gelical traditions by evaluating the strengths and solving issues or acknowledging that some issues weaknesses of the movement through an undiluted defy earthly resolution. One of these unresolved Pro Rege—March 2017 31 tensions remains the question of exactly how the Evangelicalism functions as its own biggest distrac- Bible is to be understood as an inspired text; an- tion” (182). other is the relation of Biblical revelation to the cre- Sewell fulfills the promise of his subtitle— ated order. Sewell provides a fascinating discussion “Roots, Consequences, and Resolutions”—by of the relationship of the written revelation to the proposing several ideas for a resolution of the methodologies adopted by theologians of the early evangelical crisis. These potential resolutions all modern period for understanding the nature of the involve returning to reformational first principles creational order:“The Bible certainly does not tell in several key areas, including biblical interpreta- us about all things. It does tell us what all things are tion, participation in public life, education, and all about” (41). He critiques the tendency of evan- spiritual formation in individual congregations. gelicals to make the Bible a textbook for science The bedrock of these reformational first principles rather than the fundamental guide for understand- is a “directional” perspective on Scripture. Sewell ing how to approach science as well as other fields sees this directional perspective as present in many of study: “Moreover, while the Bible is not a book facets of John Calvin’s approach to Scripture in the of science—it is a book for science, and it is not just 16th century and in the reformational tradition of a book for one science; rather it is a book for all sci- Abraham Kuyper in the 19th, as well as Hermann ences” (41, emphasis Sewell’s). Dooyeweerd in the 20th. This approach to scriptural Sewell reconstructs the historical development interpretation views Scripture as providing prin- of evangelicalism in the middle section of his book ciples to guide thinking and action, but not serv- and uses this narrative to highlight the consequenc- ing as a substitute for further reflection and research es of those unresolved issues at the roots of evangeli- to understand creation. Sewell concludes, “Once calism. This reconstruction includes observations Christians get past the proof-texting tendencies on how the unresolved questions inherited from the of the Bible-based model and understand that the Reformation period continued through the influ- whole Word (Tota Scriptura) applies to the whole ence of continental pietism through the Moravians, of life, and that biblically revealed first principles the revivalism of the awakenings of the 18th and are directive, for every part of human life and field 19th centuries, and the cultural tensions between of human endeavor, they are then in a position to modernist views and evangelism in the early 20th speak integrally to the twenty-first century” (208). century. Sewell notes how an evangelical social ac- While Sewell’s proposed resolutions would benefit tivism gave way towards the end of the 19th century from a few more specific examples of how these first to an “otherworldliness” exemplified by the rise of principles can be applied in concrete situations, the Holiness and Pentecostal traditions. The focus on overall portrait he paints is a compelling answer to individual conversion over corporate spiritual for- the crisis he discusses throughout the book. mation that appeared in the 18th century accelerates The Crisis of Evangelical Christianitycontains a in Sewell’s perspective to an unhealthy individual- timely call for reform and renewal that needs to be ism by the end of the 19th century. Sewell writes, heard. It is sad that those who most need to engage “Even as evangelical views of holiness became in- with Sewell’s work are those least likely to read it. creasingly otherworldly and drew upon an already Part of that may be due to the direct way that Sewell deeply entrenched individualism, the growing addresses evangelical weakness. His tone in some influence of premillennial dispensationalist views places is certainly a hard pill to swallow for sensitive reinforced and validated that already strong evan- evangelicals and their leaders. On the other hand, gelical disposition towards social and political con- many who have lamented the continued prolifera- servatism” (120). Sewell continues his trek through tion of the evangelical contradictions Sewell iden- the history of evangelism with a penetrating analysis tifies can understand the need to be forceful and of 20th-century developments and their continuing direct in light of evangelical tendencies

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