Against the theological despisers of cultural Christians
The backlash against New Theism has been swift. And, strangely, most of it hasn’t come from humanists and atheists, but from what one might call established Christians. George Pitcher's comment on the recent flurry of articles on 'cultural Christians' in the United Kingdom highlights the oddest feature of this phenomenon: the most intense opposition to the very idea of 'cultural Christians' comes from Christians. It is almost as if the failure of the New Atheist movement - and this is what 'cultural Christians' at least partly represent - comes as a disappointment to some of the theological despisers of cultural Christians. Perhaps this emerges from a desire for a combative, confrontational relationship between Church and Culture, rather contrary to the Apostolic exhortation that "we may lead a quiet and peaceable life". Sectarian existence, after all, can be a rather more heady experience than the quiet, peaceable, modest Anglican (or Presbyteria...