Davenant Trust & First Things: Future of Protestantism

The Future of Protestantism

 28 Apr 2014   Posted by Steven Wedgeworth         

The Future of Protestantism: A Public Conversation will be hosted tomorrow night at Biola University in La Mirada, CA. Notice that it begins at 7pm Pacific Standard Time. A live webcast will also be available, and you should subscribe to it on the link at the right side of the webpage in order to stay updated. The Event is sponsored by The Davenant Trust, First Things, and Biola’s own Torrey Honors Institute.


We here at TCI are very excited about this event and, along with most of you, are eagerly awaiting that day when we will no longer have to see Peter Escalante’s visage as through a glass dimly. More seriously, the topic of discussion is of utmost importance. Dr. Fred Sanders gives some explanation of how it all came together here, saying:

This particular conversation has an online backstory. In November of last year, Peter Leithart used his regular column space at First Things to declare The End of Protestantism and provoke his readers to “envision a new way of being heirs of the Reformation, a new way that happens to conform to the original Catholic vision of the Reformers.” A minor social-media uproar ensued (at least among some of my friends, students, and alum). So here at Scriptorium Daily, I posted “Glad Protestantism,” an objection to at least the rhetorical strategy, and some of the substance, of Leithart’s post. Peter replied to my post (“Deploring What’s Deplorable“) by focusing helpfully on two questions:  1. Do anti-historical, know-nothing Protestants exist, and 2. what should be done about it? I was about to write another post (is there a word for a rejoinder to a surrejoinder? I hope not.), when Matthew Anderson intervened with the suggestion that it would be better and more fun to get together and talk things out in a public forum. Great idea: and Matt has been instrumental in pulling this together.

This is the immediate context, of course, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s an even larger context for this conversation. Dr. Leithart’s essay, “The End of Protestantism,” was not the first time he has expressed his views on these ideas. Indeed, the larger “Federal Vision” controversy/conversation is relevant here. Back in 2007, Dr. Leithart had this to say about the Federal Vision:

Broadly speaking, Christian theologians spent the twentieth century with ecclesiology, the ecumenical movement and Vatican II being the most visible results. “Federal Vision” theology is an effort to drag conservative Reformed theology, kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century. (That’s not a typo or mistake; I know it’s the twenty-first century.)

For the rest, see:
 http://calvinistinternational.com/2014/04/28/future-protestantism/