Blog

Yes I hear all these suggestions in the comments. But as that eloquent Scottish pundit, Kenny Dalglish opined when asked about a certain fitba’ job, ‘Ehhh. Maybes aye…..an’ ehhhh, maybes naw!’ That’s how I feel about some of the suggestions so far!

First, not sure any of those mentioned compare in stature to others over the past three hundred years- that may be a matter of historical persepctive. Maybe we don’t fully recognise some people’s contribution till the next generation. And Margaret, thanks for the thought, but modesty forbids…Stuart can speak for his self?

Second, where are the women – is Evangelicalism still so structured as to exclude / prevent / silence, the voice of women in roles of spiritual influence and gifted presence? (Please note I avoid the words leadership and authority!) I find it interesting that there is a stooshie going on at one of the Evangelical Anglican Colleges down south where Elaine Storkey is subject to disciplinary proceedings – the story is murky but has been all over the Christian blogosphere, with suggestions that issues of ministry and gender lurk in the background. Oh dear!

Third, people like Peterson and Yancey represent a moderate and almost journalistic form of evangelicalism – soft in a way that for example John Piper or Jim Packer are not. The modern publishing machinery and publicity technology market names and personalities in a way that perhaps inflates their value unfairly compared with previous figures whose influence was established more by personal reputation. is that true – fair – relevant?

Fourth, Jim Wallis and Tom Smail are two very intriguing suggestions – would both want to own the term Evangelical as their primary self-descriptor? The Sojourners, and Wallis as their founder, have made it impossible for Evangelicals to avoid the relation of Gospel to issues of justice, politics and culture. Smail has long been a key theological voice within the Charismatic movement, and with a deepening commitment to Anglican thought.

Fifth, Donald Bloesch is a self confessed Evangelical who may well be thought of by other evangelicals in the way previous generations both admired and were cautious about R. W. Dale, James Denney and P. T. Forsyth. Indeed one or two criticisms of this book on its first outing asked questions about the inclusion of Dale and Forsyth in a book about Evangelicals! But I DO think Bloesch is an Evangelical of significant stature and well worthy of study – in fact several theses and at least two books are dedicated to his thought. But while we are thinking about evangelicals that other evangelicals might not want to include, there is also Clark Pinnock…. and the late and hugely lamented, Stan Grenz…

Nobody has yet mentioned Tom Torrance – Hmmmm?

I’m currently doing a revision and some rewriting of my book, Evangelical Spirituality: From the Wesleys to John Stott. The past 20 years have seen a huge increase in interest in Spirituality as a subject for scholarly activity and research. When I wrote Evangelical Spirituality in 1991 there was very little published on the Evangelical spiritual tradition. This is now changing, and Evangelicalism itself has become a major area of scholarly activity – the recently published Cambridge Companion to Evangelicalism is evidence that Evangelicals (a much more varied group than often supposed) are a substantial and important tradition.

So as I’m ploughing through the cosmetic reformatting, converting over 1500 endnotes and in-text references into newly formatted footnotes, and reconstructing and updating the bibliography; then I’ll do the revision and updating of the text. While doing all this, I’m being re-introduced to a community of saints, attractive or annoying, conciliatory or confrontational, melancholic or exultant, but whose love for Jesus transcends differences in temperament, diversity of experience and variety of theological emphases. As noted a couple of days ago when quoting R. W. Dale, (pictured) many earlier Evangelicals lived out their faith at profound levels of thought and spiritual experience. This meant that when I wrote the book I was able to follow through on my chosen approach – which was to take two contemporary significant Evangelical figures, and to compare and contrast their spiritual experiences, the way they lived the doctrines they believed, and how their theological emphases exerted leverage on lifestyle, spiritual discipline, relationships and social action.

The latest pair I dealt with was Martyn Lloyd Jones and John Stott. So here is the question –

if I were to write a further chapter, comparing and contrasting two contemporary leading Evangelicals, who should they be?

Who in their lives, Christian activity, writing, teaching stands anywhere near some of those earlier pairings – the two Wesleys, Whitefield and Edwards, Hannah More and Charles Simeon, D L Moody and Frances Havergal, Lloyd Jones and Stott, to mention only a few. I’d be interested to hear suggestions – is it just me, or am I right that there’s a dearth of people of stature, significant figures who both define Evangelicalism at its best and embody a tradition that is still living, growing and enriching the Body of Christ?

R. W. Dale is now largely forgotten, except for a few conclaves of those interested in Victorian Non-conformity, and probably some of the better informed local politicians and Congregational Church members in Birmingham. That’s a great pity – Dale was one of the most significant churchmen of the nineteenth century. Here’s just a few of the reasons why he shouldn’t be forgotten:

1. He was a major mover in the City of Birmingham Council and was a key figure in the upgrading of the drainage and sewage systems as a way of preventing cholera.
2. He was one of the first Victorian churchmen to recognise and argue for the link between poverty and crime
3. He promoted the civic Gospel, insisting it was the individual’s duty to pursue the same civic and humane goals expected of good government.
4. He supported trade unions, schemes for housing improvement, extension of the franchise.
5. He was one of the finest preachers of his generation – not as impassioned orator, but as persuasive and cogent exponenet of a Christian moral vision rooted in the Gospel of grace and the reality of the Risen Christ.
6. He wrote one of the most learned (and difficult to read) treatments of the doctrine of the Atonement, upholding the moral seriousness of sin and the righteous love of God.

One quotation:

Accused of spending too much time pursuing political goals, and told by some church members to concentrate on spiritual activities because ‘there are no politics in heaven’, his answer was a superb piece of righteous scoffing:

No politics in heaven! well i suppose not; but there are no agricultural labourers there living on twelve shillings a week…there are no hereditary paupers there…there are no gaols to which little children are sent for an offence committed in ignorance, no unjust wars to be prevented. Politics unchristian!…by going on to Boards of Works and Town Councils and improving the drainage of great towns, and removing the causes of fever, men are but following in Christ’s footsteps. (Laws of Christ for Common Life, page 268)