When one asks the most influential thinkers in the modern evangelical church are, one might find names such as Jim Packer, John Stott, and Don Carson.
I would like to suggest, however, that there is one whose influence is perhaps much greater than we are aware of, yet whose thinking all but pervades the modern evangelical church: Marcion.
He’s the man who gets my vote for most profound influence on evangelicalism, from canon to theology to worship practices. You never see his books on the shelves in your high street Christian bookshop; you never see him advertised as preaching in your local church; but, rest assured, his spirit stalks those bookshops and pulpits.
Marcion is – or, rather, was – a somewhat shadowy figure, with most of what we know about him coming from the hostile pen of Tertullian. Apparently, he was a native of Pontus (in modern times, the area by the Black Sea), who flourished in the middle of the second century, dying circa 160. His major distinctive was his insistence on the Christian gospel as exclusively one of love to the extent that he came to a complete rejection of the Old Testament and only a qualified acceptance of those parts of the New Testament which he considered to be consistent with his central thesis (i.e. ten letters of Paul and a recension of the Gospel of Luke).
So how does Marcion influence modern evangelicalism? Well, I think evangelicalism has become practically Marcionite at a number of levels.
First, the emphasis upon God’s love to the utter exclusion of everything else has become something of a commonplace….
Delightfully written, and yet quite disturbing. For there’s all too much truth in what Carl Trueman is saying. The ancient heresies are alive and well, and Marcionism does lurk underneath much of modern American Christianity, not least among conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists.
But unlike the famous radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ [b]War of the Worlds[/b] about a Martian invasion of Earth, I don’t think this cleverly written piece will inspire mass hysteria. For the Marcions are no aliens from another planet. They’ve been living among us for a very long time, and we’re totally at home with them.
David Handy+
The author sums up by stating,
” So what will be the long-term consequences of this Marcionite approach to the Bible? Ultimately, I think it will push ‘the God who is there’ back into the realm of the unknowable and make our god a mere projection of our own psychology and our worship simply into group therapy sessions where we all come together to pretend we are feeling great. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – take that identity away and what do we have left? As the OT is the context for the NT, so the neglect of OT leaves the NT as more or less meaningless. As our reading, our sermons, and our times of corporate worship neglect and, sometimes, simply ignore the OT, we can expect a general impoverishment of church life and, finally, a total collapse of evangelical Christendom. Indeed, there are mornings when I wake up and think it’s already all over, and that the church in the West survives more by sheer force of personality, by hype and by marketing ploys rather than by any higher power. We need to grasp once again who God is in his fullness; we need to grasp who we are in relation to him; and we need teaching and worship which gives full-orbed expression to these things – and this will only come when we in the West grow up, ditch the designer gods we build from our pick-n-mix Bible where consumer, not Creator, is king, and give the whole Bible its proper place in our lives, thinking and worship. Think truncated thoughts about God and you’ll get a truncated God; read an expurgated Bible and you get an expurgated theology; sing mindless, superficial rubbish instead of deep, truly emotional praise and you will eventually become what you sing. ”
Of particular interest is his statement ,
“[i]We need to grasp once again who God is in his fullness; we need to grasp who we are in relation to him; and we need teaching and worship which gives full-orbed expression to these things….[/i]”
As Anglicans we might add that “[i] full-orbed expression [/i]” includes [i] liturgy expressing devotion, obedience and respect [/i] and the Sacraments which engage us directly and spiritually with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit .
Elves, in my comment #2. I tried to be clever and use the codes for “bold” and “italics” and forgot to muse the “square brackets.”
Can you clean this up for me or should I resubmit a ‘cleaned up version’ using the square brackets?
[i] We’ll let you resubmit. [/i]
-Elf Lady
As Anglicans we might also add that the sentence from Professor Trueman is worth quoting in full:
[blockquote] “We need to grasp once again who God is in his fullness; we need to grasp who we are in relation to him; and we need teaching and worship which gives full-orbed expression to these things – and this will only come when we in the West grow up, ditch the designer gods we build from our pick-n-mix Bible where consumer, not Creator, is king, and give the whole Bible its proper place in our lives, thinking and worship.” [/blockquote]
Amen. I don’t think Prof Trueman would disagree that his comment applies to our liturgical life as well, but I suspect he would disagree that it is in any way limited to it.
Yes, as David Handy+ observes, the desire to take only so much of the Bible as we feel comfortable with is found among those two groups “conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists”. Unfortunately, it is found just as much among other brands of Christianity too! ;o)
#2 and #3,
I agree, and I’m glad you highlighted that incisive and memorable quote.
And yes, MichaelA, naturally I agree with you that Marcionism is sadly found almost everywhere in the Christian world these days. Indeed, it is a perennial and especially obvious problem among theological Liberals. Adolf von Harnack and Rudolf Bultmann were openly and unashamedly Marcionite in their blatant rejection of much of the OT. My point, of course, was that EVEN among conservative Protestants who profess to be totally committed to the authority of Holy Scripture, the sad reality is that they have often unwittingly caved to the antinominan cultural Zeitgeist and dismissed much of the OT in practice.
Or to be more honest, I would have to admit that in my over 20 years of trying to preach the gospel, I’ve undoubtedly preached from the OT less often than I should have done.
David Handy+
One ought to point out that the heresiarch Marcion was the initiator of the practice of according the priestly office to women. Once, Marcion traveled to Smyrna and ran into St Polycarp, the Apostle John’s principal successor, who was Bishop of Smyrna. Upon seeing St Polycarp, Marcion asked, “Do you recognize me?” St Polycarp replied, “I recognize you as the firstborn of Satan.”
David Handy+ at #4, my apologies, you are quite right, and of course Prof Trueman was himself directing his comments primarily at his own kind – i.e. conservative evangelicals. Turning the spotlight on ourselves is not a bad thing.
MichaelA (#6),
No offense taken, I assure you, brother. I just wanted to make sure the record was clear.
David Handy+