Whatever You Do

A couple weeks ago I was in Calgary to listen to David Fitch deliver a couple of lectures based on his new book, The End of Evangelicalism? David utilizes Slavoj Zizek to demonstrate how the beliefs that usually are used to codify Evangelicals as a distinct Christian subgroup have mostly become empty symbols that serve more to distract than to edify.

David’s first session was mainly an introduction to these thoughts found in the book. I’m going to blog more about his book here shortly; unfortunately I left my copy in Calgary so I haven’t been able to read very far yet. But once I have the book back (a good friend is sending it back up my way) we will begin the journey.

The second lecture was a letdown for me. Rather than truly plot a new future for Evangelicalism, David spent most of the evening discrediting the efforts of other frontiersmen and claiming that instead of reinvigorating evangelicalism’s gospel directive they were guilty of destructing some important doctrinal landmarks of Christianity. I know that David does this in conversation and even in friendship with those he singled out (Brian McLaren, Peter Rollins, Alan Hirsch, and Michael Frost), but to end the evening with warnings seemed to me to fall short of what his parting message could have been.

Now that I am pastoring in rural Alberta I see a fantastic opportunity to help define our future as evangelicals before we allow our local distinctives to evolve into Zizekian “master signifiers” devoid of meaning and rife with antagonism. Thus, as I begin to engage his book I’m hoping that Fitch spends more time in imagination than in generalized critiques.