Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Eucatastrophe in American Evangelicalism

Eucatastrophe in American Evangelicalism

Last updated on: June 23, 2021 at 5:00 am by Andrea L. Turpin

Eucatastrophe in American Evangelicalism 2021-06-23T03:36:04-04:00 Andrea L. Turpin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

To be honest, I did not think the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting was going to go well. Along with many other evangelical observers, I feared that the representatives from SBC churches (known as “messengers”) would vote last week for leaders and resolutions that split truth and love rather than holding the two together. Some denominations are more at risk of losing truth, but the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, was more at risk of losing love.

Theological liberalism was not going to be an outcome of the meeting. All four candidates for SBC president embraced the Baptist Faith and Message, which affirms the inerrancy, or total accuracy, of the Bible. Indeed, all four candidates also embraced additional BFM conservative belief markers not held by all inerrantists, such as forbidding women from serving as church elders.

Legalism and lack of love, by contrast, was a real risk. Three out of the four presidential candidates believed both (1) that women should even not teach men in adult Bible studies, as I wrote about last month, and (2) that it was more important that the SBC formally condemn critical race theory in its totality than that the denomination offer a well-thought-out approach of its own to understanding and combating systemic racism.

Furthermore, one of the four, the former chair of the SBC’s governing Executive Committee, had been credibly accused of repeatedly stonewalling attempts to get the denomination to investigate its handling of pastors who had committed sexual assault. Under considerable pressure, just before the annual meeting the Executive Committee contracted a third-party investigation of its handling of sexual abuse allegations, but did not agree to grant investigators open access to records or to make the final report publicly available.

Image courtesy of pixabay.

And yet a vocal subset of messengers feared liberal “drift” in the denomination. Members of the Conservative Baptist Network styled themselves as pirates ready to “take the ship” to stop of the drift. They believed the recent attention given by denominational leaders to redressing issues of sexual assault and racism within the denomination constituted a distraction from the gospel of individual salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. They thought grappling with these social issues would eventually overtake the call to conversion and evangelism, rather than that grappling with these social issues flowed from a converted heart renewed to combat sin and exercise love for neighbor. They thought truth and love, at least this type of love, did not go together.

I have been deeply troubled by the increasingly strident rhetoric I have seen coming from many corners of American evangelicalism over the past year—about politics, masks, race, gender roles. Lots of vocal concern for orthodoxy and personal rights, but not as much vocal concern for loving our neighbors. And the largest Protestant denomination in the country appeared to be going even further in that direction.

But it felt wrong to just despair. Hope is a spiritual discipline. So I decided to pray for the SBC meeting. Searching for the words, I was reminded of an article a friend had recently sent me about…Taylor Swift.

The author muses that what he really appreciates about Swift’s music is her use of the literary move J. R. R. Tolkien calls “eucatastrophe,” the sudden and unexpected occurrence of something deeply good. (As opposed to catastrophe, the sudden and unexpected occurrence of something deeply bad.) Of course, I thought, eucatastrophe is at the heart of the Christian message: Jesus’ unexpected resurrection changes everything.

So I prayed for eucatastrophe…and it happened.

Taylor Swift’s most recent album, evermore, is my favorite. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The only one of the four candidates who robustly combined grace and truth won the election for president. The messengers overwhelmingly voted to create a committee appointed by that new president to oversee the investigation into the convention’s handling of sexual abuse. The 2019 resolution that affirmed that there were some insights to be gleaned from how critical race theory exposed systemic racism—even if CRT’s approach also contains some assumptions contrary to Scripture—was not overturned or replaced by a complete denunciation of CRT. Almost everything went right.

It is fashionable for Christian intellectuals to criticize American evangelicalism. I have done so myself—because too often, we deserve it. But this stream of Christianity has contained many good and beautiful things alongside the bad. Evangelicals have advocated abolitionism as well as resisted desegregation. They have fought for women’s rights as well as ignored women’s voices. And it is good and right that we ask our Lord to redeem the movement—and to live in hopeful expectation that He will do so.

This kind of expectation was common among evangelicals of the nineteenth century, when postmillennialism was the dominant theology of the end times. Postmillennialism asserts that Scripture is best interpreted as teaching that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world in such a way as to bring about a substantially righteous society before Christ returns to rule it at the end of days.

In the wake of the early twentieth-century expansion of theological liberalism within mainline denominations, those who fought loudly for orthodoxy, now called “fundamentalists,” instead widely embraced premillennialism. This theology taught that the world would simply get worse and worse until Christ returned at the end of days to usher in a righteous society. In the mid-twentieth century, many fundamentalists broadened their outlook to care once more about social engagement as well as evangelism and re-took the name “evangelical.” But they held on to premillennial theology instead of their forebears’ more optimistic one.

Ironically, evangelicalism’s twenty-first-century critics, both internal and external, subsequently also inherited this outlook that everything is headed to hell in a hand basket—just about evangelicalism itself rather than about the rest of the world.

Even though I sometimes catch myself thinking like a premillennialist in this way, I am actually an amillennialist (a position more common among “higher church” Christians from Catholic to Anglican to Presbyterian, and shared by some Reformed Baptists as well). Which is to say I do not believe the world is automatically getting either better or worse, and I believe that this uncertainty will remain until Christ ushers in the world to come. Which also means I have a responsibility to pray actively for the good and to pursue the good with hope. And, indeed, to expect it. After all, Christians are people of the Resurrection.

Eucatastrophe happens. It shouldn’t surprise me so much. Thanks be to God, and back to work and prayer.

Southern Baptist Convention

Southern Baptist Convention

Taylor Swift

Previous Post

June 22, 2021

Americans Should Be Comfortable with Historical Complexity, Not Afraid of It

Next Post

June 23, 2021 Cru, CRT, and the History of American Evangelicalism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims Piracy pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public Executions Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Hebrews teaches that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sins.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE