Young, Restless, Reformed: “Hip, Hip, Hurrah!” or “Bah Humbug!”?

Posted by deangonzales on December 28, 2008
19 Comments

Young, Restless, Reformed is “a journalist’s journey with the new Calvinists.” In this recently published book (March 2008), Collin Hansen, an editor for Christianity Today describes the contemporary resurgence of Reformed theology, particularly among young evangelicals. The book consists largely of interviews with young people who have been drawn to Calvinism and the leaders whom God has used to foster the resurgence. In particular, Hansen devotes the bulk of his attention on the ministries of John Piper, Albert Mohler, C. J. Mahaney, and Mark Driscoll. He also devotes one entire chapter to the renewed interest in a dead pastor-theologian, Jonathan Edwards. Moreover, Hansen highlights important events such as The Passion Conference, Together for the Gospel, and New Attitude, as well as college campus ministries like Reformed University Fellowship, Campus Outreach, and University Christian Fellowship. My purpose is not to provide an extended review of the book. Several such reviews can be googled online. Instead, I’d like to reflect briefly on some of the responses to the book, especially from those within the Reformed camp.

Most responses to the book have been overwhelmingly positive. The back cover features accolades from the well-known blogger Tim Challies, author Jerry Bridges, NT scholar Donald Carson, and church historian Douglas Sweeney.[1] When I posted this blog, there were 13 reviews in Amazon.com, all of which give the book 4 to 5 stars. After a thorough review, British Reformed Baptist Erroll Hulse queries, “Criticisms?” and tersely responds, “No!”[2] The only weak spot Tim Challies finds is that the book’s “focus is more on today than on yesterday and tomorrow.” He wishes Hansen would have given a bit more time on “how this movement grew” and on “where it might be going.” Challies concedes, however, that the author’s narrow scope probably precluded such an analysis.[3]

Martin Downes provides a generally positive appraisal though he’s careful to alert the reader, “This isn’t yet your grandfather’s Calvinism.” In other words, the resurgence Hansen describes is not quite the full-blown Calvinism encapsulated in the Heidelberg Catechism or Westminster Confession of Faith. Indeed, Downes thinks the book focuses too much on Baptists and not enough on Presbyterians.[4] A similar criticism is actually noted by Hansen in his book. Michael Horton, professor of systematic theology at Westminster Seminary California, is only willing to offer a qualified “Hurrah!” The term “Reformed,” argues Horton, must be “defined by the whole confession [i.e., Westminster Confession of Faith], and that involves covenant theology and the whole kit and caboodle.” Of course, Horton’s version of covenant theology is distinctively Paedo-Baptist. Consequently, he believes the resurgence Hansen depicts tends to downplay the importance of baptism in its attempt to unify around the doctrines of grace.[5]

One of Horton’s colleagues, R. Scott Clark, offers a similar criticism in the epilogue of his recently published Recovering the Reformed Confession: Our Theology, Piety, and Practice (Presbyterian & Reformed, 2008). Because none of the evangelical leaders highlighted in Hansen’s book “is identified with a historic Reformed denomination or confession,” the nomenclature “Reformed” is, in Clark’s estimation, inappropriately applied to them. A commitment to Reformed soteriology is not enough, argues Clark. There must also be an accompanying affirmation of Reformed ecclesiology—classically defined, of course. So unless one is ready to embrace Paedo-Baptism, he is not Reformed. In fact, Clark suggests that if these “young, restless, and Reformed” leaders were transported back in time to the Synod of Dort or to the Westminster Assembly, they’d find a “chilly reception.”[6]

It shouldn’t surprise us if some Paedo-Baptists are less than enthusiastic about a resurgence that is largely (though not exclusively) taking place among those of a more Baptist ecclesiology. It is disappointing, however, when Reformed Baptists seem more critical of Hansen’s book than enthused. “It seems to me,” one Reformed Baptist pastor wrote to me, “that in Scripture youth is not something to boast in, restlessness is not a Christlike trait, and not any of the leaders cited in the book belong to historically Reformed churches.” He went on to suggest, “Someone needs to write another book called Mature, Settled and Confessionally Reformed!”[7] So if the Reformers and Puritans fail to give the leaders of the modern Calvinistic resurgence a “chilly reception,” some 1689ers are more than willing to oblige.

