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WHAT ARE THE CURRENT CAUSES OF EVANGELICAL FRAGMENTATION?

We fragment over what we regard as issues of principle, but often the real reason is personal, isn't it? When we're afraid, we withdraw into our own fellowships and ghettos with like-minded people where we feel secure. I'm aware of that fear in myself; it's part of our basic human insecurity. We're looking for contexts in which we can be supported rather than questioned.

I'm afraid that in some cases the cause of fragmentation is worse than that--it's a simple matter of ambition. There is a great deal of empire building among us. The only empire in which we should be interested is the kingdom of God, but I fear some people are building their own.

ON ISSUES OF PRINCIPLE, WHAT CONCERNS YOU MOST?

The uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ in an increasingly pluralistic world is one--the debate about whether we go for exclusivism, inclusivism, or pluralism. Then there's the homosexual question, and the whole subject of sexual ethics.

So the church must recover its prophetic voice and reject both the idea that ethics evolve and the notion that love obliges us to capitulate to the modernist view of things.

We need a voice that is essentially positive, not just negative--for example, on the family, or the joy of sexual intercourse, and so on.

I don't know why we are always caught on the defensive and are reactive instead of proactive. I don't think it is something in our make-up as evangelicals. I sometimes wonder if it is that God has not given us many leaders who are visionaries.

The evangelical renaissance of the last 50 years has really been one of biblical scholarship. What we have lacked is systematic or creative theologians. I believe we have one in Alister McGrath; I am sure in England we had one in Jim Packer before he left the country. But we have very few theologians who are really far-sighted and give us a vision that will unite, inspire, and enthuse us.

DOES THIS LACK OF VISION FOR THE FUTURE HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH OUR PERCEPTION OF TRUTH LODGED IN ORTHODOXY? DOES THIS MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO BE CREATIVE AND TAKE RISKS?

Yes, there is something in that. Evangelicalism is fundamentally loyal to a past revelation, and because we are tied forever to what God did and said in the historic Jesus, we look back more often than we look forward.

In my debate with David Edwards [published as "Evangelical Essentials," InterVarsity], I drew a distinction between the liberal, the fundamentalist, and the evangelical. The liberal, to me, is like a gas-filled balloon which takes off into the ether and is not tethered to the earth in any way. The fundamentalist is like a caged bird, unable to escape at all. To me, the true evangelical is like a kite, which flies high but at the same time is always tethered. This demands a particularly unusual combination of loyalty to the past and creativity for the future.

YOU HAVE FALLEN AFOUL OF SOME EVANGELICALS. SOME OF YOUR REFLECTIONS ON THE NATURE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT WERE CONSIDERED UNCONGENIAL TO ORTHODOXY BY SOME PEOPLE.

In "Evangelical Essentials", I described as "tentative" my suggestion that "eternal punishment" may mean the ultimate annihilation of the wicked rather than their eternal conscious torment. I would prefer to call myself agnostic on this issue, as are a number of New Testament scholars I know. In my view, the biblical teaching is not plain enough to warrant dogmatism. There are awkward texts on both sides of the debate.

The hallmark of an authentic evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny and, if necessary, reform.

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January 8 1996, Vol. 40, No. 1