I first learned of Alister McGrath’s theological work while retrieving books from Fordham University’s library for Cardinal Dulles. The author of more than forty books—successful in both popular and academic circles—and known for his public debates with prominent atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, McGrath is widely recognized as one of the most brilliant Christian theologians alive today. As I learned more about McGrath’s work, I became especially interested in his reflections on the past and future of evangelical identity, a subject that’s been at the forefront of my own mind for some time.
Our paths crossed in England during the spring of 2008, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend a series of his lectures as well as conduct a brief interview with him before his move from Oxford to King’s College London that summer. Oxford is beautiful in June, and I biked across town to meet McGrath in the common room of his college full of curiosity to hear his thoughts.
I had read two of McGrath’s books in preparation for the interview—both focused on evangelical identity. The first, Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity, was published in 1994 while the second, The Future of Christianity, was published in 2002. Taking those books as two points in a trajectory, I asked McGrath to sketch out in what ways evangelical Christianity had continued to evolve since the publication of his last book.
McGrath’s view was nuanced and informative, critical of certain developments while maintaining a great respect and even enthusiasm for others.
One of the recent developments that most “disturbed” him was the “emergence of a purely pragmatic, very defensive evangelicalism, which… doesn’t really seem interested in relating to wider culture.” Ever the apologist, McGrath conceded that there’s an element of risk in trying to combine a deep commitment to one’s faith with an attempt to be salt and light within the culture, but it’s a risk he believed Christians must be willing to take and must actively encourage among the younger generation. We must be willing to seriously engage the intellectual issues nonbelievers raise if we wish to be taken seriously ourselves.
This “anti-intellectualism,” McGrath quickly pointed out, isn’t isolated to the laity. Although he was optimistic about the church as a whole, McGrath was gently critical of the trend among many evangelical preachers whose sermons are “biblical exposition with an essentially pietistic application but no attempt to stretch the mind.” Whether symptom or cause, this is especially worrying since congregations are quite likely to be intellectually impoverished already.
McGrath’s other critique of modern evangelicalism revolved around the lack of leadership in the movement. “Unfortunately, for a movement to go anywhere it needs leadership. Individuals can do quite a lot but the difficulty is that they are lone voices unless there’s a coherent strategy line.”
Although he had no trouble coming up with number of important evangelical thinkers active today, McGrath hoped to see a greater sense of unity, strong leadership, and collective purpose in evangelicalism over the coming years. Even in countries with very disparate pockets of evangelicalism like the United States, McGrath felt quite optimistic about the possibility of unity. “When a movement is very tight,” he explained, “there’s a very strong sense of unity. When it begins to broaden out numerically, it also tends to broaden out ideologically as well. So as I look at American evangelicalism I can see real tensions, but they can be managed. I mean,” he finished, “it just requires good relationship skills, in my opinion.”
One of the developments in evangelicalism that McGrath found most exciting was in the field of spiritual writing. This is especially important as the lack of spirituality was one of the most alarming aspects of the movement when he wrote his first book on the subject in 1994. Reviewing the situation fifteen years later, McGrath confessed to being “astonished at (a) the number and (b) the quality of the writings in this field. And it’s coming from all over the place… It’s very, very diverse, nevertheless it’s clearly evangelical, and it’s clearly focused on Scripture.”
McGrath listed some of his favorite authors “all of them trying to deepen the quality of our engagement with Scripture by engaging the imagination, by forcing us to think more strongly about narratives—and also the inward appropriation of this. Not just reading Scripture as cognitive text… but rather as text with the capacity to transform… I find that very exciting.”
McGrath was similarly excited to see that spiritual and theological book sales were up in the United States, that the church there was reading about and engaging theological issues. This may be a sign that the anti-intellectualism of the last decade was beginning to recede, but McGrath was concerned with something more specific than a broadly intellectual mindset. He wanted evangelicals to continue to combine their growing interest in theology with a deepening understanding of ministry. “What I see now,” McGrath said approvingly, “is a trend whereby there are many people who are clearly academically excellent who will say theology is done at its best and most authentic at the interface with ministry.”
This last point resonated with me that summer afternoon as I was already beginning to sketch out the ideas that would eventually become the Aqueduct Project. Taking the last few minutes of our time, I solicited McGrath’s opinion on the project and was deeply encouraged by his positive response.
As I reflected later on McGrath’s overview of evangelicalism, I was reminded of a passage in his 2002 book, The Future of Christianity:
Christianity is not actually a western religion. Its origins lie in Palestine, and its future lies predominantly in South America, Asia and Africa. Christianity reached a position of considerable influence in western Europe in the Middle Ages and early modern period, and continues to be of immense significance in the shaping of western culture, but its historical roots and its future flowering lie elsewhere.
For those who grew up in the west, it can be difficult initially to accept the truth of McGrath’s view. However, once this truth is acknowledged, we experience a beautiful liberation. We are freed from politics to experience nothing but excitement at God’s work in the global church, and we are more clearly able to see our own role in supporting that mission.
Believers in first world nations continue to rank theological education as one of their most pressing needs. For us at Aqueduct Project, the way forward is clear. We’re privileged to be able to partner with seminaries around the world to provide better access to theological education for pastors and students, and we’re excited about the development of new programs to achieve this aim in the new year. As we look forward together to the challenges and blessings of 2012, please remember to pray for the work at Aqueduct Project and to pray for the global church!