SUMMER 2009
evangelical, but a Roman Catholic: G.K. Chesterton. In “The Flag of the World,” Chesterton writes: The evil of the pessimist is, then, not that he chastises gods and men, but that he does not love what he chastises—he has not this primary and supernatural loyalty to things. What is the evil of the man commonly called an optimist? Obviously, it is felt that the optimist, wishing to defend the honour of this world, will defend the indefensible. He is the jingo of the universe; he will say, "My cosmos, right or wrong." He will be less inclined to the reform of things; more inclined to a sort of front-bench official answer to all attacks, soothing every one with assurances. He will not wash the world, but whitewash the world.
Beneath these two impulses is a fundamental loyalty that allows one to be at the same time a cosmic pessimist and a cosmic optimist. As he puts it, “This at least had come to be my position about all that was called optimism, pessimism, and improvement. Before any cosmic act of reform we must have a cosmic oath of allegiance.” It is this basic loyalty to evangelicalism that is crucial for healthy evangelical self-reflection. Only when individuals have this loyalty to evangelicalism will they be able to appropriately see it as it is, criticize it, and then reform it. It is the man, Chesterton argues, with a transcendental patriotism toward a thing who can stare the facts in the face. The man who loves a thing for a particular reason must make all the facts fit that reason, or leave the thing behind.
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y concern, which Reynolds’ articulates well, is that many critics of traditional evangelicalism have not offered their criticism from within the confines of this oath of allegiance, but from a sense of self-loathing that is induced by a desire for affirmation and prestige by the secular culture. ‘Evangelical’ has become a dirty word, and few seem intent on saving it. Practically, this has deepened the divide between young and old evangelicals, and has muted whatever prophetic criticisms younger evangelicals have to offer. But alternatively, my hope is that when evangelical reform movement matures, it will mature into a historically sensitive, theologically rich, artistically fruitful, socially conscious, politically astute, Biblically grounded, and (Holy) Spiritually sensitive tradition, as evangelicalism once was. Give younger evangelicals their due: we have identified many of the problems, even if we do not (yet) have much to offer in the 41