“The Modernist is deliberately undertaking to adjust Christianity to modern needs by changing the emphasis in its message and by historically evaluating and restating the permanent significance of evangelical Christianity to human life.”
Shailer Mathews, The Faith of Modernism, 1924
“Judged by its fruits, new theology, another name for Modernism, has no defense for its existence; while conservatism has given to the world its Christianity, and to Christ His Church.”
W. B. Riley, The Menace of Modernism, 1917
Modernity and the New Morality: A Painful Memoir
“Modernity,” at least certain religious implications of it, descended on me at a student retreat at the Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, in the year of our Lord, 1965. I was a college fresh-person, and the retreat centered on certain moral imperatives, situation ethics, and the so-called New Morality that marked 1960s cultural transitions.
The retreat speaker was Dr. J. P. Allen, pastor of the Broadway Church. He discussed resulting moral dilemmas, sex, dating, sex, Christian values, sex, human relationships and, you know, sex. When he finished, Dr. Allen asked for questions and I bounded to my feet, full of relentless adolescent and evangelical zeal, both of which can kill you. “Well,” I opined, “I find that if we just trust Jesus, and walk with him daily, God will take care of all these moral issues.”
| I don’t think anyone in my youth group has said such a thing. |
Dr. J. P. Allen set his jaw, looked straight into my post-pubescent little eyes and responded, “Young man, everything I have said for the last hour was an attempt to avoid that kind of glib, simplistic Christianity. Try to use a little God-given reasoning, please.” I cannot adequately explain it, but in the complete humiliation of that now-distant moment, I began to learn to wrestle with the inescapable dilemmas of moral, spiritual, and human life. In that wonderful/terrible encounter, I was, quite simply, born again. Without knowing it (until I told him the story years later), Dr. Allen dragged me into the Age of Reason, demanding in one brief sentence that I move beyond shallow piety to critical reflection, even in matters of faith and spirituality. Humiliation is a painful and poignant teacher that sometimes marks the beginning of real learning and real life.
| If only Dr. Allen could drag Ken Ham into the Age of Reason. |
Is “Modern Church” an Oxymoron?
“Modernity,” a long-debated idea and construct for explaining changes in western thought and action, all with global implications, is difficult enough to define, let alone summarize. The concept is often dated from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, particularly with the rise of the Enlightenment and the application of reason to all aspects of human life. In Modern Christianity to 1900, Amanda Porterfield describes “modernization” as “enthusiasm for rational explanations of life that privilege individualism, nationalism, scientific enterprise, and strategic planning.” She notes that while the application of modernity differed from region to region, many turned to religion for assistance in responding to social transitions evident in multiple contexts. At the same time, modernity brought challenges to traditional religious dogmas and social privilege, sacramentalism, ecclesiastical authority, church economics, and the meaning of salvation itself.
The breadth of modernity’s impact on culture is considerable, particularly related to religion. This includes:
- A period of “discoveries.” New land masses, new science, new approaches to life and faith, all challenging tradition.
- The application of science, reason, sociology, psychology, and other “new studies” to traditional ideas and institutions.
- A growing concern for and participation in various forms of technology, personally and corporately—printing, travel, public media.
- Continuing struggles/investigations of relations between reason/revelation, religious/secular cultures, pluralism/particularity.
- Impact of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Mysticism, Modernism, Fundamentalism, Individualism, and Pluralism.
- Historical-critical approaches to biblical/theological studies that divided Christians over the nature of divine revelation.
- Science as the means to “truth” educationally, morally, theologically. “All truth is God’s truth” wherever it may be found.
- Rationality leads to order; order improves function. Thus scientific discoveries inevitably impact, even improve, daily life.
- The development of democratic idealism, liberationist and civil rights movements that challenged institutionalized colonialism, racism, sexism, and other signs of oppression.
- Constructs “Grand Narratives”—culture-encompassing stories that the society uses to articulate and mythologize destiny, ideals, and actions.
- A belief that, “There is a stable, coherent, knowable self. Self is conscious, rational, autonomous.”
| The number of ecclesiastical gatherings dedicated to these questions outnumber the animals on the ark. |
| I think a growing number of Christians sees these debates in the past tense. |
These developments led many to believe that religious communities must come to terms with these new realities for the sake of the gospel and its relevance in the modern world. Writing from inside the church, Shailer Mathews, dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, described The Faith of Modernism (1924) as “the use of the methods of modern science to find, state and use the permanent and central values of inherited orthodoxy.” For Mathews, these newly understood issues “cannot be quieted by mere pietism or theological dogmatism.” Rather, they led to greater demands from “the masses” for women “sharing in the privileges of men,” expanded educational opportunities, “adventurous” intellectualism, and the separation of religious belief from “political control.” The challenge, he believed, was to maintain religion as “a vital and inspiring force” amid these new cultural, scientific, and philosophical realities.
Modernity Creates Division
Shailer Matthews was one of many religious leaders considered to be progressives, modernists, or in many cases “Christocentric liberals,” individuals who were convinced that the church should come to terms with all this new knowledge. They contended that “all truth is God’s truth,” however it might be discovered. Church doctrine might be adapted in light of the continuing search for truth. Failure to do so could lead to the loss of future generations who would distance themselves from a faith that resisted modern insights and discoveries. Christocentric liberals were those persons who understood Christianity as open to biological evolution, utilized the historical-critical method of biblical studies, benefited from new studies...
