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"Evangelicals," gather round. Fellow-travelers and outsiders, lend an ear. For we are about to talk about evangelicalism's "dirty little secret." It's what historian Richard Lovelace has called "the Sanctification Gap." And it was the subject of a conference held in October, 2000 at Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama, which has now resulted in a book worth reading.

The book, like the conference, is titled For All the Saints: Evangelical Theology and Christian Spirituality (Westminster John Knox, 2003). Its editors, Timothy George and Alister McGrath, were also key players at the conference.

In their introduction, George and McGrath remind us that evangelicals are famously focused on conversion. As insider historian Grant Wacker likes to quip, an evangelical is someone who gets on a bus and asks "Is this seat saved?" and then, quickly, "Oh, by the way … Are you?"

But this attention to the born-again experience has not always been matched by a similarly strong emphasis on a disciplined, holy Christian life—or to use the fifty-dollar theological word, "sanctification." (One exception in the modern era is the subject of Christian History's current issue: Phoebe Palmer and the Holiness Revival.)

The core of the problem, say George and McGrath, is this: the crucial experiential reality of "union with Christ" has gone missing from evangelicals' description of what salvation means: "These two realities, justification by faith alone and union with Christ" must be seen as "indissolubly bound together—as two distinct but inseparable aspects of the same saving event."

One of the most telling signs that these two halves of the Christian life have come apart—but are coming back together—is a recent re-visioning among evangelical seminaries. About a decade ago, in response to graduates who complained of a hyperfocus on intellectual theology and a paucity of spiritual formation in their schooling, many seminaries began turning their attention to models of "integrated" theological education. Now common in these schools' curricula are self-assessments, accountability relationships, and courses focused on spiritual health and Christian living. One such new-look program may be found at Bethel Seminary, with its "three centers" approach. Another school that has in fact been integrating attention to spirituality in its program since its founding is Regent College.

The For All the Saints conference was sponsored by Wycliffe Hall, an evangelical Anglican school affiliated with Oxford University, and Beeson Divinity School, an evangelical interdenominational school affiliated with the Baptist-related Samford University in Alabama. According to organizers, the attendees met to seek out a healthy balance between two extremes: "an evangelical theology divorced from the life of faith" and "a trendy spirituality unrooted in the rich soil of historic orthodox teaching."

In the course of that search, seven themes emerged. Just seeing these listed in the book's introduction set my heart beating a little faster: How desperately do I need to live these realities! And how lovingly does Christ offer to give me the grace necessary to do so!

There is real spiritual food in these seven themes, so I want to share them with you:

1. Spirituality is about the whole person. Not the mind alone, nor the emotions alone.
2. Spiritual theology is about the Trinitarian God of love and grace. What does that mean? That God is himself a community, and that his essential nature is love.

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June (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48