2
Nuectherleins observations hit the mark. And they stung. They stung because
they revealed so much about the identity crisis within evangelicalism, and about the ways
in which we are constantly looking over our collective shoulders, doubting ourselves and
our theological tradition. Now, at times, lament is certainly an appropriate theme, and
clearly it can be done well. But Im afraid that such persistent self-critical navel-gazing
discourages a new generation of young evangelicals about resources of our own tradition,
and leaves them especially susceptible to any other thoughtful alternative systems. And
so in the last two decades evangelicals have witnessed a steady stream of defections from
the camp to other groups within the broader Christian communion. In the mid 1980s,
evangelicals lost Peter Gilchrist and a cadre of former Campus Crusade workers who
sought the mysteries and compelling liturgy of Eastern Orthodoxy. Many evangelicals
heaved collective sighs of either relief or sadness when we lost, variously,
filmmaker/author Franky Schaeffer (son of Francis!), writer Frederica Mathews-Green,
and journalist Terry Mattingly to the East as well. Additionally, theologian Robert
Webber informed us of the many Wheaton students who were leaving the thoroughfare of
evangelicalism to merge onto the Canterbury trail.
3
And then, of course, there are the
string of converts to Roman Catholicism, beginning, most notably of course, with
Richard John Neuhaus, who was subsequently followed by Thomas Howard, Michael P.
Shea, Scott Hahn, and many others.
This is not to say that there are not problems within the evangelical communion.
There are many. If we wanted to open up the can, we could pass around the proverbial
can opener. ETS alone could consume itself with various kinds of screeds, both
3
Robert Webber, Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail : Why Evangelicals Are Attracted
to the Liturgical Church (Waco, TX: Word Books 1985).