Touchstone Responds to "A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future"

Those that have not read the September issue of Christianity Today that addresses Robert Webber's "A Call to an Ancient Future Evangelical Future" or read the related documents at Ancient-Future Worship dot com, should do so.

THEN, they should read the engaging response and critique from Touchstone.

Though I would hardly consider myself well-versed in all things "ancient-future," Russell Moore summarizes my general suspicions quite well in his article, Listen Closely:

At the end of the day, the “Ancient/Future” Evangelicalism is a natural extension of American Evangelicalism’s besetting sins of faddishness and consumerism. That’s the reason it is fanned (as so many Evangelical winds of doctrine are) by publishing houses. This project comes to us just as Evangelicalism is in the throes of an infatuation with the so-called emerging church, which is also fueled by publishing houses (the sellers of youth ministry curricula) and which is also enamored simultaneously with postmodern cynicism, egalitarianism, doctrinal flexibility, and ancient-seeming worship.

The rest of the articles can be found here: Back & Forth to the Future: A Critical Symposium on A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future

(HT: JT)

Comments

[Hunter Beaumont]

I was a little surprised to see Daniel Williams included in that project. I've always been a big fan of his writing on "Tradition" because it emphasizes the importance of doctrine and creeds, making sure we self-consciously stand in-line with what the Patristic church confessed.

But...I have often been a little more skeptical of Webber's ancient-future work, for reasons that were hard to pin down, but I think Moore has nailed it. It seems like the emerging emphasis on ancient stuff is more "ancient in style" than "ancient in beliefs." In other words, they like the aesthetics of Tradition, but are more selective in the doctrines of Tradition.