The Embarrassing Evangelical Divorce

Introduction

Carl Henry, in his “The Uneasy Conscious of Modern Fundamentalism”, describes the evangelical’s lack of social and cultural engagement in the world as an embarrassing divorce. He laments that the evangelicals has failed to challenge the injustices of the totalitarianisms, the secularisms of modern education, the evils of racial hatred, the wrongs of current labor-management relations, and the inadequate bases of international dealings, they have ceased to challenge Caesar and Rome, as though in futile resignation and submission to the triumphant Renaissance mood. 1 As a result, the Gospel message stands divorced from a passion to right the world. This divorce between the Gospel message and the passion to right the world is related to the fact that modern Fundamentalism does not explicitly articulate the social implications of its message for the non-Christian world. While identifying himself within the premillennialism camp, Carl admits that premillennial thinking regarding the kingdom of God, which holds no hope for changing within society, has induced a pervasive mood of “prophetic despair,” whereas Protestant liberalism is at least concerned to address the problems attending social evil.2 This negligence or abandonment of Christian social imperative has made Fundamentalists to be more world-resisting than world-changing; consequently, out of this mindset it is impossible for any contemporary version of Augustine’s City of God to emerge.3 But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story,

1 Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003), 39.

2 Ibid., 29. 3 Ibid., 30.

2

3

even one chooses to remain in the premillennialism camp. Th...

... middle of paper ...

...f the kingdom will and should be realized in the Gospel. There needs to be concrete ministries of the church to show that God cares for the lost individuals as well as the total wellbeing of a culture and society.

10

24 Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003), 40.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bennett, John C. Christian Ethics and Social Policy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1946.

Blaising, Craig A. and Darrell L. Bock. Progressive Dispensationalism. Wheaton: BridgePoint, 1993.

Charles Caldwell, Ryrie. Dispensationalism. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007. Charles, J. Daryl. The Unformed Conscience of Evangelicalism. Downers Grove:

InterVarsity Press, 2002.

Henry, Carl F. H. The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2003.

11