The Christian Church’s Future

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The Church’s Future
Granberg-Michaelson begins by explaining the foundations of the theological schism in Western Christian faith in the twentieth century. This theological conflict began in the American Presbyterian church between one group that insisted on upholding fundamentalism (now known as evangelicalism) and another group that endorsed modernist trends (the social gospel). The prolonged fight between the two factions would later spread to almost every other non-Catholic denomination in the country except historic black churches. The “Modernists” managed to maintain their influence in traditional church institutions while the fundamentalists went on to found a whole substitute set of institutions. The division between the two groups was already institutionalized by 1920 and Protestants in the United States were divided between the fundamentalists (who emphasized the importance of personally encountering Jesus Christ) and the “modernists” (who insisted that social justice was a primary way of witnessing). These two competing versions of Christian faith would reflect on missionary activities although Christian communities to the Global South later adopted different missions given their varied lived Christian experience. Granberg-Michaelson gives several examples of churches in the Global South that have refused to fit into the simple dichotomy between personal conversion and social justice.
The author then goes ahead to demonstrate the erroneous understanding of faith that spawned the dichotomy between the two churches. Although biblical scholarship affirms both binary choices as parts of the gospel, the dichotomous framework on which the two groups is founded is wrong. The idea that Christian life is founded on separation from a sinful world bent on destruction is wrong, and so is accepting secular premises concerning materialist and rationalistic comprehensions of social reality. The author reasons that the foundational theological question to future faith can be revealed by first asking what God loves and how. Granberg-Michaelson demonstrates that God’s all-embracing love of his creation does not ignore the existence of evil but perseveres and accepts even in the face of death and resurrection. The manifestation of God’s love sustains his creations and we can experience this fullness of the Creator if we can also learn to love his creation without reserve. When we are filled with his fullness, we are led through the wonderworking process of saving this world through our lives and communities. This ancient tenet of God’s all-em...