Recapturing Evangelical

October 19, 2009 Posted by Roger OvertoncloseAuthor: Roger Overton Name: Roger Overton
Email: rogeroverton@hotmail.com
Site: http://ateamblog.com
About: Roger Overton is currently pursuing a Masters degree at Talbot School of Theology. He has addressed various churches, schools and youth camps throughout the United States. Roger was co-editor of The New Media Frontier (Crossway, 2008) and God and Governing (Wipf & Stock, 2009). Roger can be emailed at rogeroverton@hotmail.com.See Authors Posts (554)

Amy and I are excited to be part of a new blog put together by Joe Carter at First Things. It’s called “Evangel,” and it’s meant to be a place where evangelical voices can be heard. Some of the great contributors include Justin Taylor, Russell D. Moore, John Mark Reynolds and Hunter Baker. Amy and I will definitely still be blogging here, but we also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of the Evangel project. Here’s the lead on my first post there:

Though still relatively young, I would like to think that I’ve grown and matured in my understanding and perspective on faith, theology and culture. I went through a phase in my life a few years ago when I was extremely particular about the views with which I associated myself. I wanted to make sure I was abundantly clear in not just affirming what I believed to be true (e.g. amillennialism), but also emphatically condemning what I opposed (premillennialism, dispensationalism, postmillennialism, pan-millennialism, etc.). As is typically the case with those whose primary epistemic purpose is the condemnation of opposing views, I at times condemned and excluded the people who held those views.

One of the casualties of this attitude was “evangelical.” Certainly there were good things meant by the term that I could affirm (such as Joe listed below), and there were many great men and women who could be described by it. But in my theological high tower I could only see the bad examples- instances of shallow or questionable teaching, Jesus merchandising, and uncreative cheesy music. So I found myself looking down on the entire term, movement and group.

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Related posts:

1. A Different Kind of Evangelical or Betraying Evangelicalism?
2. Mormon beliefs are not as un-evangelical as most evangelicals think
3. ETS 2006- H. Chris Ross: Promoting Evangelical Faith Through New Media
4. Book Review: Sex and the Supremacy of Christ ed by. John Piper and Justin Taylor

Posted in Religion (General), Roger's Posts, Theology