This is a hard post to write. It might go all over the place. Please bear with me.

Humility is an important virtue. It is also often a justification for cowardice.

I've come to see more clearly of late that this is a significant tension in the "Post-Evangelical" community, of which, though I don't care much for labels (I don't think YHWH does, either), I'd proudly consider myself a member.

I while back, I posted a makeshift Post-Evangelical Manifesto in response to the then-famous Evangelical Manifesto. There, I explained that one of the driving theological forces behind P-E-ism (my wrists are starting to hurt, so I'm gonna use P-E and E from hereon in) is the recognition that, in our age, classic doctrinal expressions and expositions of the gospel of Jesus Christ have become difficult to hear, even stale. Moreover, though P-E-als believe resolutely in the truth of Jesus Christ, we don't think that is a truth that can be fully articulated with words (I don't think Jesus did, either). The only way to fully articulate it by a whole person, a whole life lived.

Having said that, the God whom we all worship as Creator gave us language as one tool within that "whole life lived." To some, He also gave the type of mind that is capable of using that language wisely, convincingly, even poetically. That is a gift from the Creator God. And as with all gifts from Him, there's usually a resultant responsibility to use that gift in furtherance of His age-old plan to redeem His creation.

Or, to put it in more biblical terms, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace" (1 Pet. 4:10).

Which brings me to my point.

As I look around the P-E community, from my vantage point, I'm noticing a marked decrease in the attempt to linguistically communicate the gospel by P-E preachers and teachers. Maybe its just me. But with a few notable exceptions (Scot McKnight comes instantly to mind), it seems that our preachers and teachers have forsworn any serious attempts to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm not sure why this is. But I have some ideas.

My hunch is that "linguistic communication of the gospel" was such a staple of E-ism that P-E-ism instinctively shifts to the opposite pole. Just like orthopraxy wasn't a hot topic with E-ism, so it is now for P-E-ism. If we can recognize this gut-level reaction, we would see that the proper place of P-E-ism not at the opposite pole vis-a-vis E-ism, but rather joining our E brothers and sisters at that same pole; bringing with us not a disdain for linguistic communication of the gospel, but a desire to see to it that it is undertaken in a fresh, new way.

While few of us would put it in such terms, P-E's harbor a sense that the E mode of preaching/teaching the gospel was an exercise in intellectual laziness. Why go through the entire story of God and Israel and the world, and Jesus' role within all that, when you can simply tell people that Jesus died for their sins? If that's the case, then let's be careful not to fall into to same trap, even more so. What we seem to be doing is not even telling people that Jesus died for their sins!

More P-E's would admit that the E mode of preaching/teaching the gospel was an exercise in reductionism. The gospel of Jesus Christ is far more complex, far more glorious, we would say, than its reduction to any one doctrinal statement, even when that statement is fully developed. But the recognition that the gospel is many-faceted does not create an excuse to forgo examining as many of those facets as possible, and to continue to be on the lookout for more.

The P-E assessment of E shortcomings is, I believe, generally accurate. This movement simply wouldn't exist if that were not so. But along with that observation comes the very scary calling to do that which we find lacking in E-ism. It's a near impossible task, calling us to jump into very murky waters.

We are rightly humbled by the prospect. Humility is an important virtue. It is also often a justification for cowardice.

To borrow a phrase from my E brethren: "With God, all things are possible."

Or, as St. Francis put it (and we P-E's regularly use this quote for its second half, often forgetting the first): "Preach the gospel by all means possible, and if it's really necessary you can even use words."

Now there's a framework I can sink my teeth into.

Grace and Peace,
Raffi