In this writer’s opinion, the more negative responses to Young, Restless, Reformed misunderstand the aim of the book, beg important questions, and define the term “Reformed” too narrowly. To begin with, nowhere in Hansen’s book does he argue (or represent the evangelical leaders he describes as arguing) that immaturity in itself is a virtue. He simply describes young people who are being drawn to and affirming the doctrines of grace. What is more, the restlessness described in Hansen’s book is in fact a positive trait. Young people are becoming restless with shallow preaching, shoddy theology, and showbiz worship. Like Augustine, their hearts are restless until they come to find rest in the sovereign, transcendent God of Calvinism. Is that something to complain about?! And as far as I can tell, all the major leaders portrayed in Hansen’s book belong to churches with confessional statements.[8] As a matter of fact, Albert Mohler used a Reformed confession (The Abstract of Principles) to purge Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of liberals.

Would our Puritan Baptist forefathers reject the evangelical leaders depicted in Hansen’s book? Personally, I don’t think that’s a fair question. Can we be sure that the Puritans would have given these evangelicals a cold shoulder without a fair hearing? Moreover, what if some of the Reformers and Puritans traveled forward in time? Can we be certain that Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Owen, and Benjamin Keach would remain static in all of their doctrinal and practical perspectives despite the many good post-seventeenth century exegetical and theological developments?

This raises the question, “Who gets to define the term ‘Reformed’?” I think the answer to that question is a tad more complex than some “truly Reformed” people make it out to be. Some of Richard Baxter’s views were out of step with the Westminster Confession, yet he’s generally treated as Reformed and Puritan with some qualifications. Our Baptist forefathers expressed a great deal of concord with their Paedo-Baptist brothers. The primary area of disagreement was the doctrine of the church and the sacrament of baptism. Hence, those of us who adhere to the 1689 London Baptist Confession call ourselves Reformed Baptists. (Note the qualification!) Can’t we allow the same for the leaders of the Reformed resurgence today? They may not adhere to all the distinctives we hold dear, but they’ve got the gospel right (and many other things too)! Moreover, God is using them to reach young people that some of us are failing to reach. Therefore, let’s rejoice that Christ is being preached and souls are being drawn to a Big God. Instead of a stooge-like “Bah humbug,” let’s offer up a “Hip, hip, hurrah” that John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon are becoming the “homeboys” of a younger generation.[9]

[1] These back cover blurbs can be found on the publishers website here.
[2] Hulse does suggest that Hansen seek another interview with John MacArthur (which Hansen was unable to secure before publishing the book), as well as interviews with R. C. Sproul and Tim Keller. Reformation Today 226 (2008), 35-39. Hulse’s review is also available on the Banner of Truth website here.
[3] For the review on Challies.com, click here.
[4] For the review on Reformation21, click here. On the same website, Carl Trueman provides a helpful review of the book and its relevance today entitled, “A Little Bit of Comfort for Machen’s Worrier Children.”
[5] Hansen, 109-112.
[6] Clark, 343-44.
[7] The citations are taken from correspondence between myself and another Reformed Baptist pastor.
[8] The reader is encouraged to visit the websites associated with the ministries of John Piper, Albert Mohler, C. J. Mahaney, and Mark Driscoll where he’ll find confessional statements.
[9] Donald Carson’s words are fitting: ”A number of strategic ministries have been quietly upholding the doctrines of grace, planting churches, seeing people converted, teaching the whole counsel of God. It is time for quiet gratitude to God and earnest intercessory prayer that what has begun well will flourish beyond all human expectation.”