Dr Paul Allen

It didn’t take long, but we can now say that Aaron Renn and James Wood have been vindicated. Their recent analyses of our cultural moment and strategies for Christian cultural engagement have been proven right by recent events in Australia. I refer, here, to Andrew Thorburn and his rapid departure from a high-profile role at one of Australia’s most prestigious professional sporting clubs. This incident is a harbinger of the times and illustrates the wisdom of Wood’s and Renn’s claims about the church’s relationship to the culture.  Renn argues that we are in a “Negative World,” a cultural climate where Christianity is on-the-nose and increasingly marginal.  Conservative Christianity has a particularly bad brand in a world where traditional social mores are passé. Wood, by interacting with the example of Presbyterian minister Tim Keller, asserted that the age of “winsome” evangelical cultural engagement is over.  Whether or not Wood has properly framed Keller’s ministry style, his wider

Evangelicalism is deeply divided. Some evangelicals have embraced the secular turn toward social justice activism, particularly around race and immigration, accusing others of failing to reckon with the church’s racist past.  Others charge evangelical elites with going “woke” and failing their flocks. Some elites are denounced for abandoning historic Christian teachings on sexuality.  Others face claims of hypocrisy for supporting the serial adulterer Donald Trump. Old alliances are dissolving. Former Southern Baptist agency head Russell Moore has left his denomination. Political pundit David French has become a fearsome critic of ­many religious conservatives who would once have been his allies.  Baptist professor Owen Strachan left an establishment seminary to take a leadership position in a startup. Some people are deconstructing their faith and leaving evangelicalism, or even Christianity, behind. Where once there was a culture war between Christianity and secular society, today th