Thinking about this question some more, two things came to mind. Both were very similar. First off I am not sure evolutionary Christianity is the “thing” at play, but rather the evolutionary “challenge” to the Christian faith. This last week I had conversations with two theologians from different denominations that do not affirm evolution. The commonalities in that conversation between these two different people.
-
The first theologian pointed out that he thought the evolutionary challenge that we are embroiled in right now, most clearly in the Adam debates, is of generational significance. He things that we are working out now a new synthesis in theology that will be talked about a century from now. To be clear, he is not satisfied with the pat answered offered by anyone right now, but sees the shifting that is enabling a real movement forward for the Church in our understanding of fundamental doctrings.
-
We can start to see how this might be playing out as thoughtful theologians arise in response to that evolutionary challenge. I assure you, most of them are not satisfied by the current menu of pat answers, but are working out wholey new ways of thinking about these things. We are in an unstable moment, of high significance. We should expect voices to rise in unexpected place, The Lutheran Option?
Finally, this is not just about evolution. Right now, there is reckoning and reassessment on several things:
-
What should the relationship between the Church and politics be in a pluralistic society (see for example Confident Pluralism by Inazu and To Change the World by Hunter).
-
Now that the conservative church is more intentionally engaging social issues, how do we do this in a theologically grounded way? How do we give a coherent account of injustice and our response to it without merely echoing secular though?
-
How do we move beyond a purely individualistic account of faith (and sin) to understand the corporate role of sin and the Church in this world?
I would posite that all of these things are connected to the evolutionary challenge, which is why it is so helpful in the current moment. I’m not sure if “evolutionary Christians” have the right answers to these questions (I generally find myself in disagreement with many of them). However, they certainly have right that there is a reckoning and reassessment that science is bringing us to.
At its best, this could be a moment where science guards us against idolatry. That is what I hope for. I hope we might return to a Jesus-centered faith. The risk all around (for YECs, OECs, and ECs) will be to idolize science, and forget that we follow the One greater than science.