Last year, I found myself making the rounds of Christian podcasts to publicize a couple of new books I’d written. Most of these conversations were similar, but one ended with an exchange that caught us both off guard.
The interviewer asked whether I’ve changed my mind on any big theological questions. What I took him to be asking was what I’d tell my younger theological self. To which I replied, “You don’t have to be radical to be a Christian.”
After I blurted out my answer, I had to ask myself what I meant. I didn’t have in mind the perennial vigor, earnest energy, and guileless naiveté of youth—or the renewal movements and prophetic indictments of elders these tend to generate. The “radical” trend I meant is a more specific phenomenon, one I expect is familiar to many American Christians around my age.
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