Becoming Aflame: Beyond LIberal Christianity

Confession time: I am an Anabaptist. Not just a cradle Menno/Brethren, but also an Anabaptist of the Neo kind. So when James Davidson Hunter called out the Neo-Anabaptists in his recent book To Change the World, I bristled a bit. In each of the other chapters on Evangelicals and Liberals I found myself in the Amen corner. Yet, I recognized the fault lines he named in his section about “me”.

See, I do ascribe to the alternative definition of politics that Yoder, Hauerwas, and Cavanaugh have used to distinguish the Church from governmental politics. I think the Church matters for how we conduct ourselves in the world, and that working out how we are the people of God is a task for the common good and not just sectarian withdraw.

Sometimes we Neo-Anabaptists are confused for liberals because we think that the things of the world are broken- partisan politics, war, and corporate capitalism. In almost the same breath we are seen as conservative- Jesus Christ is central to redemption, the Bible matters, and prayer is effective. What is more, the individual is not the pinnacle of society.

So imagine my groan in the recent debates in the blogosphere around the question of Liberal Christianity’s survival.

How is it that Liberalism continues to hang on? Are we really stuck in the loop of asking “Can Liberal Christianity survive”? Or do we not have a better paradigm to envision Christian life and faith apart from the Enlightenment assumptions of culture, government, and belief?
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