In a book by Stephen J Nichhols, Jesus made in America he wrote;
Finally, American evangelicals are strongly influenced by pietism, which emphasizes personal religious experience, and values devotion and practice over doctrine. For example, pietism leads us to say that imitating Christ is far better than having a right set of beliefs about who Christ is. Pietism leads to viewing Christ primarily from the lens of personal experience rather than the lenses of the Gospel pericopes or of theological formulations. David Wells offers a fascinating example of this in his No Place for Truth. He contrasts two sets of articles in Christianity Today that appeared thirty years apart. The first, from 1959, dealt with Easter by lining up articles on the historicity of the event, apologetic discussions of the resurrection and theological reflections. The next set of articles appeared in 1989. This time prominent popular authors such as Walter Wangerin and Philip Yancey approached the event of the resurrection from the perspective of “What does the resurrection mean to me?“
Here are some questions for discussion:
Do you see a trend in the Evangelical church that emphasizes “religious experience, values devotion and practice over doctrine”?
What is the difference between an “apologetic discussion of the resurrection” versus the even approached from the perspective of “What does the resurrection mean to me?”
Do you see that as something to be concerned about and why?
Let me know your thoughts.
Pastor Brice