not-so-new calvinism

A friend from our church fellowship group sent an interesting article from TIME. Apparently “The New Calvinism” is one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.” I took a look at the rest of the list, and the other nine things had to do with globalization, environmental challenges, and other broad-based ideas. This Calvinism thing stood alone as the only religion-related item, and seemingly a niche one at that. The New York Times did an edgy, mostly fair portrait of Mark Driscoll a while back. What are we to make of this heightened interest in what certain Christians believe—and not just how they vote? With an increasingly fragmented evangelical political scene, are religion-beat editors and journalists looking for the Next Big Christian Caricature? Or are they genuinely interested in what these Christians believe about God?

“The New Calvinism” gets it mostly right, in terms of quickly sweeping over the evangelical Reformed scene. The last line was really interesting, suggesting “… more Christians searching for security will submit their wills to the austerely demanding God of their country's infancy.” Is the writer recognizing that we’ve abandoned those religio-moral beliefs that made our country great? (Usually J. Edwards and the Founding Fathers get pounded for being so austere!)