The Wanderings of a Theological Vagabond

Book Review: A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church

This review was also posted for The Ooze Viral Bloggers.

A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church instantly reminded me of the ominous opening to a popular album: “The car is on fire, and there’s no driver at the wheel…” [1]

In A Lover’s Quarrel…, Warren Cole Smith flexes his literary, anthropological, historical, philosophical, and theological muscles to address a crisis within Evangelical Christianity. According to Smith, the philosophies of the world have enamored American evangelicalism.  Smith’s words capture this sentiment well, arguing that

“God wants the church to be the church.  It is the church that doesn’t want to be the church.  That’s the core problem (pg. 99).”

Moreover, A Lover’s Quarrel… offers a prophetic voice hoping to apply the brakes before the out-of-control Evangelicalism careens off the impending precipice. For Smith, the cliff is a spiritual depravity of self-absorption and cultural ineffectuality.  He hopes to apply the brakes to Evangelicalism’s runaway syncretism through an opposition to what Smith calls “sentimentalism,” the romanticizing of reality.

If A Lover’s Quarrel… halts, or even slows the collapse of Evangelicalism, it is due to the accessibility of Smith’s writing and the cogency of his analysis of the Evangelical subculture.  One such example is chapter 4: The Christian-Industrial Complex.  In this chapter, Smith draws the reader into a deep analysis of the business-orientation of Evangelicalism.

Smith is not afraid to ask the hard question of whether or not Evangelicalism has sold its soul.  A Lover’s Quarrel… excels at its readability and impeccable cultural analysis; reminiscent of Randall Balmer’s classic analysis Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.

Whereas Smith excels at writing and cultural analysis, his historical, philosophical, and theological analyses come up a bit short.  Historically, Smith seeks to identify modern evangelicalism with the Second Great Awakening in America.  Smith conveniently paints the Second Great Awakening and Charles Finney therein, as a movement of pseudo-religion and heresy.  This obviously paints a complex movement responsible for the rise of both the abolitionist and feminist movements, with a overly-simplistic and convenient brush.

Philosophically, his argument that the written word is the “preferred medium” of God (178- 180) is especially disturbing.  His argument really is what it seems: Because historically God used words rather than pictures or video screens, we are to do the same.  This leads well to our discussion of theology in A Lover’s Quarrel…

Theologically, I really felt this book was a fish out of water.  The most obvious manner is in Smith’s thesis that God’s ideal form of communication is the written word.  He “proof-texts” his argument, but fails to take into account the living Word of God that is Jesus Christ.  Instead, he opts for a flat understanding of the word of God that makes it solely synonymous with the Scriptures.  The bible-centricity of such a view instantly marks Smith’s theology as a unusual version of evangelicalism, but evangelical nonetheless.

Moreover, Smith attempts to undercut Evangelical theologies such as pre-millennialism and Arminianism, as just two examples.  Smith also uses women’s ordination to defend the theological collapse of a denomination (143).  He also identifies penal substitutionary atonement as a “core Christian value” (142).[2] Despite being a great writer and Spirit-filled critic, Smith’s theology is off-the-wall and seriously detracts from and undercuts the argument of the book.

Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who is disenfranchised with American Evangelicalism.  Despite its shortcomings, A Lover’s Quarrel… is worth reading if you have an interest (or investment) in American Evangelicalism.   Warren Smith Cole provides an alternate view of the Church to counter the out-of-control Evangelicalism in America.  If you enjoyed Frank Viola’s Pagan Christianity, you will love A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church.

- Earl

[2] Smith only argues that substitutionary atonement is a core belief.  But he excludes Charles Finney’s governmental theory of atonement from being a “substitutionary theory.”  The only remaining way of understanding Smith’s usage of “substitutionary” is synonomously with “penal substitutionary.”

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