The New Calvinism
Considered: A Personal and Pastoral Assessment by Jeremy Walker
The wave of interest in Calvinism in recent years is
burgeoning and exploding in both the American context and overseas. Pastor Jeremy Walker considers this trend in
his new book, The New Calvinism
Considered to be both a cause of commendation and concern for the growth of
the good news of Jesus Christ. Yet,
there is a difficulty in ascertaining, “documentary evidence for the assertion
that some individual or group is, in some measure, New Calvinist” (12). Labels often are more pedagogical markers
rather than true to the nature of a movement or group. Take this with the fact that the New
Calvinist movement is replete with books, conferences, blog posts, and sermons
that overwhelm the observer and much more those who wish to engage the movement
on a whole. Pastor Walker is very good
in this book at identifying larger currents in the New Calvinist stream that
are worthy of commendation: Christ-oriented and God honouring, grace soaked,
missional, complementarian, and expository preaching (40-57). His chapter on cautions and concerns is more
than the double the page count of his commendation chapter (17 to 45). Yet, he makes some very good points regarding
the commercialism and uneasy nature of the movement’s ecumenical forays.
Highlights
Jeremy writes, “New Calvinists are often ready to overlook
and overcome boundaries that may cripple other people, sometimes because they
have been saved from the spiritual regions that others have effectively begun
to consider beyond the pale” (45). The missional focus of many New Calvinists
(Acts 29, Driscoll, and Piper among others)provides a healthy engagement with
diverse cultural areas where the power of the gospel transforms the lives of
people beyond the comfortable sectors of
a narrow vision. The Acts 29 movement in
particular is very wise in seeking to provide a vast amount of training for
church planters that enabled them to succeed in places where others have
failed. I think Jeremy could have done
more here by including John Piper’s ministry globally and how the development
of Bethlehem College and Seminary as training pastors from all areas for the
work of ministry enables global growth.
The model of reaching out to sectors of America that have no visible
evangelical presence is also another constant of the New Calvinist
movement.
I was also glad that Jeremy indicated the desire for this
movement to engage in preaching that is expository in nature. Take Crossway for example, they have an
entire series of new book designed to be study guides on individual books of
the Bible alongside their commentary series, Preach the Word, devoted toward an
expository rendering of biblical texts.
Books, sermons, and blog posts generally revolve around what a biblical
passage means (53). This common theme of
taking the preaching of God’s Word seriously and not engaging in frivolous talk
outside the Scriptures is hallmark of the New Calvinist movement.
Cautions and Concerns
Jeremy spends a great deal of time in his section focusing
on cautions and concerns of the New Calvinist movement. He rightly engages the commercialism of some
of the movement with its avowed focus on systems and programs that produce
results. We don’t have to go very far to
see how Mark Driscoll is constantly promoting his books through interviews and
programs, and even arriving unannounced at the Strange Fire conference to pass
out his new work. Jeremy’s pushback on
this celebrity pull is his critique that the New Calvinist movement asks the
question, “What will work,” rather than “What is right” (61)? Pragmatism for the sake of gain without a witness
to strong biblical foundations is recipe for disaster in the long run, even if
it does work in the present.
Pastor Jeremy’s point that to conflate justification with
sanctification by removing much discussion of the role of duty and law is on
target. Although I think he misses Piper’s point when John talks about being
satisfied in God, Jeremy rightly states that the lack of discussion surrounding
duty and law is puzzling. I wonder if an
overemphasis on grace and a devaluing of duty and law-keeping is centered on
the idea that pushing duty/obedience pushes evangelistic efforts in the wrong
direction. In other words, we get people
relying on some false sense of security for saving faith instead of grace found
in Christ. Yet, Jeremy is right to state
that, “Principled obedience is not legalism…Indicative and imperatives are
yoked together. We are redeemed for
holiness” (79-80). Holiness is a
reveling in the law of God that produces joy and strength carried alongside an
appropriate understanding of our justification.
I think Jeremy goes a bit far in labeling this kind of lack of
discussion incipient antinomianism, because you can rightly see this discussion
of law in the writings of Kevin DeYoung, Ligon Duncan, Sproul and others.
Conclusion
Jeremy has written a good introduction to the issues
surrounding the New Calvinist movement.
The book lacks a sense of balance in its presentation though; for
instance, the section on Commendations includes 1 ½ pages on the missional
focus of the movement while there is at least 10 pages on the dangerous ecumenism
of the movement. I think this is
off-balance considering the missional work of such people as Tim Keller and
Matt Chandler. Overall, I was glad to
see Jeremy engage the issues of ecumenism, pragmatism, and holiness. The issue of the church and how it relates to
this movement with so many various denominations and strands, including organizations
with no direction church affiliation, will be the main issue of concern for
years to come regarding this movement.
Thanks to EP Books and Cross Focused Reviews for the copy of
this book in exchange for review.
Comments
Post a Comment