New Calvinism

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This article is about a movement that emerged in the early 21st century. For the Dutch Calvinist movement, see Neo-Calvinism.

New Calvinism, also known as the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement,[1] is a new religious movement within conservative Evangelicalism that reinterprets 16th-century Calvinism under US values and ideologies.[2][page needed][better source needed]

History[]

The New Calvinist movement began to emerge in the 1960s when Evangelical theologians, seminarians, and pastors rediscovered Puritan Literature. In the 1970s, the movement incorporated religious marketing practices employed by charismatic churches, such as mega-churches, a more contemporary language, expanding to an audience outside their own denominations. Thus, they formed networks of independent leaders and churches in which these ideas flowed. In the 1980s, with lessening of the tensions of the Cold War, the individualist discourse of New Calvinism gained adherents as an alternative to Prosperity Gospel as well as to the former apocalyptic concern that dispensationalists had in the Cold War decades. [2]

The movement gained wider publicity with a conference held in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2006, Together for the Gospel by American pastors John Piper, Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Al Mohler, Mark Dever and CJ Mahaney. [3][4][5][6] In March 2009, Time magazine ranked it as one of the "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now."[7]

During the campaigns and government of Donald Trump, New Calvinism leaders endorsed and actively supported that president's speeches and policies.[8] Especially with the defeat in the second elections and the invasion of the US Congress, some leaders have distanced themselves from Trumpism. [9][10]

Networks and ministries[]

“Old” and New Calvinism[]

Rooted in the historical tradition of Calvinist theology, New Calvinists are united by their common doctrine. In a Christianity Today article, Collin Hansen describes the speakers of a Christian conference:

Each of the seven speakers holds to the five points of Calvinism. Yet none of them spoke of Calvinism unless I asked about it. They did express worry about perceived evangelical accommodation to postmodernism and criticized churches for applying business models to ministry. They mostly joked about their many differences on such historically difficult issues as baptism, church government, eschatology, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They drew unity as Calvinist evangelicals from their concerns: with seeker churches, church-growth marketing, and manipulative revival techniques.[11]

The New Calvinists look to Puritans, like Jonathan Edwards, who taught that sanctification requires a vigorous and vigilant pursuit of holy living, not a passive attitude of mechanical progress[12] (see Lordship salvation); however, as implied by the “New” designation, some differences have been observed between the New and Old schools. Mark Driscoll, for example, has identified what he considers to be four main differences between the two:

  1. New Calvinism is missional and seeks to create and redeem culture.
  2. New Calvinism is flooding into cities.
  3. Old Calvinism was generally cessationist (i.e. believing the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as tongues and prophecy had ceased). New Calvinism is generally continuationist with regard to spiritual gifts.
  4. New Calvinism is open to dialogue with other Christian positions.[13]

This fourth distinctive is what Driscoll considers a vital component in being able to engage with contemporary society.[14]

Criticism[]

R. Scott Clark, professor of church history and historical theology from Westminster Seminary California, argues that New Calvinists like Driscoll should not be called Calvinists merely because they believe in the five points of Calvinism, but rather he suggests that adherence to the Three Forms of Unity and other Reformed confessions of faith is what qualifies one a Calvinist. Specifically, he suggests that many of the New Calvinists' positions on infant baptism, covenant theology, and continuation of the gifts of the Spirit are out of step with the Reformed tradition.[15]

J. Todd Billings, professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary, argues that the New Calvinists "tend to obscure the fact that the Reformed tradition has a deeply catholic heritage, a Christ-centered sacramental practice and a wide-lens, kingdom vision for the Christian's vocation in the world."[16]

Between 2012 and 2013 numerous Southern Baptist Ministers responded to New Calvinism by affirming a "Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding".[17] The document was originally endorsed by six former SBC presidents: Morris Chapman, Jimmy Draper, Paige Patterson, Bailey Smith,[18] Bobby Welch, and Jerry Vines, two seminary presidents Chuck Kelley of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary[19] and former SBC president and former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson, and five state executive directors (Jim Futral of Mississippi,[20] David Hankins of Louisiana,[21] Mike Procter of Alaska,[22] John Sullivan of Florida, and Bob White of Georgia).[23][24] The statement includes a Preamble and 10 articles of affirmation and denial as it relates to Christian Soteriology.[17]

Theologians and social scientists have raised concerns that the New Calvinist movement and its theology are associated as a source of psychological abuse,[25] sectarian exclusivism,[26] and personality cult.[27]

Traditional Reformed theologians criticize the selective and altered use of texts by Reformed classical authors, like Spurgeon in the publications of the New Calvinists without alerting their readers.[28] Another criticism is that publications of the movement are sold as if they were historical Calvinists with no indication of the ideological bases of New Calvinism. Calvinist theologians also criticize hermeneutical inconsistencies with the grammatical-historical method and the Lordship salvation by works of the New Calvinists.[29]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Roger E. Olson, What Attracts People into the Young, Restless, Reformed Movement?
  2. ^ a b Haynes, Maren. 2017 “Punk Rock Calvinists Who Hate the Modern Worship Movement': Ritual, Power, and White Masculinity in Mars Hill Church's Worship Music.” PhD diss., University of Washington. 2017.
  3. ^ Collin Hansen, Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists, Crossway, USA, 2008, p. 107
  4. ^ Piper, John (March 12, 2014). "The New Calvinism and the New Community". Desiring God. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  5. ^ Driscoll, Mark A. (2013). A Call to Resurgence. Carol Stream: Tyndale House. pp. 99, 201–202. ISBN 9781414383620.
  6. ^ Masters 2009
  7. ^ Van Biema 2009
  8. ^ Vermurlen, Brad. Reformed Resurgence: The New Calvinist Movement and the Battle Over American Evangelicalism. Oxford University Press, 2020.
  9. ^ Richard T. Hughes. How Christian America Betrayed the Kingdom of God
  10. ^ Wehner, Peter. The death of politics: How to heal our frayed Republic after Trump. HarperCollins, 2019.
  11. ^ Hansen 2006
  12. ^ McCall 2008.
  13. ^ Driscoll 2009b.
  14. ^ Driscoll 2009a
  15. ^ Clark 2009.
  16. ^ Billings 2009.
  17. ^ a b "Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation". connect316.net. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.
  18. ^ "Bailey Smith".
  19. ^ "NOBTS - About the President". nobts.edu.
  20. ^ "Jim Futral unanimous choice as Mississippi convention exec". Baptist Press.
  21. ^ http://www.lbc.org/Executive/Default.aspx?id=3722&terms=david+hankins
  22. ^ "Statement on Calvinism draws approval, criticism". Baptist Press.
  23. ^ "The FAQs: Southern Baptists, Calvinism, and God's Plan of Salvation". thegospelcoalition.org.
  24. ^ "Signers". connect316.net. Archived from the original on 2015-03-31.
  25. ^ Maxwell, Paul. The Trauma of Doctrine: New Calvinism, Religious Abuse, and the Experience of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Academic, 2021.
  26. ^ [https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-im-opposed- to-fundamentalist-calvinism-part-2-cms-21528/ | Olson, Roger. Why I'm Opposed to Fundamentalist Calvinism “Part 2. Good Faith Media, 2014.
  27. ^ "The Nameless One".
  28. ^ Nettles, Tom. Living By Revealed Truth: The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Christian Focus, 2013
  29. ^ Gunn, George. New Calvinism: a theological evaluation. Doctoral thesis, Hurst, TX, 2017.

References[]

Further reading[]

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