Recently in the Thinklings (my private discussion group), the topic turned to “Evangelicals”. Many definitions of that word have been levied in order to get a handle on just what exactly an Evangelical is. I re-offered my favorite gist and backed it up with this:
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Whether one likes that take or not, there’s one thing about it that I was reminded of recently, the missional part, “a missional outreach of compassion and urgency.” And it came to mind in regards to that big book I’m reading: Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview .I mentioned before how I’d be reading the book to prep for the release of a systematic theology by one its authors. Well, one thing that sticks out to me about Philosophical Foundations’ is a missional quality that is beautifully and profoundly present, at least in the introduction. The book leads with a general impulse to “save the mind” as well as the heart. Also the very missional John Wesley is posited as a good role model, and its motivation for the philosophy is missional. It quotes J. Gresham Machen thusly (yes, I wrote “thusly”):
False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervour of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.
The introduction also includes an invitation to dialogue, to dialectic. This book knows how to talk to me. 🙂
Well, I expect to continue reading and writing along these lines for a little while. Feel free to reply with thoughts of your own. And be sure to subscribe to my eletter below. Have a great weekend.
Penjammin grew up in a labyrinthine cavern. Later he ran with the wolves and lived every moment marinated in the sweet scent of his game, until pirates landed and… (see “About”). Get his eletter at penjams.com/subscribe.