All of Christ for All of Life - Podcast review

The King’s Hall podcast #7 – Theological Maximalism - a review

 

Brian Sauve & Co. are refreshing in their zeal to build Christian culture.  Here are some thoughts I have after listening to this podcast.

 

Theological (or cultural) maximalism: 

Every part of the Bible should be applied to all of life.  Yes!  We don’t want to check our faith at the door of the office or job site – it applies there, especially.  The Christian faith is far more than exercises of piety in family or church. 

 

Culture is religion externalized

The hosts spend a lot of time distinguishing themselves from Two Kingdom and Natural Law (TKNL) views.  Is there a Christian way to farm, that viewpoint asks, assuming a negative answer?  Sauve says, actually, yes, there is.  I’m in the middle on this debate.  Is an unbeliever competent to farm?  I would say yes, agreeing with the TKNL view.  Does the Christian worldview provide needed guardrails on soil management, and a greater purpose to the enterprise?  Also yes, agreeing with the school of Van Til, which Sauve & Co. are espousing.

 

A masculinist caution

At one point (around 1:10:00) he pooh-poohs devotions with your wife and other piety-minded exercises as less masculine, in contrast to pursuits like economics, work, etc.  I get the point: don’t leave masculine pursuits out of the realm of Christianity, or you alienate men.  True.  But by deriding your quiet time, and praying with your wife, we lean toward the chauvinist trap that men should do masculine things, never anything that hints of the feminine, and leave the domestic and piety things to the women.  Not good.

 

Finally, there is an inherent inconsistency in the ideas put forth in the episode.

They end with a call to link arms in catholicity with any Protestant Christian culture builder.  After taking a lot of time rejecting the view of TKNL, which is a large swath of Protestantism!  Theological Maximalism is true in one sense, but usually has the unfortunate effect of pitting everyone who disagrees with me on anything, as being compromisers of the Gospel.  Beware of teachers who say that except for the 2-4 people who agree with them on everything, every other teacher is probably compromised.  This is often implied, if not outright stated. 

 

What ever happened to CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity?  

Too many today quickly reject that as a reductionistic view of the Gospel.  I don’t deny the reductionism is real and a negative thing.  But focusing on the essentials that unite true believers can have a far healthier and longer lasting effect on the Body of Christ (as Lewis has had) than focusing on the less-essential things that set us apart from each other (post-millennial, not Two Kingdom, etc.).