The last chapter of Darryl’s book is obviously the one in which he steps up, wraps up, and sums up, and of course it is also the place where some of our more obvious disagreements come to the fore. Darryl’s basic assumption is that the coming of Christ ushered in a new relationship between church …
Compassionate Conservativism Isn’t Either One
Darryl’s next chapter, “The Dilemma of Compassionate Conservatism,” provides a good overview of the recent interactions of the state and evangelicals, and the attempt to have the government provide help to various “faith-based” social agencies. Darryl does good work pointing out the corners that we have painted ourselves into, but his narrow conception of what …
He Will Stand Before Kings
Chapter seven, “The Tie That Divides,” was informative and quite good. In it Darryl traces the rise of the Protestant ecumenical movement in the mainline denominations, along with the evangelical attempts to counter it, whether by competition or by withdrawal. There is not very much to differ with here, so I won’t try to gin …
Unsuccessful Bracketing
Throughout the course of this book Darryl says many good things, and makes many fine observations. Unfortunately, they are set in the context of this dualistic background of his, which make the result resemble a collection of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires set in a fitting of tarnished and battered sheet metal. Chapter six on “impersonal …
Machen and Wilkins
Darryl’s next chapter, on the rise of a democratized Protestant faith in America is quite good, and very helpful. Toward the end of the chapter, his doubts about democracy start come to the fore. “Rather than learning about democracy from Christianity, more often than not American Protestants have felt compelled to defend democracy under a …
Rampaging Christian Wowserism
Darryl Hart concludes his next chapter with the correct observation that “the phrase ‘under God’ raises more questions than it apparently answers” (p. 123). This not only is a fair challenge, but it is one we need to take up. If I might, I would like to borrow a metaphor from Warfield, and apply it …
Compromise #1
Chapter Two of Darryl Hart’s A Secular Faith was, as you may recall, a really disappointing treatment of the theocratic and establishmentarian convictions of the Westminster Assembly. This next chapter was quite different — all of it was admirable, and most of it was simply outstanding. Darryl begins by showing how two early presidents, Jefferson …
Jupiterian Amillennialism
Darryl Hart is easy to read, but, in another sense, he is very hard to read. His second chapter “Whose Freedom, Which Liberty?” is a treasure trove of historical information, but his discussion also includes, it must be said, an astonishing oversight. I don’t know what — other than an amillennialism that appears to have …
City on a Hill
This post ought to be fairly straightforward, because this next chapter by Darryl was, taking one thing with another, outstanding. Of course I am suspicious of where he is placing it, but still the historical review he gives is very, very good. He begins with a discussion of the famous American trope, “a city on …
That Faithy Feel
Someone of Darryl Hart’s intelligence and learning is incapable of writing a book without offering many penetrating insights, and this book promises to be no exception. He starts out by observing the “tsunami of faith-based politics” (p. 3). He objects to this, as he should, because government sponsorship of a generic faith, or groups that …