The resurgence of Calvinism in our time, in addition to drawing the attention of national daily newspapers and weekly news magazines, has stirred the attention of evangelical Christian observers not in sympathy with the resurgence. Journalistic ink has been expended documenting polarization, particularly among Southern Baptists. The perceived excesses of today’s Calvinist resurgence have drawn sharp comment in the blogosphere from observers such Scot McKnight and Roger Olson. The latter, clearly cool toward today’s resurgence, has nevertheless called on Wesleyan-Arminian evangelicalism to match the new Calvinist world in its zeal for proclaiming a doctrinally meaty Christianity.
Don Thorsen’s recent literary effort ought to be viewed in this context. It is a call for a Wesleyan resurgence among Methodist and what might be called “non-aligned” American evangelicals—a constituency in which there is a need both for doctrinal zeal and also for energetic living out of the Christian faith. But while “of a kin” with these other commentators, Thorsen, professor of theology at California’s Azusa Pacific University, brings to the literary task a genuine regard for John Calvin. In making his case that, taken all in all, today’s evangelical Christianity has more to learn from John Wesley (1703–1791) than from John Calvin (1509–1564), he is careful not to take “potshots” at the Genevan. Calvin is portrayed as a “giant,” as a Protestant “father” whom we ignore only to our own hurt. Thorsen is a Free Methodist whose own theological training exposed him to the Reformed theological tradition (as represented by Princeton Seminary) as well as to the broad Methodist heritage.
Read Full Article »