Scot McKnight

McKnight begins a chapter-by-chapter review of Bonnie Kristian's book defending evangelicalism against its cultural critics, focusing on its introduction and its definition of evangelicalism. He disputes her view that critics wrongly equate evangelicalism with Trump-supporting white evangelicals, her inclusion of the Black church, her claim of fuzzy boundaries, and her dismissal of abusive figures as fringe. He argues that evangelical gatekeepers do police belonging, that evangelical leaders should publicly criticize Trump, and that good churches and corrupted, abusive pastors both exist.

The author suggests that younger and former evangelicals raised in Republican homes are shifting toward the Democratic Party, driven by disillusionment with the evangelical-GOP alliance, Christian nationalism, racism, and policy concerns. He argues that evangelicalism has been harmed by political alignment and has lost its prophetic voice. He draws on Hauerwas, Carl Henry, Hunter, and Balmer to argue that Christians should not seek to coerce society through political power and that faith is better served from the margins.

The author reviews Scott Ellsworth's The Ground Breaking, a history of the 1921 Tulsa massacre and its aftermath, calling it the best history book he has read in a decade and urging it be required reading. He describes the massacre as a white mob atrocity against Black Tulsans that was then covered up, and praises historians for recovering it. He argues the story is central to telling the truth about America and calls for lament, restoration, reparations, and reconciliation.

Scot McKnight reviews the fifth chapter and overall argument of Bonnie Kristian's In Defense of Evangelicalism, focusing on Christian nationalism and noting turmoil at Christianity Today. He grants that some criticism of evangelicals is hyperbolic and that ordinary evangelicals are basically good, but argues that Christian nationalism is a real and widespread problem, that sociological research on it is credible, and that politics is about how much control is sought. He contends Kristian minimizes the problems produced by evangelical leadership's political theology, that critics' hyperbole is prophetic, and that evangelicalism needs a renewed kingdom-centered gospel vision, a generation of good works, and confession rather than defense.

This newsletter roundup opens with a reflection arguing that Jesus's core message was the present availability of the kingdom (empire) of God, which subverts human empires, their domination hierarchies, and authoritarian images of God, and that Jesus does not legitimize nation-states. It then excerpts pieces on fear, on translating 1 Corinthians 16:13, on turmoil at Christianity Today, and on Kregel's leadership, with the author suspecting multiple causes for Christianity Today's changes and lamenting its distance from the theological skill of Carl Henry and Kenneth Kantzer. It closes by sharing his co-author Tommy Phillips's guide to reading Romans in light of its small house-church audience.