The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World

a review by Adam Pohlman

The Evangelical Movement started in response to Fundamentalism which became known as mostly separatist. Evangelicals wanted to be known for holding fast to the truths held by Fundamentals, but even more so for engaging the culture with the gospel (evangel). The movement was respected as serious about truth and reaching the world with it. Today, however, the movement contains all sorts of silliness and heresy. At its beginning it was known for its doctrine, whereas today it is defined more by the culture.

David Wells, in his book The Courage to Be Protestant, addresses this transition and examines where we are today in light of Scripture. He traces the history of evangelicalism from its early stages and observes how today's evangelicals have split into three camps; Truth-Lovers, those committed to doctrine; Marketers, those using culture to reach the culture; and Emergents, those who are skeptical of tradition and truth in general who are interested more in simple community.

After a brief history of evangelicalism and a description of the church marketing movement, Wells examines the three evangelical camps in chapters called Truth, God, Self, Christ, and the Church. Much of The Courage to Be Protestant is focused on the Seeker-Sensitive (marketing) movement. While what David Wells presents is helpful, the Marketing movement today already seems to be waning as the Emergent movement picks up momentum. The chapter on Truth covers the emergent skeptical position, but most of the book covers the shallowness of today's evangelicalism. More coverage of the newest trend in our postmodern era would have been helpful.

The main focus of The Courage to Be Protestant is confronting the lack of seriousness of modern evangelicalism in pursuit of the truth. "In the light of the Bible's teaching on truth, why is the church that professes this truth so untouched by it?" (pg. 60) So much of our faith has become focused on entertainment, self-help, and personal gain, leaving the life changing truths of doctrine behind as something that is an obstacle to the objective of reaching people. We do want to help people, but it must be as a result of seeking God first. "[Western Christianity] is about everything except truth. And yet this truth, personally embodied in Christ, gives us a place to stand in order to deal with the complexities of life, such as broken relations, teenage rebellion, and job insecurities." (pg. 88)

Referring to a Barna survey, Wells notes that only 17 percent of Americans define sin in relation to God. He says that this has been a result of the marketing methods slightly changing the message to present the benefits and avoid speaking of the costs. "It is the benefits of believing that can be marketed, not the truth from which the benefits derive." (pg. 53) Our evangelism methods today have been narrowed down to presenting the benefits of Christianity, but then before one can enjoy those benefits we must admit we are sinners. However, as Wells points out and Barna's survey reveals, the concept of sin is meaningless to Americans because we have left out the unmarketable truths of the gospel such as God's holiness, righteousness, and justice. "Sin...is not simply the breaking of some church rule but is every act that is an affront to the character and will of God." (pg. 128)

The Courage to Be Protestant does a nice job of confronting the evangelical silliness prevalent in America. It is a wonderful reminder of what Christ's church is called to do. We in America have become so comfortable with our affluence that the attitude that we deserve blessings has even crept into our churches. David Wells reminds that God's plan isn't simply to teach us how to live a good life, but from eternity past He planned to satisfy His just anger against us on the cross. "The cross was not an accident. It was planned in eternity, and it was for this, Jesus said, that he had come. He had come to die. And in his moment of death the holiness of God and our sin collided." (pg. 129) That is the message that we must courageously proclaim to the world.