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As I sat in sessions and listened to hallway and cafeteria conversations during that week in April, it became clear that the message Webber had been pressing in more than 40 books was now attracting more people than ever—and more committed, careful study, as well. All signs point to the maturing of the ancient-future church.

This was not always so. The 1970s pioneers of the movement at times indulged in naïve romanticism, as do many of their heirs today. Like G. K. Chesterton once said of the 19th-century recovery of the medieval era, ancient-future evangelicals have often viewed the early church "by moonlight." But the Wheaton conference showed signs that the movement had moved from naïveté to maturity.

D. H. Williams insisted that evangelicals try not "to tame the early fathers" by making them appear to speak to our current situation. Instead, he said, "We must be willing to be taught and, as it were, 'broken in,' before we start adopting and adapting this doctrine or that practice for our own purposes in the 21st century." Trinity Western's Mark Charlton offered caution about using monastic teachings. And InterVarsity Press's Joel Scandrett reminded conferees, "Retrieval of the tradition is not a simple matter, but requires an understanding of the intellectual context in which that tradition developed."

While all the presenters celebrated evangelicals' newfound enthusiasm for the early fathers, many simultaneously warned of its dangers, as articulated by Scandrett:

1. Anachronism: Naively interpreting the tradition in light of contemporary assumptions;

2. Traditionalism: Being unwilling to see the flaws in the early church's traditions;

3. Eclecticism: Selectively appropriating ancient practices without regard to their original purposes or contexts.

We must, as Eastern University's Christopher Hall put it in his plenary address, attend carefully to "best practices" for drawing on the insights of the Christian past, while approaching earlier periods "honestly and openly."

A look at the birth of the ancient-future movement will give clues to its meaning for today. The movement seems to have exploded in a 24-month period in 1977–1978, which saw the publication of Richard Foster's bestselling Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth and Robert Webber's Common Roots: A Call to Evangelical Maturity. It also saw a monastic straw in the wind: former Bethel College and Seminary president Carl Lundquist's CT cover story on worldwide "renewal communities." During this same period, Campus Crusade leader Peter Gillquist founded an early church-focused school and press, and brought a group of former evangelicals into union talks with the Orthodox Church. At the same time, Drew University's Tom Oden began his transformation from a theological liberal to a leading spokesman for evangelicals' return to tradition.

Also in 1977, upon the urging of Robert Webber, Donald Bloesch, and Thomas Howard, 45 evangelical academics and leaders gathered to pen "The Chicago Call: An Appeal to Evangelicals," whose prologue declared evangelicals' "pressing need to reflect upon the substance of the biblical and historic faith and to recover the fullness of this heritage." This historic document began by issuing a "Call to Historic Roots and Continuity":

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February 2008, Vol. 52, No. 2