@bbowman Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio wrote a book, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes. I believe it was there that he wrote that “Evangelicalism” doesn’t so much consist of shared doctrine as of shared feeling - “orthopathos” rather than “orthodoxy.” Whether there in writing or spoken on a Mars Hill recording, I’m pretty sure it comes from Myers.
It has been a couple of decades since I first encountered that, and the evidence I’ve seen seems to confirm it.
I share Kidd’s objection to treating it as a political label, though MSM seem to make it so.
@ReaderJohn I’m familiar with Myers and MHA, but hadn’t heard that anecdote. It certainly rings true.
As someone who’s come of age spiritually within evangelical churches and institutions, I’m trying to think through the question: What are the central goods (assuming there are some) that evangelicalism has emphasized, preserved, and passed on over the course of its history? Whatever the answer is, it seems like that would be the only possible starting place for any kind of renewal.
@ReaderJohn Yes, for sure…still definitely a useful heuristic. Kidd’s helpful addition is the notion of cultivating a personal relationship with Jesus (/Holy Spirit).